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Yuba homebuyers face mounting commuting costs
Jim Wasserman, Sacramento Bee
Gracie and Louis Prado moved to Yuba County’s new commuter subdivisions later than most people, arriving just 16 months ago from Elk Grove. But they came for the same reason thousands did since 2002: more elbow room and a big house for less money.
Yet the trade the Prados made for a bargain home just south of the county seat of Marysville – a long commute to work in Sacramento – is now chewing on their incomes. As they make their way back and forth on Highway 70, the spike in gas prices is sucking an estimated $200 to $250 a week from their wallets.
“We just didn’t think gas would go to $4 a gallon,” says Louis Prado…
… as commuters like the Robertses and the Prados suffer individually at the gas pumps in Yuba County, real estate experts are looking beyond mortgage and credit issues and are now starting to ask larger questions about the impact of expensive oil on such far-flung neighborhoods whose futures were tied to a metropolis many miles away:
Could they become a suburban equivalent of ghost towns? Will they languish for years while awaiting local job growth, more fuel-efficient cars and a vibrant mass transit system? Is this the end of that kind of residential growth?
(1 June 2008)
Also posted here.
Second Great Depression in Detroit
Michael Nystrom, Depression2-TV
I’ve had a minor obsession with Detroit for the past year or so, ever since I learned that one could purchase a single family home there for $5,000 or less. In the world of sky high housing prices in my adopted hometown of Boston, $5,000 wouldn’t be enough for even a down payment on a tiny condo. In my neighborhood, converted duplex units start at $350,000.
… The first thing that struck me when we got off the plane in Detroit and into our rental car was the price of gas. It was well over $4.00 per gallon – shockingly higher than when we left Boston two weeks prior. Our hotel was in a Detroit suburb called Southfield, which is about 15 miles from Downtown, but jetlagged as we were, we decided to take a peek at the city before doubling back and checking in at the hotel. Speeding down the highway towards the city center, we noticed the miles of sad houses lining the freeway on either side. Many of them – the majority of them – were semi destroyed: Windows broken, roofs collapsed, paint peeling away to expose the bleached gray wood below. Some were just charred skeletons. It was an eerie feeling, zipping down a modern highway that bisected a ghost town.
… . On the Saturday morning that we visited, the [outdoor] market was packed and bustling, both with foot traffic and unfortunately, automobile traffic. Parking was a nightmare, with cars idling in the streets and trolling slowly through the market looking for parking.
I suppose I have been spoiled by the excellent public transportation system of Boston. From my home in the leafy suburb of Arlington, I can walk to a subway station in ten minutes, hop the train, read the newspaper for a spell and arrive in the heart of downtown half an hour later. I couldn’t help compare the two cities from a transportation perspective, which in my opinion is fundamental to informing real estate investment decisions in this age of $4 (and likely much higher) gasoline. Unlike Boston, which was settled before cars roamed the streets, Detroit was clearly built for, and centered around the automobile. In contrast to the preponderance of narrow lanes, winding roads, crooked one way streets, and overwhelming congestion that make driving in Boston a nightmare, the streets of Detroit are wide and straight. The main arterial in the city, Woodward Blvd, is a full eight lanes wide – four in either direction. The surprising lack of traffic combined with expertly synced traffic lights made it a pleasure to drive the long, wide open expanses. Stores and restaurants on either side of the wide boulevards were pulled far in to provide ample parking. But this made it daunting for pedestrians. Distances between anywhere on foot – even downtown – were immense, and psychologically exhausting. Simply crossing the street, all eight lanes of it, was an exercise in intimidation.
… Perhaps this is the beginning of a revival. Detroit has been on a 50 year downslope. A weaker dollar may allow the city to rise as a manufacturing hub once again. If GM would release the stranglehold on the city, it should build a streetcar system right down Woodward Ave. The street is wide enough that it could accommodate an interurban and still have 6 lanes for traffic. Construction would revitalize the city, and stops along the new tram could become popular destinations.
Detroit still does have great potential, in my opinion – one of the reasons for my minor obsession. One of its great advantages its proximity to fresh water. While the recent boomtowns have sprung up in the sunbelt, one day the residents of Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and other southern towns may find the climate is both too hot and too dry (as in the taps run dry) to be comfortable. In such an event, Detroit has a large, cheap housing supply, and plenty of fresh water. But for now, the city remains mired in a long, second great depression.
(2 June 2008)
Contributor Jim Barton writes:
In a time when many inner cities are reviving, I had no idea of the fate of the one most dependent on petroleum in the US.
Guzzling up their way of life
Caroline Alphonso and Unnati Gandhi, Globe & Mail
Fuel costs may be frustrating city-dwellers, but in rural Canada it’s a much grimmer picture. Gas prices are virtually doubling community budgets and driving farmers to question their profession
Prices at the pumps have shattered records across the country in recent weeks, with experts seeing no signs of reprieve in the near future.
But while the woes of those living in urban centres are being heard loud and clear, many rural Canadians have already reached a point where they’re struggling to survive, according to residents, business owners and politicians.
(2 June 2008)
Contributor CP writes:
Just minor aches and pains, yet still made it to Canada’s national newspaper.
