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Visualizing Density Above: Seattle, Washington Opposite: Chicago, Illinois population, cities grew more dense as an increasing number of people shared each square mile of land. As we confront dwindling land and energy resources, this concentrated growth pattern makes more and more sense: reuse land that has already been altered; limit the range of new devel- opment to an area that is easily accessible; and build up, not out. It is becoming clearer that these ideas should not be rel- egated to our past, but are the key to our future. CroSSCurrenTS Along with the sprawl trends evident in the Census 2000 sta- tistics, researchers have detected some interesting crosscur- rents. It seems that not every corner of the nation sprawled in ■ the 1990s. Several cities and suburbs in the West grew in rather than out. People returned to the central cores of a few cities. The market for multifamily homes grew. The movement toward greater density is mostly evident in the West, where land costs are high or water is scarce. Although this countertrend was minor in relation to the amount of sprawl overall, it may well point to a future direction. One indicator is that a small minority of metropolitan areas became more concentrated in the last decade of the twentieth century. These cities used less land per capita to accommodate their fast-growing populations (Fulton et al. 2001). Areas that were originally built to a low density filled in at a faster rate than they expanded outward. Phoenix is a good example of this trend. Density in Phoenix increased from 2,228 persons per square mile in the 1970s to 2,707 in the 1990s. Unlike other cities, population and employment grew and remains concen- trated in the center. Density in Los Angeles increased by 8 per- cent between 1982 and 1997 (Fulton et al. 2001). People are moving back into the hearts of some cities in search of an urban lifestyle. Despite the fact that their larger metropolitan areas sprawled, many downtowns grew denser. Central districts of downtown Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and Houston, among others, grew at a faster rate in the 1990s than the cities around them (Liu 2003). Demographic trends indi- cate an emerging market for urban locations and city housing, due in part to an aging population and declining family size. Empty nesters and young singles, two of the faster growing segments of the population, are choosing multifamily hous- ing over single-family options. Immigrants, who made up 34 percent of new U.S. residents in the 1990s and represent a growing presence in the housing market, also tend to seek out urban settings. This new market for density has emerged in places like Washington, DC, and its suburbs, where the demand for multi- family housing is high. Developers have stepped up production of apartments and condominiums and are having little trou- ble renting and selling them to residents of all incomes. Sales 050630-0192