> Building housing attracts people Eh, not really. Sure, if people cannot find anywhere to live, building a house in place X might push them towards place X. B

> Building housing attracts people Eh, not really. Sure, if people cannot find anywhere to live, building a house in place X might push them towards place X. But if everyone already has somewhere to live, building a house in place X is not going to attract people to place X. Someone already attracted to place X may hinge their move on housing availability, but you need the attraction first for the houses to matter. Building a bunch of houses on the North Pole isn't really going to compel people to move there. > expanding the economy of the metro area To a limited degree, but an insular economy does not have much growth potential. For example, let's say place X has gold. But if you can't get the gold out then you can only trade gold between the local residents – who are probably also in the business of gold. Why are they going to trade for your gold with you when they already can get gold themselves? That leaves little economic opportunity. But if you build a road, then you can ship the gold off to places where gold isn't locally available. Now you've got people who are keen to trade with you.