After much speculation for the past few months, I attended a meeting with County Executive McMahon regarding the $100 Billion Micron Semiconductor Plant Project coming to Central New York in Clay. This marks the largest semiconductor manufacturing facility in US history. Actual opening of the first fab has recently been pushed back to late 2030, however infrastructure (highways, wastewater lines, and clearing of the land) is being heavily modified to accomodate both the plants and anticipated population growth. Here's a brief summary of the meeting yesterday:

-Anticipating upwards of 150,000 in population growth within the next 10-15 years, which would bring the county's population over 600,000 resulting from direct hires, hospitality industry, contractors, etc

-Micron's investment is also expected to spur expansion from local hospitals, universities, and is drawing attention from global companies as CNY is expected to become a technology and operational hub. 

-Multifamily and apartment style complexes are expected to start popping up across the region to account for increase in population growth, though many local municipalities are struggling with existing zoning regulations currently.

How does this relate to REI? The greater Syracuse area is already in a housing shortage. Both single family and multfamily homes have been appreciating at a pretty constant rate (between 8-12% YoY) in the city and suburbs. I don't believe that the true "Micron Boom" has happened yet. That being said, once shovels start digging at the end of this year, I fully anticipate it to become the wild west with property values for the foreseeable future given imbalance of supply and demand. Builders will not be able to build fast enough to keep up with demand, increasing existing properties' value. Given the amount of short term contract work (electricians, construction, HVAC, plumbing), rental demand will also likely sky rocket. From how everything is being presented by the state and county, this is quickly positioning to become one of the greatest potential investment opportunities in recent memory.