By , California surpassed New York as the most populous state in the union, and by the turn of the century, the state's residents accounted for one out of every eight Americans. The reasons the Sunbelt states were so popular went beyond just warmer climate conditions. The Sunbelt states offered lower taxes and more and better job opportunities. California had a booming electronics industry, and Texas and Florida benefited from large aerospace firms and military facilities.
Changes in the Social Security laws enabled more Americans to retire, and the result was a stream of retirees moving to the Sunbelt states—most notably to newly built retirement communities in Florida and Arizona. The mass production of air-conditioning units helped alleviate the sweltering summertime heat, while milder winters allowed families to save on reduced heating costs.
Although overall the expansion of the Sun Belt's economy in recent decades has been dramatic, the distribution of the region's prosperity has been uneven; of the 25 metropolitan areas with the lowest per capita income in , 23 were in the Sun Belt.
The rapid fall of oil prices in the s hurt the economies of the energy-producing areas of the Sun Belt; Houston was especially hard-hit. By the s, the Los Angeles area, beset by problems ranging from air pollution to a growing population of unskilled immigrants, came increasingly to resemble some of the troubled metropolitan areas of the North.
Politically, the rise of the Sun Belt has generally been viewed as advantageous to the Republican party, especially in presidential elections. Since , the Sun Belt has gained more than 25 electoral votes, mostly at the expense of the Northeast and Midwest.
That means large Sun Belt metros will have to find new approaches to addressing these challenges. Coming up with new approaches to these concerns, the report concludes, will require the collective efforts of political leaders, civic and philanthropic leaders, business leaders and academic research institutions.
This webinar will explore findings from a report from the Kinder Institute on the urban Sun Belt — covering such topics as demographic change, the economy, housing, and sprawl — and include a panel discussion with urban experts.
Skip to main content. Affordability is slipping away For years, the low cost of living in large Sun Belt metros has been a big selling point and a major reason for much of the growth in those areas.
New urban policy needs to be created Many of the challenges facing the Urban Sun Belt are very specific to those metros. Related Research. Florida was under Spanish rule from the 16 th century to the 19 th century, except for a brief period in the 18 th century when it was controlled by Britain. In , the US purchased Florida from Spain. It became a US state in
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