| Will Suburbs Be The New Slums? | June 27th, 2008 |
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This fleeing of the ‘burbs is usually attributed to the subprime-mortgage crisis with its wave of foreclosures– which certainly is speeding up the phenomenon . But there have also been long-term structural changes in the way many Americans want to live and work. CEOs for Cities, a government-business coalition, said higher gasoline prices will push new housing developments closer to the urban core and cause further decline in outlying communities. The U.S. Dept. of Transportation reported that American drivers reduced the number of miles they drove in March by 4.3 percent over the same month a year ago. And Coldwell Banker says 81 percent of the agents it surveyed said their clients increasingly are looking to urban housing as a way to cut commuting costs. Deeper studies covering long-term socio-economic trends also point to suburban decline. In 2006, using recent consumer research, housing supply data, and population growth rates, The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech modeled future demand for various types of housing. The forecast is a likely surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (houses built on a sixth of an acre or more) by 2025—that’s roughly 40 percent of the large-lot homes in existence today. In the meantime, over the last 20 years, the appeal of urban living has slowly taken hold in popular culture. Seinfeld—followed by Friends, then Sex and the City—began advertising the city’s renewed urban allure to Gen-Xers and Millennials. Conversely, when Hollywood wants to portray soullessness, despair, or moral decay, it often looks to the suburbs—as The Sopranos and Desperate Housewives attest—for inspiration. Atlantic Monthly, March 2008 - The Next Slum? Leave a Reply |
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This past March, The Atlantic Monthly noted the decline of the suburbs. In Overbuilt communities like Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, scores of homeowner have either abandoned their homes or rented them out to sketchy tenants. Other ’burbs nationwide are noted as communities with rising crime rates and places up to one in four homes stands empty.