Housing prices are plummeting across the nation, but the effect is not uniform in all areas. David Stiff, who helps to compile the Case-Shiller Home Price Index saw a nationwide trend: the longer the commute from a home to a city's downtown, the steeper the decline in that home's value.

Neighborhoods which were close to urban areas and to mass transit were effected the least by the slumping markets. Those which were the result of urban sprawl and far from jobs, vibrant communities, and cultural offerings have suffered the most. Foreclosures and plummeting prices abound and new McMansion construction has largely ground to a halt.

From NPR's Morning Edition:

[David] Stiff says home buyers' attitudes have changed. The old rule was, "Drive 'til you qualify" — meaning they should go out from the city until they could get what they wanted at a price they could afford.

Stiff says buyers are now asking different questions: "What is the cost of gasoline? What is the cost of my time?"

Recent studies suggest that buyers underestimated the costs of their long commutes. Those expenses can add up to more than the buyers saved on the home. Developers also miscalculated, lured by cheap land and rising home prices. They overreached, "partly because the bubble collapsed, but partly because these developments were just bad ideas to begin with," Stiff said.

As cities grow and suburbs shrink, we take a step away from water- and chemical-intensive lawns, gasoline consumption for long commutes, isolation inside our SUVs. We move towards a healthier populace relying more on bikes and mass transit, we consume fewer resources as we live in more population-dense neighborhoods, and we allow more of the areas surrounding our cities to sustain flora and fauna rather than faux-castles and Wal-Marts.

Photos via flickr by ShootsNikon & Diego_3336

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