Peripheral communities — the newly minted suburbs of the 1990s and early 2000s — are growing more rapidly than denser, inner ring areas.The only thing better than exurbia is the rural life: acreage and critters, low density and no traffic. And yes, we do give up conveniences to live in a rural area.
Peripheral, recent suburbs accounted for roughly 43% of all U.S. residences in 2010. Between July 2013 and July 2014, core urban communities lost a net 363,000 people overall, Brookings demographer Bill Frey reports, as migration increased to suburban and exurban counties. The biggest growth was in exurban areas, or the “suburbiest” places on the periphery.
This pattern can even be seen in California, where suburban growth is discouraged by state planning policy but seems to be proceeding nevertheless.
In the three places the DrsC spend the year, a visit to the grocery store is a 15 to 30 mile round trip. Serious shopping is much farther in two of the three. As retirees with flexible schedules and reliable vehicles, that's not a problem, it's a feature. Hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.
