About half the homes, office buildings, stores and factories that will be needed by 2030 don't exist today, said Arthur C. Nelson in USA Today, author of the report for the think tank in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. population is expected to increase 33 percent to 376 million by 2030, according to Nelson's analysis. That's 94 million more people than in 2000.
To serve that population, almost 60 million housing units will have to be built. About 20 million of these units will replace destroyed or aging homes. In addition, half of the largest metropolitan areas will have to add as much or more commercial and industrial space as existed in 2000, the report says.
The projections are startling for a nation already coping with sprawl, traffic congestion and the strains they put on the environment. Phenomenal growth in the South and West has turned deserts and soybean fields into cities. The report projects that these regions, which face water limitations, will experience the greatest surge in construction in the next 25 years.
