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Baby Boomers built and bought up insanely stupid and horribly ugly homes. I have no idea what a huge fraction of boomers are going to do with their McMansions nobody wants when Boomers try to retire. They're going to have to eat a huge loss or simply live in them until they die. A ton of McMansions from the 80s through the early 00s look so bad that they just need to be knocked down and entire neighborhoods redeveloped.
America's changing economy post-2008 is still felt.
Lower fertility rate among white suburban women, birth rate declining, Economic dislocation, declining American homeownership, rising property taxes in suburban areas, millennials and other younger people moving to gentrifying American cities in contrast to their baby-boomer parents moving to the suburbs (white flight of the '50s/'60s/'70s/'80s/'90s).
What is the future of American suburbia?
What is the future of the American dream (the white picket fence and the home, the backyard)
I guess I was born in the wrong generation because I have NEVER lived in a huge city and don't want to, Me and my wife have double the average number of kids as do the majority of people I know where I live and most are white since that was mentioned,economically wise we seem to be doing fine stuff is being built constantly here and there is a lot of land for sale for businesses to build here,We don't own a home YET but will eventually I hope. I don't know what the future holds but if continues down the road its been going down I am counting down the years until we can relocated permanently from the USA.
Baby Boomers built and bought up insanely stupid and horribly ugly homes. I have no idea what a huge fraction of boomers are going to do with their McMansions nobody wants when Boomers try to retire. They're going to have to eat a huge loss or simply live in them until they die. A ton of McMansions from the 80s through the early 00s look so bad that they just need to be knocked down and entire neighborhoods redeveloped.
Do you have any links to these McMansion developments as young as fifteen years old, which are so blighted they need to be torn down?
My area, like many others in the US, went off in the 80s building McDevelopments and McCondos. They all still stand just fine. Now they are building new "affordable housing" block apartments closer to the city. That should be fun. Give me a new or older McMansion with a little fenced yard any day.
Do you have any links to these McMansion developments as young as fifteen years old, which are so blighted they need to be torn down?
My area, like many others in the US, went off in the 80s building McDevelopments and McCondos. They all still stand just fine. Now they are building new "affordable housing" block apartments closer to the city. That should be fun. Give me a new or older McMansion with a little fenced yard any day.
For me, it isn't the homes as it is the surrounding infrastructure and zoning practices that lead to jarring separation from homes and businesses, meaning if you are to do almost any task (regardless of how small/big), you have to get in your car.
The amount of infrastructure needed to support that model is enormous, and we're certainly seeing our nation's roads strained.
A lot of good comments about suburbs built out in the 80's/90's, and what they'll look like in ~20+ years from now. I grew up in one, and whenever I visit, I can usually see it. Our neighborhood was full of families with kids playing in the 80's/90's. Whenever I visit, I still see our same neighbors, living out their retirement with giant homes they likely don't need (and maybe don't want).
The big problem with suburbs today is that the suburbs over developed. Also the suburbs have dearth professional jobs unless one is working in medical, education or office manager for a warehouse logistics.
Suburbia in many metros is doomed to fail. It wasn’t a long term sustainable concept anyway and was poorly thought out.
Suburbs built around strong cities like Chicago, New York or Austin will continue to thrive. Suburbs built around hollowed out cities like Detroit, Cleveland or Houston will face grim futures. Detroit and Cleveland will face it for obvious reasons, but Houston’s suburbs will turn to crap for another reason: there’s no way that THAT much sprawl is sustainable over time. That stuff is gonna crumble. I’m already seeing it in Phoenix despite a huge population influx. Many Suburbs built only 20-40 years ago already look worn out. A bunch of suburban strip malls are left for dead and boarded up. Some have just a few stores left open.
Because we have so much land in this country, we neglected to put in the work to fix the cities first...it was just easier to let people move out to burgeoning suburbs and leave the inner ring suburbs and inner cities to rot. The bill for doing that WILL come due eventually.
Thankfully, the commutes into the city became so inhumane for commuters that even the worst inner cities are getrifying with new blood and things are turning around. Spending 4 hours a day in your car will make you rearrange your outlook on life. 1-2 hours a day isn’t enough to convince most people.
Interesting.
Aren't a lot of strip malls struggling due to online shopping (Amazon) and one stop shops like Walmart, Target, etc...
I do think we should build up more instead of outward. You get this suburban sprawl cutting down forests to turn into cookie cutter homes and parking lots for the latest fad stores and restaurants.
Nobody here is going to agree with me but my guess is the future lies in small towns some distance from the large cities. I realize the trend is the exact opposite currently as rural areas lose population or at best hold steady, but the pendulum only swings so far. My small town has been very slowly losing population for decades and my State's population (Vermont) has been flat for years. This is due to many of our young people leaving for Boston, NYC, North Carolina, and elsewhere where there are large cities. Technology will eventually do away with the need to locate in very densely packed areas, and with the much high quality of life and lower cost of living in rural areas, people and businesses will start moving to small towns.
Nobody here is going to agree with me but my guess is the future lies in small towns some distance from the large cities. I realize the trend is the exact opposite currently as rural areas lose population or at best hold steady, but the pendulum only swings so far. My small town has been very slowly losing population for decades and my State's population (Vermont) has been flat for years. This is due to many of our young people leaving for Boston, NYC, North Carolina, and elsewhere where there are large cities. Technology will eventually do away with the need to locate in very densely packed areas, and with the much high quality of life and lower cost of living in rural areas, people and businesses will start moving to small towns.
I don't entirely disagree with you, and was going to post that with technology being what it is, there are fewer jobs that require commuting into a big city. Cities have lost some corporations, as the overhead costs like rent and corporate taxes can be cheaper elsewhere. I don't think these jobs will materialize TOO far from some type of major city, though. The big losers will be states like NJ and CT, who don't have a large city of their own, and whose taxes on businesses make the state undesirable for start-ups. Ditto for upstate NY. Take a look at Cuomo's failed 'Start Up NY'.
The changing economy might also result in more people choosing to start their own businesses in their towns.
The suburbs may have some problems but one thing is certain.
To resurrect the name of a mythical town in Rick Wilson’s “Everything That Trump Touches Dies”, they sure aren’t leaving the cities or the ‘burbs for A**crack, Arkansas.
Do you have any links to these McMansion developments as young as fifteen years old, which are so blighted they need to be torn down?
My area, like many others in the US, went off in the 80s building McDevelopments and McCondos. They all still stand just fine. Now they are building new "affordable housing" block apartments closer to the city. That should be fun. Give me a new or older McMansion with a little fenced yard any day.
You're in the minority.
No one is saying these McMansions are in neighborhoods that are 'blighted' its just that they have terrible construction, horrible design and were made during periods of time when people thought consuming more was better, and having a giant house was 'better'. People are moving more and more to urban locations because they want walkability and access to public transportation to get to metro areas. This blog has been all over news and it precisely discusses what's wrong with McMansions using technical analysis:
Sorry, millennials really don't want the boomers' ridiculous McMansions. If there isn't a market to buy up the properties boomers own, what are they going to do with it? They're going to have to eat a big loss or will simply have to die in it.
Last edited by fibonacci; 01-27-2019 at 08:40 PM..
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