Economic Factors
Major factors that have affected recent economic activity within the city have been the 2002 Winter Olympics, poverty, and urban sprawl. The 2002 Winter Olympics facilitated a need for many hotels and restaurants that have now led to market saturation. Urban sprawl has created fierce suburban economic competition resulting in inner-city economic decay. However, studies have shown that increased suburban growth has caused increased construction in the downtown area. Poverty has become a consequence of rapid growth along the Wasatch Front coupled with large family sizes and low housing vacancy rates that have inflated housing costs, decreasing affordable housing. One out of every six residents resides below the poverty line. It has become a common occurrence for homeless shelters to overflow during winter months, leading some with no other option but to spend the night out in the cold, which results in numerous fatalities.
Economic indicators in 2005 found that the city, particularly the downtown area, was experiencing increased population growth. The number of residential units in the central business district have increased by 80% since 1995, and is forecast to nearly double in the next decade. Recent sales of high-rise condominiums have been brisk. One 12-story building, The Parc condos at Gateway, had its ground-breaking in 2002 and was sold-out in mid-2005; many new towers are planned within the next decade. One notably large development of over 1,000 units is being built by the LDS Church. This marks a turn in a half century's trend of stagnant population growth in the city contrasted with an average yearly growth rate of 6% in the surrounding suburban area.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of Salt Lake City
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