Allure of Suburia and Exurbia Quickly Fading

If one lives in a residence more than about one-half hour from a central city core or a significant employment center, they are seeing the end of the allure and promise that exurbs and suburbs once had. Rising gasoline fuel prices and the endless pressure and time consuming wasteful commute are helping to expedite the beginning of the demise of these places. Prices and values of homes in these outlying areas are showing the greatest decline, and the accompanying foreclosure and home mortgage crisis are only worsening the situation. While it appears some places in the US will inevitably see a decline of 40 to 50 percent in home prices and values in the next two to three years, it is almost certain that most exurbs and distant suburbs will bear the brunt of this decline, and there will perhaps even be locales that experience steeper falls. The only salvation for these exurbs and distant suburbs will be to develop a diversified economy of their own which is no easy solution and will take at least a generation to occur which is no answer; or to get a fast track mass transit solution in place and underway. A light rail or express rail mass transit system could be in place and running within 5 to 7 years everywhere with aggressive, competent, and visionary municipal leadership and management in counties and communities that are exurbs and distant suburbs. Unfortunately the vast majority of officials in these types of communities are largely out of touch with the modern challenges facing their communities which will doom these exurbs and outer suburbs to an existence far more troublesome and worse not only economically but in many other ways due to their shortsightedness, political blindness, and being a part of an "old boys network" that is based on the past rather than the future.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080402415.html
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