Reply to I haven't figured out how people raise children in DC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] While this may be true, the relative value of exurban homes is going to continue to tank in comparison with urban and close-in houses.  This is inevitable as the price of energy continues to rise (gas and heating/cooling).  Add to this the projected population growth for the DC region, and it's quite likely that the value of that paid-off cheap house in the 'burbs is going to end up looking like a paid-off house in Trinidad in the early 80s.  Having a house that's paid off is a lot less attractive when that house is in a neighborhood that's generally not livable.[/quote]

That's way too much doom and gloom. Much of the region's job growth now occurs in the 'burbs, rather than downtown.  People looking to work near businesses off of 270 or in Fairfax already find that living there places them "close in" to their jobs.  The pace of population growth in the 'burbs is projected to continue to outpace the growth rate in DC. The arrival of thousand of new residents due to the BRIC base realignment will only add more demand to the 'burbs North of DC. All of the counties likely to be affected, Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Howard, are looking for money to fund improvements to deal with the anticipated increases in their populations. And many of DC's exurbs are also Baltimore's suburbs of choice. One of my neighbors is a doctor at a hospital in Baltimore. His wife is a doctor in DC.  Sure there will always be a premium for certain areas close in to DC, but there are also premium locations within suburbs that have become employment centers in their own rights. The scenario you describe may be more accurate for exurbs outside of Las Vegas where there's really nothing outside the city to provide substantial employment, but I don't see the same scenario playing out in DC's exurbs. More likely we'll see more public transportation reaching out further and further. We're seeing that now with the inexorable extension of Metro. [/quote]

Again, we'll see as fuel prices go up over $5/gallon and that population growth in the suburbs leads to a non-linear increase in congestion.  Think traffic can't get any worse?  Five or ten years from now it'll make today look like an easy motoring paradise.  That puts pressure on more and more of those who can to move to the closer-in suburbs and the city.  That means more poor folks moving to the suburbs (population growth, anyone?).  Which means a greater and greater strain on services.  Which means the cities look comparatively even more attractive.   Things snowball.[/quote]

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