Suburban Rot

More from CNN and this tidbit:

Nelson (Director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute) also estimates that in 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes that will not be left vacant in a suburban wasteland but instead occupied by lower classes who have been driven out of their once affordable inner-city apartments and houses. The so-called McMansion, he said, will become the new multi-family home for the poor.

Comments

[Flagg]

If the dry-wall, vinyl siding, badly applied stucco and wide-grained softwoods used to construct the typical McMansion hold up that long...

[TM Lutas]

Most people don't remember that Harlem started out as upper class housing. All sorts of areas shift from upper to lower class and back to upper. My own suburb is putting in more sidewalks so you're going to be able to walk the length and breadth of the place without having to go out in the road. You can retrofit "walkable" into a lot of places.

The large lot homes will likely get pulled down and something more appropriate put in their place. That could be lower-priced multi-family dwellings and it could be shared amenities that raise the value of surrounding properties. Each neighborhood will decide how to adjust.

This isn't to say that 22 million excess large lot properties aren't a problem. They're quite a large one. But they're a problem with a solution if you apply yourself. The biggest use for these houses won't be for poor multifamily use, I suspect, but for rezoned commercial use which kills two birds with one stone, reducing empty residential inventory and creating more jobs within the community that require negligible commutes.