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Metro Atlanta has been growing consistently for the last 100 years to a population of more than 3 million people in the ten county metropolitan area today. Logistic growth since 1990 has been characterized by urban sprawl.

Urban sprawl is studied periodically by market industrialists proposing solutions to manage and decongest evolving traffic impediments. One such solution was the Outer Loop which, proposed in 1967 to Governor Zell Miller, promised to attract new investors and increase economic development. Today, a think tank working out of Gwinnett County is proposing an idea they call the Brain Train, a 12-stop commuter rail connecting Athens to Atlanta running along existing rights of way, which promises improved traffic patterns, environmental benefits as well as economic growth to the participating counties.

Whatever is done to decongest our roadways, it needs to be comprehensive and effective in order to reverse the negative effects of urban growth.

What does this mean to you? Sprawl results in more opportunity for private enterprise which brings more people in from beyond the reaches of the metro area, investors from other states as well as people from other continents. This means more demand for real estate, both residential and commercial, along with improved employment opportunities, an enviable situation for any region. As demand for available real estate increases, the value of homes increases, a lesson in classical economics the real estate investor well understands.

It must also be understood that large metro areas must work together and share information to solve this problem, there is no need to re-invent the wheel in slow government red tape.

With metro Atlanta's population forecast to reach six million by 2030, real estate seems to have a bright future, but the problems associated with urban sprawl cannot be ignored, if they are ignored we risk choking off our suburbs until they are no longer an efficient place to live or do business in.