Bigger Real Estate Boom on the Horizon

According to a report by Virginia Tech urban planning professor Robert Lang, the real estate boom of the past decade is nothing compared to what’s to come. Over the next 25 years it’s estimated that over $25 trillion in development will take place, or more than twice the size of the U.S. economy.

Lang is betting on emerging super-regions like the Boston, New York and Washington D.C. area to lead the drive towards future real estate growth. Lang calls these and 9 other gargantuan region scaled growth zones organized around major interstate highways across the country "megalopolises". Accordingly, one location in this megalopolis is Moorefield Station, Virginia, a key area primed for development in the coming years. This currently vacant farmland west of Dulles Airport is  planned to offer millions of square feet of commercial space and homes for 40,000 residents. By 2012 a planned commuter rail line will ferry home owners from this D.C. suburb into nation’s capital.

Citing Lang’s report, Bruce Katz,  Vice President and Director of the Brooking’s Institute’s Metropolitan Policy Program notes that these "mega-regions now encompass more than 70% of the country’s population and extend into 35 states. They will add 7 out of every 10 new Americans to be added by 2040, three-quarters of the capital to be expended nationally on private real estate by then."

See Also

  • The Next Real Estate Boom
    In the coming 25 years, the biggest wave of development since World War II will turn America’s major metro areas into giant “megapolitans” teeming with opportunity.
  • The $25 trillion land grab
    Ten megapolitans are poised for a boom that, by 2030, will dwarf America’s post WWII buildout.