Is Remote Working Causing an Exodus to the Exurbs? (apnews.com) 62
Last year 30,000 people moved into central Florida's Polk County — more than to any other county in America. Its largest city has just 112,641 people, living a full 35 miles east of the 3.1 million residents in the metropolitan area around Tampa.
But the Associated Press says something similar is happening all over the country: "the rise of the far-flung exurbs." Outlying communities on the outer margins of metro areas — some as far away as 60 miles (97 kilometers) from a city's center — had some of the fastest-growing populations last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Those communities are primarily in the South, like Anna, Texas on the outskirts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area; Fort Mill, South Carolina [just 18 miles from North Carolina city Charlotte]; Lebanon, Tennessee outside Nashville; and Polk County's Haines City... [C]ommuting to work can take up to an hour and a half one-way. But [Marisol] Ortega, who lives in Haines City about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from her job in Orlando, says it's worth it. "I love my job. I love what I do, but then I love coming back home, and it's more tranquil," Ortega said.
The rapid growth of far-flung exurbs is an after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Census Bureau, as rising housing costs drove people further from cities and remote working allowed many to do their jobs from home at least part of the week... Recent hurricanes and citrus diseases in Florida also have made it more attractive for some Polk County growers to sell their citrus groves to developers who build new residences or stores...
Anna, Texas, more than 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of downtown Dallas, is seeing the same kind of migration. It was the fourth-fastest growing city in the U.S. last year and its population has increased by a third during the 2020s to 27,500 residents. Like Polk County, Anna has gotten a little older, richer and more racially diverse.
The article points out that in Anna, Texas, "close to 3 in 5 households have moved into their homes since 2020, according to the Census Bureau."
But the Associated Press says something similar is happening all over the country: "the rise of the far-flung exurbs." Outlying communities on the outer margins of metro areas — some as far away as 60 miles (97 kilometers) from a city's center — had some of the fastest-growing populations last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Those communities are primarily in the South, like Anna, Texas on the outskirts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area; Fort Mill, South Carolina [just 18 miles from North Carolina city Charlotte]; Lebanon, Tennessee outside Nashville; and Polk County's Haines City... [C]ommuting to work can take up to an hour and a half one-way. But [Marisol] Ortega, who lives in Haines City about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from her job in Orlando, says it's worth it. "I love my job. I love what I do, but then I love coming back home, and it's more tranquil," Ortega said.
The rapid growth of far-flung exurbs is an after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Census Bureau, as rising housing costs drove people further from cities and remote working allowed many to do their jobs from home at least part of the week... Recent hurricanes and citrus diseases in Florida also have made it more attractive for some Polk County growers to sell their citrus groves to developers who build new residences or stores...
Anna, Texas, more than 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of downtown Dallas, is seeing the same kind of migration. It was the fourth-fastest growing city in the U.S. last year and its population has increased by a third during the 2020s to 27,500 residents. Like Polk County, Anna has gotten a little older, richer and more racially diverse.
The article points out that in Anna, Texas, "close to 3 in 5 households have moved into their homes since 2020, according to the Census Bureau."
Yes. Obviously. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Yes. Obviously. (Score:5, Insightful)
There's fuck all around and you have to drive a lot to do anything or see anyone.
You might not mind that or not want to see anyone, but you asked why and plenty of people want to do things and see people and don't especially relish driving.
Re:Yes. Obviously. (Score:4, Insightful)
Apparently you're wrong, because the article states these areas are the fastest growing areas in the country.
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Both can be true at the same time.
And sadly, our children, who we have basically put under ho [medium.com]
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Apparently you're wrong,
This is the most hilariously blinkered post. The GP asked "why not". I gave the reasons that I, personally, would not choose to live in an exurb. According to you, I am wrong.
You do not have to have the same desires as me, so if you with to live in what I think is the arse end of nowhere, be my guest. You probably think I live in a rat infested hell hole (only the former part is true).
Lies, damn lies, statistics (Score:2)
Apparently you're wrong, because the article states these areas are the fastest growing areas in the country.
Or the article is wrong or you are misreading it.
It was the fourth-fastest growing city in the U.S. last year and its population has increased by a third during the 2020s to 27,500 residents
Its hard for me to imagine that a town with 27,500 has absorbed even a fraction of the population growth in the country. This is one of those uses of percentages that doesn't really support the conclusion you and the author believe it does.
The real problem is that these exurbs depend on the large urban area to provide a lot of the services and attractions, including jobs, for the people who live there. It requires a bunch of investment in public infrastruct
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Apparently you're wrong, because the article states these areas are the fastest growing areas in the country.
The empty areas with no people are growing at a faster rate than the full areas!
If you fill a large chunk of land with low density housing, you still have a trivial number of people compared to a high density area.
Re: Yes. Obviously. (Score:2)
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Re: Yes. Obviously. (Score:2)
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There's fuck all around and you have to drive a lot to do anything or see anyone.
You might not mind that or not want to see anyone, but you asked why and plenty of people want to do things and see people and don't especially relish driving.
The people you claim don’t especially relish driving, are the same people who waste an entire workweek every month commuting to “things”. Including work.
Those who actually don’t relish driving, don’t fucking do it.
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The people you claim donâ(TM)t especially relish driving
Well, me for one.
are the same people who waste an entire workweek every month commuting to âoethingsâ. Including work.
I do?
Those who actually donâ(TM)t relish driving, donâ(TM)t fucking do it.
I don't.
I don't even own one.
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Moved to exurb in 2020. While it requires a car... I got a "dream house" for about 30% less than I would have paid "in town." The cost is a 7-mile trip to Starbucks, 20 miles to Costco... and the potential for an hour-long delay returning home due to the surfers or the turtles. I have a grocery store and food trucks within a quarter mile. To go drinking at a bar is 20 minutes on the city bus. The only real pain is it is an hour plus 30 minutes traffic buffer to the airport. It is not what I would have want
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To go drinking at a bar is 20 minutes on the city bus.
If you're getting city buses, that doesn't sound very exurban, as generally characterised by not being part of the city area.
Plus also the stores and food within walking distance. Sounds like you live in a small town near a city, rather than an exurb.
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Ok, technically city-and-county busses. The route would actually take 2.5 hours to get inot town, but it is important access for peope that work at the two largetst employers in the area, along with connecting multiple villages.
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Next week, we'll have a story about all the people who moved to the boonies and hate it, and are moving back to the Big City for the very reasons you cite.
Again.
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There's fuck all around and you have to drive a lot to do anything or see anyone.
Depends on what you do. Frankly there's fuck all around in most American suburbs too. The American dream seems to be to sleep out in a house with a picket fence, and then "live" somewhere else.
As for "seeing" people these places aren't deserts. There's many people living there. Sure it is harder to move away from friends but you make new ones local to you. There's plenty of opportunity to see people. The small towns often have plenty of facilities as well, so it's not like you're driving over an hour just t
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There's fuck all around and you have to drive a lot to do anything or see anyone.
Fun fact: you'll likely spend MORE time in transit in a city if you want to "see anyone" than in an exurb. There's a really helpful site that lets you plot isochrones: https://www.geoapify.com/isoli... [geoapify.com] - try playing with it, compare the distance you can cover by car and by transit within 30 minutes.
Transit is basically a trap. It's incovenient, slow, and useless.
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Fun fact: you'll likely spend MORE time in transit in a city if you want to "see anyone" than in an exurb.
Depends on your city. You can travel longer distances faster from an exurb, but there are fewer people around. Also, you basically need to go to someone's house, since they aren't amenity rich rather than meet in the middle, which effectively doubles the distance.
Plus if you like a drink and your court ordered interlocked ignition is working properly, well that's not so good.
Transit is basically a trap.
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You can afford more home and more land further out, so why not?
Because it doesn't fit the narrative that people need to be caged like rats in cramped, overcrowded blocks of concrete, such as this [boredpanda.com], with high temperatures because of lack of greenspace. The narrative doesn't foresee people wanting to walk out their back door onto grass or lay out under their trees, which helps to keep temperatures down, and not bump into their next door neighbors every time they open the door.
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Can you point on the doll where the narrative touched you?
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While I'm sure you'll find a lot of people agreeing with your stance, would it also not be like that current pace of life is deemed not fun anymore? Living an hour, or one and a half hour of a large(r) city, it would seem to me, not insurmountable.
But you'll have more room to do your thing. See more "untamed" nature happening around you on your lot. Having space to stroll around. Or have the whole family over and that not resulting in lots of infighting as everyone doesn't need to be in each other's proverb
Re: Yes. Obviously. (Score:2)
The burbs are soulless and lonely and the peak of inefficiency.
Why would I want so much house that my precious spare time is wasted on maintaining it?
Re: Yes. Obviously. (Score:2)
Re: Yes. Obviously. (Score:2)
Come visit my neighborhood. After everyone leaves for work at places like Microsoft, the landscapers and maintenance crews descend upon the place. I don't think many of the people living around me have ever picked up a rake or pushed a mower.
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You can afford more home and more land further out, so why not?
Or just, afford any home! I'm a teacher, and a few years back had offers at a few elite independent schools. Most of them were in downtown of large cities. Couldn't possibly afford to live even with 30 minutes of the schools that were in Dallas or Baltimore. I would have totally ended up in places like Anna or Ennis if I chose Dallas, and... maybe somewhere in Pennsylvania had I chosen Baltimore?
It's a trap (Score:2)
Remote jobs are more common now, but they're not infinite. I've seen plenty of folks trapped in my shitty town back when I lived there, and moved to a bigger city for work. There's a reason why big cities draw people.
The problem is our transportation network. It's not capable of supporting the population
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Or afford a house at all.
Hove fun with those HOAs! (Score:5, Interesting)
HOAs are great! You guys will love them! Imagine the worst most awful people on Nextdoor and now give them power to fine you and even repossess your home. You'll love it!
Now... Home prices in the awful inner scary cities with no HOAs to protect your home values should drop aaaaaaaaany day now....
Re: Hove fun with those HOAs! (Score:3)
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I mean, at least condo/apartment boards make some sense. You are actually sharing spaces. HOAs exist only to give Karen's power over their neighbors. ... and racism. Of course suburban HOAs literally exist as a way to legally continue racial segregation.
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Either way, if you aren't on your HOA's board (condo or suburban neighborhood) you are a fool.
Re: Hove fun with those HOAs! (Score:2)
What are you nattering on about? There are plenty of houses in the suburbs being sold without the onerous requirement of a tyrannical HOA. The last two homes I have purchased are literally 10 minutes out of town and have no HOA. I refuse to consider any property that has an HOA.
Sure thereâ(TM)s an HOA in those developments where every third house is the same and theyâ(TM)re all built like shit by the lowest bidder. But that is not the only option out there.
Re: Hove fun with those HOAs! (Score:2)
Home prices in the awful inner scary cities with no HOAs
The city council effectively becomes your HOA.
Re: Hove fun with those HOAs! (Score:2)
City councils have to follow a lot more restrictive laws. HOAs basically don't.
It's hard to get away from HOAs (Score:2)
Hell, mega corps are taking over trailer parks.
And that's before you talk about NIMBYs. You can't really have high density housing when cars are involved. Build a 500 unite apartment where everyone needs a car and suddenly you've got all those people trying to go to work at once. NIMBYs know that so they fight against high density housin
It is the crime and parking, stupid... (Score:1, Interesting)
One reason for urban flight is simple. Fewer drug-crazed people trying to kick down your door to rob your place, or come after you. Especially with the latest Tik-Tok craze of trying to kick down people's doors for views. Do you want your children playing near piles of syringes, or growing up with the word "strays" meaning bullets as opposed to a random puppy? Since many US cities do nothing to deal with crime, if not defunding police in order to ring a dinner bell for addicts to come and take up resid
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Especially with the latest Tik-Tok craze of trying to kick down people's doors for views.
Must be a localized thing. In a lot of places in the US, you do that and the last thing on the video would be the bullets about to pierce your chest.
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How about Elvis shaking his hips on tv, scandalous!
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Well that’s a bit sexist. Are there no dangerous women too?
Re: White Flight - to escape the Democrat-caused C (Score:2)
There is no such thing as a dangerous woman. Only dangerous men. That is why women choose the bear over the man. Men are evil. Stupid and evil. The mainstream media and social media tell us so.
Pay no mind to the growing list of women educators getting arrested for having sex with their underage students and absolutely do not make note of the sentencing disparities between men convicted of the same crimes.
No, no. Men bad. Women good. Got it? Good. Glad we got that sorted out.
Re: White Flight - to escape the Democrat-caused C (Score:3)
Re: White Flight - to escape the Democrat-caused C (Score:2)
Nope. The migrants are all driving pickup trucks with gardening equipment around my town. The sucessful ones will see their grandkids going to better colleges than yours will attend.
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Exurbs have bigger gardens to maintain, win win.
exodus (Score:2)
Re: exodus (Score:2)
Reverse exodus already happening (Score:2)
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Or there is actual supply, unlike pretty much everywhere except Florida and Texas.
Needs more growth boundaries and government restricting expansion of government services and utilities.
Great (Score:2)
Great! Let's bring new life to small town USA.
We've got choices, and that's good (Score:5, Insightful)
So not everyone wants to live in high density urban areas? People value different things? And they're able to act on their values? Good.
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This is exactly what I like to point out when people do that "But everyone needs space! And cities suck!"
Just like there are people who want their 100 acres and to never see another person, there are also family's like mine where we adore the city. We've lived in suburbs, we've lived rural, and we've lived big city, and I will take the city every single time over anything else. In fact when we look at maybe moving we only even look at cities larger than our current one.
Which is fine, choices are fantastic
Risky move (Score:2)
I hear stories about those who bought a 2 hr commute away from the office during the pandemic. Some were told by upper management that full remote work was for reals here to stay. They made life affecting choices based on wishful thinking. Since then, employers have put on 3 and 4 day in-office mandates and have recently started to enforce them.
The exurbs look less attractive unless you have an apartment in town (a pied-à-terre) to bunk for a couple of nights and a salary to afford that.
Other reasons (Score:2)
Not sure how true this is in the USA, but in Canada far-flung exurbs are about the only place near a major city where housing is remotely affordable. It's a trap, though... we're building massive car-dependent sprawl in a completely unsustainable way, and in 20-30 years time when all the infrastructure needs replacing or repairing, we're going to be in a huge financial hole. At that point, either the exurb property tax rates will skyrocket or they'll be left with crumbling infrastructure and become awful
Suburbs are not Exurbs (Score:2)
I think people need to be clear that there are really three categories here;
small towns which are down the road from a city and have their own urban area,
suburbs that are attached to a large city and have local shopping centers etc
and exurbs which are rural development that is not attached to any urban amenities - aka house in the country.
The responses here seem to conflate all three. But they each have their own character and problems. What is shared is the hollowing out of urban areas with establish
Congratulations 'Murica! (Score:2)
They're the worst places in the world to live because they have all the worst features of both suburbs & living in the countryside & none of the benefits. If you have an active mind &/or want a social life, don't go anywhere near these places.