[emersonbiggins]

Damn the Torpedos - Full Steam Ahead!
U.S. to nearly double square footage currently built to date (300Bn SF to 500Bn SF in 25 years) in a $25 TRILLION real estate boom!

I'm so excited! Where do I sign up?


Link to CNN Money article + map of 10 'Megapolitan' areas

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')size=150]The $25 trillion land grab
Ten megapolitans are poised for a boom that, by 2030, will dwarf America's post WWII buildout.[/size]
October 28, 2005: 1:00 PM EDT
By Paul Kaihla and Krysten Crawford, Business 2.0

NEW YORK (Business 2.0) - There has been an impressive amount of construction in the United States over the last three centuries: All told, we've built more than 300 billion square feet of homes, offices, factories and other structures.

But according to new studies from the Brookings Institution and Virginia Tech urban planning professor Robert Lang, we're about to pick up the pace -- it will take just 25 years to erect the next 200 billion square feet, which we'll need to accommodate 70 million more people and to replace homes and offices erased by everything from disasters like Hurricane Katrina to plain old obsolescence.

If you think the real estate boom of the past decade was bounteous, peek a little further over the horizon: Researchers estimate that the massive buildout will constitute a $25 trillion development market by 2030, more than twice the size of the U.S. economy today. According to Lang, the bulk of that money will flow into 10 major metro regions that he has christened "megapolitans."

Here are exclusive growth forecasts for each of these regions and -- based on interviews with dozens of regional planners, developers and investors -- identified the savviest angles to play in the near and long term.

[LogicMan]

Cool, where can I get some of THEIR acid?

[bruin]

I was about to post this thing. No where does it mention the need to double everything else going to these homes.

Of course it all makes sense when you look at the exponential function. We just keep doubling every 25 years or so until ?

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('LogicMan', 'C')ool, where can I get some of THEIR acid?

[ubercynicmeister]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('LogicMan', 'C')ool, where can I get some of THEIR acid?

[benzoil]

This piece is the cover story of the latest issue of Business 2.0 magazine. I used to respect Business 2.0. Still, I expect to put this issue next to my framed copy of Wired's "The Long Boom" issue, which predicted a 25 year economic boom about a year before the whole dot-com implosion.

I only hope that I have a full year before this loopy prediction is proven false as well.

[Synergist]

Apparently they will build these trillion dollars worth of new houses of out of magical Yergin blocks.

[frankthetank]

The population is going up in this country.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '_')There was a total of 4,115,590 births in the country in 2004, up from 4,089,950 in 2003.

_Births to whites declined by nearly 18,000 while Hispanics were up 32,000, there was an increase of more than 8,000 in births to Asians and a rise of just 72 births among black women.

_The total birth rate was 14.0 per 1,000 women, down from 14.1 in 2003.

[Synergist]

The first country that turns around and says, No, we don't want more population, we don't want more immigrants, we don't have sustainable resources for the people we have today. is going to have a chance of thriving in the end.

Only fools are opening their borders now. Utter fools.

[Dukat_Reloaded]

I saw the cover of the magazine, it's shows a mass of development in the middle of the desert.

[Novus]

First there were Suburbs, then there were Exurbs, and now the Megapolitan. Here is what the mega growth capitalists envision for the future. If the sheeple don't get their Megapolitan paradice they will vote the Nazis. Err I mean republicans so they can kill all the greedy Arabs, or all the Jews, or all the somethings as long as they get their megapolitan. And if they get do get there megapolitan in 25 year they will demand three more. That is the insanity of growth.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')The $25 trillion land grab


Ten megapolitans are poised for a boom that, by 2030, will dwarf America's post WWII buildout.

There has been an impressive amount of construction in the United States over the last three centuries: All told, we've built more than 300 billion square feet of homes, offices, factories and other structures.

But according to new studies from the Brookings Institution and Virginia Tech urban planning professor Robert Lang, we're about to pick up the pace -- it will take just 25 years to erect the next 200 billion square feet, which we'll need to accommodate 70 million more people and to replace homes and offices erased by everything from disasters like Hurricane Katrina to plain old obsolescence.

If you think the real estate boom of the past decade was bounteous, peek a little further over the horizon: Researchers estimate that the massive buildout will constitute a $25 trillion development market by 2030, more than twice the size of the U.S. economy today. According to Lang, the bulk of that money will flow into 10 major metro regions that he has christened "megapolitans."

[KiddieKorral]

Merge! Merge! Merge!

[DesertBear2]

I wonder what the residents of these "megapolitans" are expected to be doing for a living? Selling each other insurance policies and dog-sitting services?

[shakespear1]

My recent trip to Boise, ID and Houston says that this crazy trend is true. I saw more bulding going on then ever before in my life. MacMansion is the current American Dream.

THIS IS ALL JUST AMAZING

[Chaparral]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('shakespear1', 'M')y recent trip to Boise, ID and Houston says that this crazy trend is true. I saw more bulding going on then ever before in my life. MacMansion is the current American Dream.

THIS IS ALL JUST AMAZING

[falser]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Chaparral', 'I')'ve thought the same thing. Then I remembered a little bit of history-like what the New York skyline was doing a year or three after the crash of 1929. RE is a lagging indicator and many developers who are gathering parcels or breaking ground today will be losing their shirts three years from now when their projects are completed.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('falser', '
')Indeed, meanwhile all the executives of homebuilder companies and real estate firms are still saying "business is great, sky's the limit" and then turn around are cashing in their stock options:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/04/news/mi ... tocksales/

I wonder if they mention this to people investing McMansions.