We're seeing the same thing here in Phoenix and I've seen it in past housing busts - homes in the perimeter hold value better than homes on the fringes. People will be asking themselves in a few years (if not today) why they felt they had to buy a house over an hour away from the office and civilization.
Location, Location, Location folks. Surburban sprawl sucks, will always suck, and as this article points out, hurts values.
Home sales in the Twin Cities dropped sharply last month from the previous year, though it was still the second-best November on record.
Last month's 4,115 sales in the 13-county metro region dropped nearly 12 percent from the November record in 2004 of 4,672. All east metro counties experienced sales drops last month.
"It sure seems like we're getting back to a normal market now," said Jeff Green, president of the North Metro Realtors Association.
"Realtors I've talked to all have been saying they've noticed a slowdown," said June Wiener, next year's president of the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors.
"What's tending to be a concern is commute times," said Gregg Roeglin, president of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.
December 14, 2005
Minnesota: Area home sales decline 12% - and "What's tending to be a concern is commute times"
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8 comments:
Just when you thought the real estate cheerleaders couldn't sink any lower. Now "sprawl" is to blame for the decline in prices. Where were they these last 5 years? Why wasn't sprawl responsible for the largest run up in modern history? Study after study proves that sprawl lowers costs and improves quality of life measures and has been going on for millenia but somehow last month it caused people to think twice before buying a home, anywhere including the urban core. Pathetic, grasping at straws, the 7 blind men and the elephant, pick your analogy/similie/metaphor.
Study after study proves that sprawl lowers costs and improves quality of life
WTF? Show me a single one of those studies. I don't believe it. Some sprawl is OK, but HTF does a place like San Jose or LA have a "good quality of life" due to its sprawl? Those cities are ridiculously sprawlish, and I can't see how all the unplanned development, freeways, and pollution, can possibly be a good thing for quality of life... Please enlighten me!
ecobuilder, I agree with you that money is actually worthless when it comes to achieving happiness. It helps grease the skids, but...
So to answer your question in the context of this post:
1) healtiness (i.e. don't have stress in your life - so don't sit in traffic jams, don't waste 2 hours a day because you live so far away from where you work, and don't stress about having the majority of your net worth tied to an asset that will likely suffer a big decline - your house)
2) quality of life (i.e. don't live in a cookie-cutter home in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do)
3) do good deeds (i.e. spread the word to friends and family about the coming economic storm and how to best prepare)
4) leave a better world (fight against things that make your town a worse place to live - like the ugliness, polution and waste sprawl causes, the closing of all small businesses with character caused by wal-marts built to satisfy the sprawl, and the waste of land caused by sprawl)
how's that?
Holgs asks,
HTF doe... LA have a "good quality of life" due to its sprawl? ... Please enlighten me!
By every enumerable measure Los Angeles is the least sprawled urban area in the US. You have thus answered your own question.
Maybe instead of an hour outside the city, you should be buying 2 hours out side the city.
The real estate market outside the Washington DC commute is still growing here, while DC is getting hammer.
Small towns outside the cities never grew in value like the burbs.
Kunstler calls the suburbs the "ghettos of the future" and I agree with him. As gas prices go up, driving a for 15 minutes to go grocery shopping or an hour (or 2) to get to work isn't going to seem like a good idea anymore. Watch "The End of Suburbia" to learn more about this.
Katy,
Few and far between drive 2 hours. You are no longer in the burbs. My point exactly. In the 70s when people rushed to get out of the city and create the burbs, the city collasp. Soon the migration out of the burbs will happen, they will collasp next.
BUT THE MONEY WILL MIGRATE SOME PLACE. YOUR JUST LOOKING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION FROM THE CENTER OF EMPLOYMENT
Sprawl is out of control but it will take a wholesale shift in people's mindsets or a super-spike in energy costs before the subrubs drain out. Too many people still believe the suburbs are the 'white glove' of living. I'd prefer to see more redevelopment because driving 45-60 minutes each way to work does not appeal to me in the least.
Of course the other solution is to have more remote work but employers are adopting it at a glacial pace.
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