Is Detroit's population growing?

[Colombian Dan]

Detroit has been on extended life support for over 50 years. Sure, Dan Gilbert has given the city a slight pulse in the center. Yet, there are no signs of any meaningful growth. The Detroit Public Schools are not inundated with thousands of new students. No signal for a need to expand and build additional schools to accommodate new students to the district. Mexican town in South West Detroit is a ghost of what it was. Warrendale has had zero new construction of single family homes in the last 20 years. Detroit continues to tear down 8,000 abandoned houses a year, yet new construction fails to generate any type of population increase. We could discuss population density or the lack thereof in the city.... Either way you look at it, Detroit simply is tearing down more than it builds...

[Honky Tonk]

Mexican town in South West Detroit is a ghost of what it was.

Total B/S, Dan. Southwest Detroit is growing like crazy. Kids are moving in and buying up and fixing up homes. Homes are selling for 2-3 times what they were selling for just 5 years ago. My old favorite restaurants are full of young people these days. It's good to see.

[stasu1213]

Rent had risen in Detroit especially in the downtown/midtown/lafayette Park/Corktown area. There is still many areas that are not developed. Gratiot Avenue has a new apartment building near Rohns but I don't know the type of renters that are targeted to live in that new building. I do believe that any area that is 5 miles or less from downtown will have increased rent due to their close proximity to downtown. Areas such as Schoolcraft, Heyes, State Fair, Fenkell, and Tireman will not see development nor rent increase in the near future.

[mwilbert]

Detroit has been on extended life support for over 50 years. Sure, Dan Gilbert has given the city a slight pulse in the center. Yet, there are no signs of any meaningful growth. The Detroit Public Schools are not inundated with thousands of new students. No signal for a need to expand and build additional schools to accommodate new students to the district. Mexican town in South West Detroit is a ghost of what it was. Warrendale has had zero new construction of single family homes in the last 20 years. Detroit continues to tear down 8,000 abandoned houses a year, yet new construction fails to generate any type of population increase. We could discuss population density or the lack thereof in the city.... Either way you look at it, Detroit simply is tearing down more than it builds...

It is tearing down more than it builds, but almost all of what it being torn down at this point is empty, whereas what is being built is occupied, so that doesn't really tell you much about the population trend.

Nor you can you discern of anything about the overall population from the DPS student population because such a high proportion of kids don't attend them. Also, because new residents are disproportionately childless.

There are actually lots of signs of growth. When you look at the city in aggregate, the declining areas mask them, but it's completely obvious when you travel around the city. That doesn't mean that they are necessarily permanent--we'll see how the city weathers the next recession--but they certainly exist.