Even a pandemic couldn’t stop the population and housing boom in this Sacramento suburb
It’s never happened before.
California’s population shrank for the first time in 2020. By the numbers, that’s 182,083, or 0.46%, a decline slightly larger than the population of Elk Grove.
Any drop in the Golden State is big news — a first-ever 12-month decline for California, the state Department of Finance said Friday — attributed to fewer births, changes to federal immigration policy that slowed migration and deaths from COVID-19.
But look inside the state population figures released Friday and it shows Elk Grove residents what they already see and feel.
More cars, more homes, more people.
Elk Grove, Sacramento County’s second-biggest city, continued to grow, adding 2,000 people during a pandemic 2020, its population rising from 176,036 to 178,124 — a 1.2% increase. Growth in suburban Folsom and Rancho Cordova was even more brisk, their numbers increasing by 1.5 and 1.7% respectively.
“While we might have expected the pandemic to slow us down, local development has continued to stay strong,” Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said in her State of the City address back in March. “New housing and commercial development is busier than last year and big projects are preparing to launch.”
Indeed, the numbers support Singh-Allen’s statement. Nearly 670 single-family homes were built in Elk Grove last year, the 10th highest in California, the state reported. Elk Grove’s raw growth number of 2,088 new residents was also among the biggest jumps in the state.
State finance officials say the dramatic ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic changed how Californians worked and learned factored into why Elk Grove as well as suburban Sacramento and Placer counties became inland hot spots.
“Many workers were offered flexibility to remotely connect to the office from their home or other remote location, and most public schools offered distance learning options for children,” finance officials explained.
Those workers and their families include many Bay area residents seeking a relatively more affordable Sacramento region, said Pat Shea, president of Lyon Real Estate, in a conversation with The Bee as the pandemic reached the one-year mark in March.
“Elk Grove benefited tremendously from the San Francisco Bay Area-Silicon Valley migration,” Shea said, counting the city’s multitude of parks, highly regarded schools and new housing developments among the draws for the city’s newcomers.
“The advantage is that Elk Grove is still building,” Shea said.
Proof can be found in the string of housing developments rising at the southern end of the city west of Highway 99 including Poppy Lane, Laguna Ranch and Madera Meadows; while new houses pop up apace to the east of 99 along Grant Line Road.
Meantime, the long-planned Capital Southeast Connector project linking Interstate 5 and Highway 99 to U.S. Highway 50 near El Dorado Hills, is beginning to take shape as the region anticipates yet more growth.
This story was originally published May 7, 2021 at 2:20 PM.
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