Housing Market: The Great Escape

As I prophesized, there are more and more reports that extreme housing prices are pushing people further and further inward, leaving the coasts for cheaper living costs, more space, and (they say) better places to raise families.

This is fascinating to witness...whereas before, industries would develop in an area and communities would build around them, now communities are being built in areas starved of industry, with new jobs and economic flows being built to meet them. Peep this fluff piece from the Nov. 2005 West Virginia State Journal:

"They say the world is flat because of technology, and in this new flat world, people can do anything from anywhere," he said. "So what we need to do is get people to stay here. And if the talent is here, companies will build around them....After Sept. 11, a number of larger companies and government contractors reconsidered whether working in the middle of big cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., was the best idea. People want safety. They want security. They want space."

The necessity of building new industry to match this increasing demand for exurban housing is only going to be amped up by the incredible distances people are traveling just to maintain their quality of life. Not only that, if the gas shortages keep happening, prices will soar beyond the ability of American pocketbooks to compensate.

So what will happen to the cities?

My guess is that they won't suddenly become "Mad Max-" like ghost towns, but businesses, local governments, and developers will refocus their selling points to different groups of people. Rather than play to families with children, they will woo the single, the childless, the gay, the affluent, etc. In a sense, this is always how it's been, but it's also in reverse...instead of the ultra-rich living on giant estates in the far hinterlands, they'll be commanding top-shelf penthouses in luxury condo developments.

One thing's for sure...if this trend towards exurban development continues, prices will HAVE to fall in the coastal markets, even as they start to rise further inland. It'll always be more expensive to live in NYC than it is in Morgantown, West Virginia...but the difference may soon be less than you thought.

Whether or not Cleveland is still a hell pit or a new suburban mecca is, apparently, not solely up to Snake Plissken either.

Posted at April 21, 2006 04:29 PM

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As I prophesized, there are more and more reports that extreme housing prices are pushing people further and further inward, leaving the coasts for cheaper living costs, more space, and (they say) better places to raise families. This is fascinating to witness...whereas before, industries would develop in an area and communities would build around them, now communities are being built in areas starved of industry, with new jobs and economic flows being built to meet them. Peep this fluff piece from the Nov. 2005 West Virginia State Journal: "They say the world is flat because of technology, and in this new flat world, people can do anything from anywhere," he said. "So what we need to do is get people to stay here. And if the talent is here, companies will build around them....After Sept. 11, a number of larger companies and government contractors reconsidered whether working in the middle of big cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., was the best idea. People want safety. They want security. They want space." The necessity of building new industry to match this increasing demand for exurban housing is only going to be amped up by the incredible distances people are traveling just to maintain their quality of life. Not only that, if the gas shortages keep happening, prices will soar beyond the ability of American pocketbooks to compensate. So what will happen to the cities? My guess is that they won't suddenly become "Mad Max-" like ghost towns, but businesses, local governments, and developers will refocus their selling points to different groups of people. Rather than play to families with children, they will woo the single, the childless, the gay, the affluent, etc. In a sense, this is always how it's been, but it's also in reverse...instead of the ultra-rich living on giant estates in the far hinterlands, they'll be commanding top-shelf penthouses in luxury condo developments. One thing's for sure...if this trend towards exurban development continues, prices will HAVE to fall in the coastal markets, even as they start to rise further inland. It'll always be more expensive to live in NYC than it is in Morgantown, West Virginia...but the difference may soon be less than you thought. Whether or not Cleveland is still a hell pit or a new suburban mecca is, apparently, not solely up to Snake Plissken either.