The Death of the Suburbs Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

Ben Kesslen over at NBC News writes about the growth of the suburbs over the last ten years. “As the country’s biggest cities grow and become increasingly unaffordable to many, their suburbs have ballooned, taking on their own identities.” (NBC News)

  • Greatly exaggerated. For years the suburbs have been declared dead by many as urban areas were revitalized. However, it turns out that same urban growth helped to revitalize suburban areas as well. “As the country’s biggest cities grow and become increasingly unaffordable to many, their suburbs have ballooned, taking on their own identities.”
  • Explosive growth. 10 of the fastest-growing cities grew by at least 44 percent, and the fastest-growing one, Buckeye, Arizona, a western suburb of Phoenix, was up nearly 80 percent this decade.
  • Go West & South, young man. Marc Perry, a senior demographer at the U.S. Census Bureau, said in an email that “for the past several decades the general trend has been for the fastest-growing cities of 50k+ population to be located on the outskirts of generally fast-growing metro areas in the South and West.”

Rapid growth is great for land values and the tax base, but it isn’t all good news. Infrastructure takes longer to build which can great a problem. For example, Meridian, IA just built a high school that will serve more than a thousand students, but the school was finished and ready to open this fall before the completion of road expansions required by the county highway district to handle the influx of cars.

BONUS: Suburbs might not be the only place to benefit from those seeking relief from rising home prices in major cites. They could also be a boon for dilapidated cities. The Wall Street Journal reports that Rust Belt cities are attempting to give away homes to attract people to their cities… (Wall Street Journal)