The Decline Of Suburbia?

Experts Predict Exodus From Far-Flung Neighborhoods Back To Urban Living

(CBS)  The promise of the suburban dream is what brought Nichole Cinaglia and her daughters to a neighborhood more than 30 miles outside of Sacramento, California.

"I mean I think it's everybody's dream to own a home and then have their kids grow up in their home, you know, like they used to so many years ago," Nichole says.

Sixty years ago, cheap gas and new highways helped fuel suburbia's rapid rise, creating a new American utopia. But as CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports, the triple threat of falling home values, empty nesters returning to the city and sky-high gas prices is driving suburbia to the brink.

Some developments are left half built while other homes look abandoned. Demand for suburban housing is dropping so fast that a recent study predicts that by 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes in suburban areas.

Nichole can't afford the $800 in gas she burned each month commuting to her job, so she's selling her house for less than half what she paid for it.

It sounds hard to believe, but some experts are now predicting that this could be the beginning of the end of suburbia -- that far-flung neighborhoods could be tomorrow's slums.

Author James Howard Kunstler has been predicting the decline of the suburbs for more than 15 years.

"I think the project of suburbia is over," he says.

Kunstler says housing far away from job centers won't survive.

"We've put so much of our national wealth and even identity into the idea of suburbia that we can't imagine having to let go of it or substantially change it," he says.

But change is building in Sacramento. The region adopted a back to the future approach known as "smart growth": high-density development in walkable neighborhoods near job centers and transit.

In the past three years, projects with apartments, condos and town homes increased 533 percent, while the number of subdivisions with large homes dropped 21 percent.

"The rapid rise in gas prices over the last six months has made that general direction this region has decided to go look like an especially good decision," says Mike McKeever of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

McKeever doesn't believe suburbs will disappear overnight, but says buying on the far edges of a region is now an economic gamble.

"That's a risky bet. It might pay off but it's a risky bet," he says.

Nichole Cinaglia plans to rent near her job. But she still thinks about the life she used to have.

"I don't miss the commute, but I miss the idea," she says. "I miss that it was mine."

A dream abandoned miles away now is beginning to fade.

A lot of people in this forum worry that if they work remotely, management will decide to outsource their job. Hey, if managment wants to outsource, they are going to do it whether you work remotely or in a corporate office.

Working remotely should be embraced by managers and staff alike. One thing you can be sure of is that management does not want to outsource themselves, and they can work remotely just as easily as their staff.

The main thing for workers to do is work as efficiently and productively as possible. That is the best way to keep from being outsourced.

In a lot of cases, the most efficient way to work is from a remote office. Remote Office Centers lease individual offices, internet and phone systems to workers from multiple companies in shared centers located around the suburbs. There is a free web site where people can go to find Remote Office Centers near where they live:

http://www.remoteofficecenters.com

It is too expensive to move from the suburbs back to the city. It is easier and more efficient to move the office to the suburbs. That is what Remote Office Centers do.

[barbaram99]

I grew up in the sticks rural small towns in Maine where everybody knows everybody. That I miss. But they are wonderful if ye can have yer own place,farm,grow yer food and those who don''t have sp needs can live and do.
It is not right they jack every thing up. It is greed. Ye can''t find a rent in Seattle under 650 a month and if so the class of people are drinkers/partyers. We are on fixed incomes and 50+.

[tootall10142]

Greed is having its lunch and the desert is bitter sweet.

[blackyowe]

I hope Suburbia dies a quick death and does it quietly. It is a long over due death! Long live small town and rural America!

[barbaram99]

i did not want to bring a child into the world that might be handicapped and I am a sp needs adult. So some think of others and if it would be fair to a child that suffers and won''t have a good life in the process. I am childless as that was the right thing for me. I am a Manier and we have always called the govt the nanny govt. It has nothing to do with the parties we we need to belong to in order to vote in the primary. Yes rents are sky high. 2 or have to be room-mates and pay their part,

[libsluv2spit]

its disappearing because.............

not too many people are desiring to have a ''family'' anymore..hence the growth of ''lofts'' and ''condos'' and luxury apartments...

[txgrouch2006]

And who is buying them? Thirty-something professionals who have boat loads of money.
Posted by Element51 at 01:05 PM : Aug 08, 2008

So what you''re saying is, suburbia is disappearing because the MIDDLE CLASS IS DISAPPEARING.

Everyone is getting either VERY RICH ("boatloads of money") or VERY POOR.

BTW, exactly WHERE ARE THOSE BOATLOADS OF MONEY COMING FROM??? The can''t all be outsource managers.

Could it be - - - - DRUGSSSSSSSSS?????????????

[element51]

We live in a small city, pop.165,000, and the area that used to be "down town" had really gone to the dogs. The buildings were a mess, businesses had fled, and no one went there. Then they started remodeling the old buildings and putting in loft apartments. The old business buildings were converted into restaurants and bars and the lofts sold like hot cakes. The prices start at around a half million and go up. They can''t convert them fast enough. And who is buying them? Thirty-something professionals who have boat loads of money. So things can change in the right atmosphere. I might add that the average working class pay here is 8 to 10 bucks an hour. As for the rest of the city, houses are priced at 125K and up and sales are slow because now that the sub prime thing has come up, no one can qualify for a loan. Rentals are sky high, a one bedroom small apartment at 750.00 and up. I don''t know how people do it. Things are changing but it''s hard to see where it will all go. Glad my house is paid for. All I have to do is pay property tax and it goes up every year. Now almost 3000.00 a year, and I thought I owned the house. Wrong! It belongs to the state. How stupid of me. As Dylan said long ago, "the times they are a''changing."

[toldyouso12]

People will be moving to the suburbs that lived centrally, because those properties are only for the rich now.

Posted by mollydtt at 11:48 AM : Aug 08, 2008


Businesses are not immovable as outsourcing has taught us. Many suburbs may adjust by giving up more land and greenspace and transporting companies and services to the strip mall areas or even park like areas in their midst---in short, suburbia will morph into alternative inner cities away from the original urban areas. Ugly? yes. Necessary--yes--a trade off between what keeps millions of homes viable and stopping the vast tract of homogeneous homes that look like a bad version of the Stepford wives with SUVs.

[toldyouso12]

My advice to urban dwellers: hold on to your homes in the city or near work centers. They will become far more valuable than the poorly built, compressed wood and plastic homes in the suburbs. Those in far flung suburbia are sitting ducks. (myself included) soon enough, people will be flocking back to inner cities and landlords will begin displacing minorities and others to take advantage of the shift. The most valuable: Will be turn of the 20th century homes or older, with real woodwork and craftmanship. The kind of homes featured on HGTV''s "if these walls could talk" or "this old house" or "dream drives" You will note that these shows rarely (if ever) include homes built after 1955. as for me--I''m in the burbs with 3 acres--but I am only about 10 minutes from work (by highway)--maybe I can hang onto my place--maybe not.

The Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, IKEA, Hobby Lobby era is about to come to a close. LOL