The Desert Landscape of Antelope Valley has Grown Enormously Since 1980

The population and landscape of the Antelope Valley has undergone a substantial transformation the last 40 years. In the 1980s, the area began shifting from a sparsely populated, mostly white, high desert life to a bedroom community. Prices in lower LA County have priced out lower income families who then sought better housing costs in Lancaster and Palmdale. About 75000 AV residents commute daily into the greater Los Angeles area for work via car and rail. As of 2012 the population of AV is 507k with 153k in Palmdale and 157k in Lancaster with the remainder in the surrounding smaller cities. 48% of the population is non-Hispanic white, the second largest group is Hispanic, then African American and Asian. With the gradual growth has come a water issue. The aqueduct has brought in water since 1970 but as of 1964 Agriculture has taken most of the water, and in the AV farming land takes up more water per acre than anywhere else in the state. Currently, 35,000 acres of desert land, originally cultivated within Antelope Valley, lie fallow while about 10,000 acres are still actively farmed. AV got its greatest growth in the 80’s growing from 60 thousand to 222k by mid 1990. And 485k by 2010. That is 8 times in thirty years. Today with the growth of the Aerospace industry, solar farms, regional hospitals, the housing market has grown. These jobs are professional jobs with higher incomes allowing for much nicer homes, and many parts of the valley are now filling this need. If the valley continues to grow then more housing will certainly be needed.