Nearly three million homes have foreclosed in the last three years. Blame variable interest rates, sub-prime mortgages, and suburban sprawl.

Droves of homeowners are walking away from their behemoth McMansions in the ‘burbs, where developers have made way for homes by bulldozing nature and stressing municipal infrastructure. These idyllic, big box subdivisions—complete with cheaply constructed two-car garages fit for Ford F150s—suck water, gas, energy, and other natural resources, even more so than homes in the city. It takes more resources to supply sprawling suburbs with these amenities, as they’re so far from the source.

According to Triple Pundit:

Subdivisions built on the edges of urban areas where once arable land is bulldozed to make way for over-sized, energy-intensive houses, with landscaping consisting of grassy yards adorned with non-native species of trees and shrubs, the whole lot of it out of character with the natural surroundings and located so that most residents are forced to drive miles and miles to get to work, for too often there is no public transportation available.

James Howard Kunstler predicted this at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) four years ago. Check out his video presentation:


This trend should further support the fight against sprawl and help prove to developers—and blue collar dreamers (think big yard, big truck, big litter of chubby children, and picket fence)—that sprawl just isn’t sustainable. If this keeps up (which it almost certainly will), it looks like folks will continue to abandon their cul-de-sac homes and commuters will be ditching their S.U.V.s for the subway. At least, let’s hope so.

Photo via flickr by Dean_Terry & whatknot.

Comments (3)

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Joel Sanda said:

Blame variable interest rates, sub-prime mortgages, and suburban sprawl. You know - the folks who bought a house that required driving just to pick up a loaf of bread made a number of mistakes. Vaulted ceilings? Non-native landscaping? The garage takes up more than half of the front of the home? At least a 45-minute drive from the city center? Those clowns made mistake after mistake buying homes there. Tack onto that list of ignored facts of life a zero-down mortgage you're talking about a huge population that can't read maps, do basic math, or judge distances.

February 17, 2008

looking4facts said:

Kate, I understand your concerns and am in total agreement with a lot of your underlying assumptions, but let's use facts instead of hyperbole and FOXNews adjectives. If you continue with this type of "rant", the message will never be heard, much less acted upon. For example, "Nearly three million homes have foreclosed in the last three years." I'll assume this is fact, but what is the source and what is the number? And how many were in the suburbs? Or, "Blame variable interest rates, sub-prime mortgages, and suburban sprawl." How about we blame the people who didn't plan ahead or don't understand simple financial concepts or just had some unforeseen consequences to other decisions? Let's put responsibility on those who made the decisions and not on some "not-in-our-control" system like banks and mortgage brokers. And what is your definition of suburb? More than 1 mile, 5 miles, 10 miles, 30 miles outside of the city center? Outside the city limits? And that was only the first paragraph....the rest of the article is much more of the same. Love the attitude...but as a piece of journalism, its an F. If you're just trying to incite the "droves", I'll give you an A-.

February 18, 2008

Susie H said:

I agree with Joel. Back in the day, people saved up for a down payment and bought within their means. Now people buy (or try to buy) a $600K house but only make $30K a year. I'm sure predatory lenders are part of the problem but are any of these "homeowners" taking responsibility for their own stupidity?

February 24, 2008

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