Rural Boomtowns: The Relationship Between Economic Development and Affordable Housing
Throughout the 1990s, several communities in rural America experienced rapid economic development. These boomtowns — extremely high growth areas — are at the extreme end of the growth/decline axis, and are sufficiently important phenomena that their low-income housing needs should be given special attention. They have become boomtowns for a variety of reasons: gaming, the military, tourism, retired residents, even prisons.
Overall, there is a general lack of understanding about how variables such as the types of jobs created, wage levels paid, population trends and the capacity for housing construction impact a community’s low-income housing needs. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between economic development and the need for low-income housing in selected high growth rural areas.
(Report, 2000)