https://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article231070813.html
I know this has come up before but thought its a good topic to reconsider especially from overall affordability. And something i have been seeing and a future variable that you need to account for.
The article is specific to TX but some parts will account for everyone, some for high growth / drought areas.
Heres a couple good snippets if you don’t want to read it:
About 1,000 people arrive in Texas each day, drawn by jobs, newly built homes and other opportunities. But in a state where prolonged drought is a regular occurrence, officials are struggling to ensure they can sate everyone’s thirst.
“The state is growing so fast that we’re constantly playing catch-up when it comes to building resilient water supplies,”
As the planet warms and weather patterns turn more extreme, droughts — as well as floods — in the state generally have worsened. Meanwhile, the state population is expected to double by 2050 to more than 50 million people.
Aside from the issue of availability. Water and sewer rates will be ticking up over time. So really i think many are sub metered already. But if your 3000 gallon usage per month goes from 35 dollars to 80 dollars, this will be expensive for all.
There is a lot of variance from what i have seen from water and sewer if its 5 per month or 100 per month. I know Philip has mentioned before but aging infrastructure in cities, they need to spend big bucks on upgrades and that ultimately trickles back to the end consumer.
I dont have anything concrete here but just consider this in the back of your heads on overall affordability as time passes and this might be more prevalent in certain markets vs others.