Even with desert temperatures that hit upwards of 115 degrees, people from all over the country are moving to the Phoenix Metropolitan area. Currently, the Valley is home to over 4.5 million people, and the population continues to grow.
According to one expert, the Valley will increase by 2.5 million people – the size of Denver, Colorado – by 2040.
Phoenix is what many call a “growth market,” because of the several benefits to moving to the Valley, including the weather, the lack of natural disasters and the low cost of living and doing business.
Factors like climate and cheaper living draw people here, but there are also factors that make expansion fairly easy. In fact, there are very few barriers for growth. One of the things that makes growing especially easy is the city’s grid layout.
The Valley’s growth provoked debates about whether enough preparations have been made and are currently being made to sustain the Valley’s resources for the future. One group says that the Valley has been doing a pretty good job in making sure the area can sustain the growth, even in the arid desert. The other group says that trying to sustain growth in the desert, especially such significant growth, just doesn’t make sense.