If You Own A House IN or NEAR A City... (gas prices, companies)

[KevK]

For decades the American way of life has worked something like this: Finish high school or college, get a job and you start out in a small apartment in the city. Then you get married and maybe have baby number 1 and you get a bigger apartment. But by the time that baby is 3 or 4, you are ready for that first "starter" home in the "inner suburbs" (usually the first suburb outside the city limits). You stay there for maybe 5 years and by then you have got promoted or "made journeyman" in your trade and then you and the family go further out into the "Exurbs" and get that 5000 sq foot "dream home" with the 3 car garage (and probably 3 SUVs to fill it) on a 1/2 acre lot. Then, after the kids grow up and leave (if they ever do), you might sell it and move back to the city for a wonderful life in a high rise condo. That is the way it WAS.
But those days may be coming to a close. The exurbs may in fact begin to contract in size. I took a drive out to the "exurb" of Carrollton GA west of Atlanta. I recall a few years ago, this was going to be the next "hot place" for real estate. Now all I see there is lots that sit unfinsihed, the construction workers all gone and weeds overgrowing the once to be built big houses. Even in the next closest suburb to Atlanta which is Douglasville, I see some of the same.
But then when you enter the "close in" west suburbs of Lithia Springs, Austell and Mabelton, a whole different story. Houses being built everywhere. Not 5000 sq feet houses but ones of 2000 or so sq feet and lots of town houses. Not only are these suburbs 10 miles from the City Centre of Atlanta, they are served by public transit systems and the commute on I-20 in the morning to downtown is about 30 to 40 minutes. From Carrollton, the commute is about 1.5 hours at rush hour!
It appears to me that the future of high gas prices and higher electric and heating cost will be good for the once forgotten "inner suburbs" as well as the city itself. So if in fact you have a home in these areas, maybe you ought to hold onto it and not think "oh it is a starter home and we have to sell it and buy a bigger house further out. You might have a real gem on your hand!

[oakparkdude]

Its basically the argument of that Atlantic Monthly article that has be discussed in multiple threads.

The Next Slum?

I live in one of the inner suburbs of Chicago which original developed during the time of street cars. As a result we have excellent transit links to downtown Chicago (the Loop). Housing prices appear stagnant to stable in our town, which seems to be pretty good compared to some of the outer burbs in our metro area.

Incidentally, there appears to be a mini-trend of companies relocating from the urban fringe into downtown Chicago. Its by no means a dramatic shift, a few hundred employees here and there, but it may be a sign of things to come.