Housing
Demand for property and property values have been steadily on the rise for several years. According to the 2000 census, Santa Ana was the eighth most densely populated city in the United States with almost 13,000 residents per square mile. In fact, the population numbers may be even higher, as Southern California is one of the most notoriously under-counted regions of the country in every recent census. Some estimates place the true population of Santa Ana as high as a half million people. Between 2000 and 2004, the population grew by approximately 1.4%, leading to a tremendous demand for housing. This trend is illustrated in building permit data: in 1996 and 1997, less than twenty permits for new single family residential construction were issued and the construction projects had average costs of just more than $108,000 each. In 2002, by contrast, almost one hundred permits were issued and costs per project had risen to about $154,000. In 2003, one hundred and forty permits were issued with average construction costs of $278,700 and in 2004, the figures were one hundred permits, averaging $345,600 each.