Are you ready for the new urbanites? (St. Louis, Florida: real estate, apartments)

[moorlander]

This article reinforces a lot of what's been discussed on this forum over the years...

"Younger generations want to live in dense, walkable, 24-7 urban neighborhoods filled with apartments."


"Florida says: “The places that thrive today are those with the highest velocity of ideas, the highest density of talented and creative people, and the highest rate of metabolism. Cities like Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., and Portland will become a single labor market, attracting the very best minds, energy and talent. Seattle, New York, Silicon Valley and college towns will survive; ex-urban Phoenix or Las Vegas will struggle for years to come.”"



read more here...

http://www.djc.com/news/re/12031480.html

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by moorlander

This article reinforces a lot of what's been discussed on this forum over the years...

"Younger generations want to live in dense, walkable, 24-7 urban neighborhoods filled with apartments."



ead more here...

Seattle DJC Newspaper - Real Estate - Are you ready for the new urbanites?

I still believe these predictions are overstated. First, taking St. Louis as an example, we've seen no evidence in the most recent census data that the move away from the city core has reversed. It certainly has slowed, but we are not seeing a net migration to the city and even St. Louis County lost population.

I acknowledge that the rate of marriage and childbirth are dropping in our society as a whole with younger generations, and agree that singles and childless couples may tend to live in the urban core in greater numbers, both now and in the future. However, I would still submit that children still change everything. By and large, when people have kids, they want to own their own home with a yard and they want good schools and less crime. They don't want to raise kids in apartments in the urban core.

[masterwood89]

Originally Posted by MUTGR

I still believe these predictions are overstated. First, taking St. Louis as an example, we've seen no evidence in the most recent census data that the move away from the city core has reversed. It certainly has slowed, but we are not seeing a net migration to the city and even St. Louis County lost population.

I acknowledge that the rate of marriage and childbirth are dropping in our society as a whole with younger generations, and agree that singles and childless couples may tend to live in the urban core in greater numbers, both now and in the future. However, I would still submit that children still change everything. By and large, when people have kids, they want to own their own home with a yard and they want good schools and less crime. They don't want to raise kids in apartments in the urban core.

Well if the city hall and the school board got off their lazy asses and actually cared about the public school system the city would've gained population. Having a big yard and a big house in some average suburb isn't everything for kids look at cities like SF,NYC,Philly,Boston not a lot of yards but all grew in population. The city has those neighborhoods that have yards, single family homes and are just as safe as suburbs, but how many suburbs have truly urban neighborhoods, and have something going on everyday.

I don't think that you'll see a massive migration of people to the city with or without kids until the public schools are fixed because when that is fixed everything else will fall into place and people will move and stay in the city. If it doesn't the city will never get above 350K again.

[MUTGR]

"The city has those neighborhoods that have yards, single family homes and are just as safe as suburbs, but how many suburbs have truly urban neighborhoods, and have something going on everyday."

People in the suburbs have something going on everyday, at least those that choose to. It usually revolves around family activities.

[Brickmama]

Keep in mind we are talking about the age group 21 - 35 that are career focused. Most of these people want to live in an walkable urban setting that os close to their job. Most also are not yet married and do not have kids so the lack of schooling options are not of their concern. The migration pattern is not necessarily families up rooting and moving to the city but instead where people will settle after they graduate college. The most dense walkable neighborhoods in St Louis City gained population in the last 10 years. We need to focus on multi family new construction in order to keep the momentum going.

[flynavyj]

People waiting later and later to have children, and then only having 1 or 2 children is causing some population issues for the US also...boo.

From the "career" minded people i know in my job, it appears you can be both focused on your career development, and start/have a family. I work with numerous 20 somethings who are married with children, along with plenty more friends from grade school, high school, and college who are in the same boat. Just because you're in the 21-35 age range, and would like to have a great career with good pay doesn't mean you have to do that at the sacrifice of having a family. Often, you can have the best of both worlds.

[Brickmama]

Yes obviously people still have kids and focus on their career but the percentage of people focusing on getting married at 23 and starting a family is much less than it was 15-20 years ago. Review the census data and see whats happening for yourself. The desire to commute 45 minutes to your job, have a 3000 sq foot home with a 3 car garage is deteriorating. More people are interested in multi fam living w/o the maintenance of a single Fam home.

[MoNative34]

Do some want and choose to live in dense urban neighborhoods? Yes.

Having said that, I've seen no evidence that it's reversing the growth of 'burbs.

And what is this business about the "most talented", "creative", "energy"?? Every generation going through their 20 something years seems to think they have it all figured out. Generation X (me) thought the same thing.

I'm working for a company that's doing quite well in keeping up with the times. Generation Y sure as hell isn't running the show.

[Dawn10am]

I'm Generation Y and I can tell you I have absolutely no desire for the suburban lifestyle. Even if I ever settled down and had kids, it would probably be in the city and they would go to private schools. As for a single family home? No thank you. I don't think I could stand the yard work.

[Brickmama]

^I am borderline Gen X/Gen Y and I agree with you. We may not be running the show now but we will be.