Washington Post: The End of Sprawl?

The Washington Post ran a great piece on Sunday about how rising gas prices will push our country toward more urban development patterns.

... "Increasing gas prices may not be enough to cause people to move, which is why demand for gas proves so inelastic in the short term, but it can influence where people choose to live when they are forced to relocate for other reasons. The evidence that this is already occurring is, at this point, still somewhat anecdotal, but it is very suggestive. As the New Urbanist News reported this fall, during the present downturn, accompanied as it has been by high gas prices, homes close to urban centers or that have convenient access to transit seem to be holding their value better than houses in car-dependent communities at the urban edge. A recent story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune blamed flagging growth in the Twin Cities' outer suburbs on rising gas prices. If prices at the pump continue to increase, as many analysts expect, the eventual recovery of demand for new housing may not be accompanied by a resumption of America's relentless march into the cornfields."

I find it very encouraging that this kind of conversation is starting to show up more often in the mainstream.

Full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR200712...