The need to transform or create quality suburbs is an important point that this article glosses over and for the most part ignores. In my opinion, if the NAHB is as short-sighted and narrowly focused as the over-arching point of this article, they are missing a great opportunity to capture a large market.
My wife and I are in the process of trying to find a new house in the Denver metro area. What we are finding is exactly in line with the point in the article that states, “A whopping 88% want to be in an urban setting, but since cities themselves can be so expensive…”. We currently rent in Denver, but would love to find something in the City, but the fact of the matter is is that it’s too expensive to find a place in the City. Where we are able to find something in our price range in the City, we would be making sacrifices that we are just not willing to make. Poor schools for our daughter, crime, etc. This is what is pushing us out to the suburbs.
The article quotes a real-estate professional stating that “[Gen Yers] don’t want to be in a cookie-cutter type of development. …The suburbs will need to evolve to be attractive to Gen Y.” Guess what real estate professional. There is a really short window between when individuals graduate from college or Graduate school and ultimately want to start building a family. That whole suburban evolution needs to happen sooner rather than later. It kills me that I have to sacrifice walkability to quality amenities (not big box, strip mall amenities) and neighborhood character moving to the suburbs.
I think that real estate professionals and developers need to realize that, barring risking poor schools and safety concerns on the outskirts of cities where prices are less expensive, the suburbs are currently one of the only options that a large portion of 30 somethings can afford.
By ignoring the need to transform our suburbs with smaller houses, access to quality public transportation, character, etc., the NAHB is missing a great opportunity to capture that 88%. I’m part of that statistic…
