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Americans' Shift To The Suburbs Sped Up Last Year (fivethirtyeight.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-we-live dept.

Jed Kolko, writing for FiveThirtyEight: The suburbanization of America marches on. Population growth in big cities slowed for the fifth-straight year in 2016, according to new census data, while population growth accelerated in the more sprawling counties that surround them. The Census Bureau on Thursday released population estimates for every one of the more than 3,000 counties in the U.S. I grouped those counties into six categories: urban centers of large metropolitan areas; their densely populated suburbs; their lightly populated suburbs; midsize metros; smaller metro areas; and rural counties, which are outside metro areas entirely. The fastest growth was in those lower-density suburbs. Those counties grew by 1.3 percent in 2016, the fastest rate since 2008, when the housing bust put an end to rapid homebuilding in these areas. In the South and West, growth in large-metro lower-density suburbs topped 2 percent in 2016, led by counties such as Kendall and Comal north of San Antonio; Hays near Austin; and Forsyth, north of Atlanta.

7 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. If self driving cars take off by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If self driving cars take off expect the suburbs to spread even further. A lot of people who wouldn't like an hour's drive each way wouldn't mind an hour reading, watching tv, and eating breakfast.

    1. Re:If self driving cars take off by Jfetjunky · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I actually believe if self-driving cars take off, drive times will go down. The programmers of the cars can do a lot to alleviate the bad behaviors people have gotten in to that just makes heavy traffic worse.

      Such as:
      -Tailgating in traffic jams, allowing no room for merging or changing lanes, causing everyone to have to slam on their brakes when someone does need to move lanes.
      -Waiting until the absolute last second to merge when lanes are reduced.
      -Essentially acting as a completely un-damped spring, speeding up and slowing down to stay exactly right behind the car in front, allowing all kinds of nasty resonances and standing waves.

  2. Wonder why by ArchieBunker · · Score: 5, Funny

    Spend $4000 a month living in a shoe box apartment or put that into a mortgage on a decent sized house. Decisions, decisions.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Wonder why by gnick · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's hardly the entirety of the decision. Aside from the pros/cons of renting vs buying, if that apartment is 30 minutes closer to work, you just saved 250 hours a year of your personal time. What's that worth?

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    2. Re:Wonder why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's hardly the entirety of the decision. Aside from the pros/cons of renting vs buying, if that apartment is 30 minutes closer to work, you just saved 250 hours a year of your personal time. What's that worth?

      It's not worth never getting to be loud, it's not worth never getting to have a real pet. It's not worth never having a second vehicle. It's not worth never seeing grass. Humans haven't evolved to live in hives.

  3. High Speed Rail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Suburbanization isn't a problem. If we planned cities properly we could serve city centers with high speed rail to secondary cities (suburbs, exurbs) and ease the urban housing crunch. Of course this would require taxation, debt, eminent domain, and operating at a loss for decades, which is not popular with short term thinkers, despite the fact that rail infrastructure has a lifespan measured in centuries.

  4. Totally worth it by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Adding an extra 40min round trip to an existing 30min round trip dropped our mortgage principle over 33%. This is incredibly important when you look at interest rates. 5% was standard when bought, and probably will be again soon if it isn't. Right now it's apparently 4%. Let's say you finance $360k. Over the life time of a 30 year mortgage, that is $208k of interest and you only get a fraction of that back in deductions. So really, spending a lot more to be close to a city is sending trashbags full of cash to the banks.