The Beginning of the End for Suburban America

[Ble_PE]

I live in the suburbs and have about a 20 minute drive to work in the city. Realistically though, outside of the older cities in the US like New York, Philly, Boston, etc, even if you live in the "city", you are still living in a suburban development. In Charlotte, only the downtown core could possibly be considered living in an urban environment and it makes up less than 2% (guessing) of the land area of the city. I'd imagine it's the same for cities like Atlanta, Miami, Houston, etc.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I seldom see anyone I work with outside of work.

Me, too, but I prefer it that way. Ilike to keep work completely separate from my personal life.

Ten minutes would be about a perfect commute for me. I think if I were as close as csb, I'd twalk to work a lot.

 

[Flyer_PE]

I live in the burbs and I still think I'm too close to town. My plan is to move as far out as possible and still have a hi-speed internet connection. A small county airport nearby is the only other item on my wish list. My commute is usually how ever long it takes me to get down stairs to my office so I'm not all that concerned about drive time.

 

[Exception Collection]

I live in the suburbs of a small city; I'm about 7 miles from my office, which is downtown. I like my house, but I hate the drive - I'd love to telecommute instead of going back and forth. My wife does work from home, so it's convenient.

 

[ALBin517]

We bought in the burbs and now owe about 60k more than it's worth so we aren't going anywhere.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

We bought in the burbs and now owe about 60k more than it's worth so we aren't going anywhere.

Which reminds me of how glad I am that we purchased our house back in '98...

There are a lot of folks in the same boat as you, ALB.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

We bought our current house with the intention of living here a LONG time, so aside from Insurance reasons, I really don't care much how my house is worth. I paid what I thought was reasonable for it, considering the house/lot size, location, school system, etc. If I had the funds to purchase a larger house, I probably would have still bought the same house.

 

[snickerd3]

We bought in the burbs and now owe about 60k more than it's worth so we aren't going anywhere.

ouch!

Resale is something we unforunately have had to consider when we have bought houses. We have been in our current house the longest we have ever stayed somewhere going on 4 yrs. The house we first wanted would have likely ended up in the same situation you are in...people around here joined the house boom thinking they could get lots of money for it after it started busting and wanted obscene amounts of money for houses not worth that much any more.

We got extremely lucky to find the house we did. If we ever have to move it is reasonable enough not to sit for years before it sells. October is 1 yr on the market for our neighbors house. They took the timber acres out of the listing to reduce the price....it scared several buyers away.

 

[Master slacker]

I live a short 2 minute interstate ride from being smack dab downtown. We probably paid a little on the high end for the house, but the fix-ups are relatively simple and the location is something that will never dwindle. I think we could get back what we bought the house for if it were put on the market right now.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I have a 4 mile commute, can take anywhere between 8-20 minutes.

 

[csb]

I seldom see anyone I work with outside of work.

There are 400 people at my work and 51,000 in the whole town. I seldom see anyone I work with outside of work either. Most frequent spot I'll see someone is church, but it turns out there's a lot of Catholics at work.

 

[Exception Collection]

I seldom see anyone I work with outside of work.

There are 400 people at my work and 51,000 in the whole town. I seldom see anyone I work with outside of work either. Most frequent spot I'll see someone is church, but it turns out there's a lot of Catholics at work.

Not so much people I work with (coworkers), but clients? I see them all the time. Which is disturbing, since it's a metro area of over 200k people.