The officer in the photo to the right was reprimanded for it.
Jessi Strieb wrote a book on cross-class marriages, and here’s an interview.
Here’s a map of all of the places Willie Nelson sings about. I want to see one for Counting Crows, which include a lot of songs about some person in some city who is sad and dispossessed.
Millenials are flocking to the suburbs.
But only certain types, says Jordan Weissman. There are class implications, because educated millenials are still moving to the city. Personally, I would guess this is a function of family formation as much as inequality.
Are they being driven to home ownership by rising rents?
More on the exurban revival.
The curse of the lottery winner may be overstated.
Benjamin Schwarz argues that urban planners are demolishing Britain’s working families.
Sayeth the Department of Energy: Drill, Baby, Drill.
The Guardian has a couple of articles on the privitization and gating of cities.
This will not only add economic efficiency to consumer products, but will be great for those of us who are allergic to waste.
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I was in the Bay Area this past weekend & I was reminded of one of the costs of older urban areas. As I navigated narrow streets, I would pass 100 year old homes & buildings, some of which were under renovation, & I have to wonder & the expense of maintaining such older homes, the greater expense of a renovation or remodel (especially if there are historical or aesthetic limitations), & the greater expense of just operating a home that is not a modern structure (especially in areas where the ground is prone to large movements) .
Part of why I bought a 10 year old house in the suburbs is because I have lived in a great many older homes & I am tired of dealing with it.
I actually had an interesting back-and-forth with someone on Twitter about new homes just today, and while I was preparing future LF/Linklusters ran across a link along the lines of the conversation.
Basically, we were talking about the floor price of new homes, and how it’s escalated. It seems like the market is really starting to gear towards “starter homes” being older homes, and as people get more money opt for new homes. If true, then it seems like a lot of the maintaining you refer to may not be happening, and part of a bad cycle.
That’s disturbing because maintaining an older home requires money or skill & experience. Things people looking at starter homes won’t likely have.
But which they need to gain.
Well, if you’re a large builder, why not aim for the market that’s going to give you the most profits in order to satisfy your shareholders on Wall Street? In some markets, it’s easy to build for the low end and walk away with some money because the costs are low, but in other places, it’s just easier to aim for the high end. Plus, I suspect with low interest rates, it’s easy to sell some buyers into overpaying, especially thanks to the House Hunters effect where all of the houses have granite countertops and other features once thought to be luxury.
Admittedly, I suspect that you could go back to 1000 sq ft Levittown houses on small 40 X 100 plots, but would anybody buy them, and would municipalities approve an “affordable house” that could be purchased by a demographic that they don’t want?
Part of why I bought a 10 year old house in the suburbs is because I have lived in a great many older homes & I am tired of dealing with it.
Well, you could always hold out for the brand new urban construction, which, to me is rather aesthetically pleasing…
FWIW, I’m biased from living in what’s now a ninety year home in Queens and a soon to be sixty year old home in the suburbs. Some older homes were well built and well maintained, and others were poorly built ugly cooky-cutter structures that were under maintained. Some people are willing to put in the sweat equity needed to make it work, and others have no business buying those homes.
I don’t deny that an older home that was well built has an aesthetic newer homes can’t match. The house I am selling right now was built in 1926 & has the original fir floors & the main beams still sweat beads of amber pitch. It has survived a number of earthquakes, & luckily has no significant historical value. Its had upgrades from previous owners, & my wife & I did some more upgrading.
But it still needs the attentions of someone with the know how to keep it in shape & I worry we’ll get a buyer who will do an inspection & run or try to nickle & dime us over all the little things.
PS two of the homes I grew up in were 100+ year old farmhouses. You learn a lot growing up in places like that.
The articles about millenials buying houses sound similar to stories about millenials buying cars. Some in that generation are starting to hit thirty, some are married, and they’re finally able to buy homes and cars as they feel somewhat secure in their careers to be able to purchase these things, especially in low cost of living regions of the country. Some of these articles tend to be written by people who live in high COL regions where they here anecdotes about their friend that still lives at home because their career plans blew up, and they never recovered, or they have another friend that’s living the NYC lifestyle. If you’re in a mid-sized city where the traffic isn’t that bad after peak hours, it’s not the end of the world to drive in, park cheaply, and drive out. Plus, some of the trendy stuff is slowly appearing in some suburban locations, so it’s not impossible to find it.
This all sounds about right to me.