“Future Boy” Chris Taylor suggest that the next real estate boom may be in the pleasantly urban settlements Robert McIntyre has dubbed “New Villages”:
Rising oil prices notwithstanding, sprawling car-culture cities and vast suburbs simply do not make economic sense in the long run. As much as 50 percent of the land surface area in any given city or subdivision — we’re talking prime real estate — is taken up by roadways. For developers, less space given over to roads means more space for housing.
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While you might assume that a higher density community would have more traffic, you’d be wrong. When neighborhoods are dense and walkable, studies show, people make fewer car trips. And some may even forgo owning a second car, especially as families realize that living with one less car can save them $6,000 a year on average (and again, that’s not counting price rises at the pump).And then there’s simple math. While standard subdivisions have five units per acre, transit villages tend to pack in 20 to 25 per acre — still mostly single-family dwellings or townhomes, but without the vast lawns and backyards of suburbia. And with transit village homes selling for more than similar houses in traditional, sprawling suburbs, developers will make considerably more per acre, while fostering community and being kinder to the environment.