Quote Originally Posted by Det_ard View Post
Add in lower household size and lack of attractiveness of living in the city for most people and you get the growth pattern we see now.

This is it, in a nutshell.

There has been plenty of historical demand for new housing, even in the face of population stagnation, because A. Household sizes have declined, meaning there are more households, and B. The existing housing typologies and locations are undesirable.

Detroit didn't empty out because they built homes in Macomb Township. If you were to block new housing on the periphery, you would probably just send housing demand to the super-periphery, or out-of-state.

Your typical middle class couple would never consider Detroit or even a declining inner ring bungalow suburb.