The Decline of the Far-Flung Suburb
The three most important considerations in buying a home, the old real-estate adage goes, are: location, location, location.
What does that mean? It means buying a piece of property that’s in a place where lots of people want to live. That’s why properties in big cities and near the coast tend to hold their value better, in good times and bad.
Tuesday’s installment of the L.A. Times’ “Foreclosure Front” series focuses on Merced, a Central Valley city that developers went crazy for during the boom and is now replete with foreclosures and half-finished houses.
I’m sure some nice people live in Merced, but let’s be frank: Merced is not a place where lots of people aspire to live. What’s the number-one thing Merced has, or had, to offer? Answer: Big, new, relatively cheap houses.
The lure of big, cheap houses brought tens of thousands of people into places like Palmdale, Lancaster, Victorville and Lake Elsinore, too. But when the big, cheap houses stop appreciating, these places don’t look nearly so attractive as places to live anymore.
That’s why buying a house on the basis of price alone is a bad idea. If the No. 1 positive feature about a place is big, cheap houses, you’re probably better off not buying there — especially now, when those places are filled with large numbers of abandoned homes.
And until rising gas prices magically reverse themselves, the lifestyle of buying a big, cheap house in a faraway place and commuting will be not only undesirable, but economically unfeasible.
That’s one reason why some experts are predicting that Americans will abandon far-flung suburbs in droves. Consider this excerpt from a recent article in The Atlantic entitled “The Next Slum?”:
For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay.
A big house for less money is tempting, but more people are realizing that quality of life counts. If you’re buying or renting, the best “location” these days is close to employment centers and amenities — preferably within walking distance.
Recent Redfin posts:
Down in the Trenches with the Foreclosed-Upon
Did These Buyers Get a Deal?
