Posted on 08/15/2006 9:32:24 AM PDT by LouAvul
Rising fuel costs are being blamed for everything from soaring utility costs to lower retail sales and higher airline tickets. And now, experts say high gas prices could reshape U.S. cities.
"Most analysts believe that crude oil prices in the $50s and $60s will be with us for some time," says Stuart Gabriel, director of the Lusk Center, a think tank at the University of Southern California devoted to studying real estate forces and trends. There's even talk of crude hitting $100 per barrel -- or 10 times what it sold for in the summer of 2005.
Once the realization soaks into the American consciousness that high-cost gas is here to stay, Gabriel predicts, those high commute prices will pull more homeowners -- even young families -- to live in central cities and create a push for more public transportation.
(Excerpt) Read more at realestate.msn.com ...
I knew commuters in California who would spend one to two hours, one way, going to work. They could make more where they worked but buy affordable homes elsewhere.
If prices stay high and unstable, it will eventually effect the burbs. First though, the prices will affect what we drive, how we commute, what time of day we commute, etc.
What an amazing conclusion!
The most productive citizens live in the suburbs. They will move their work there.
The socialist cities will be annihilated.
Telecommuting
The price of gasoline won't matter at all. Trips might be thought out a little more but gasoline is still cheap.
Oil was only $10.00 a barrel in 2005? Who Knew.
well families are NOT going to move into the jungle urban homes unless they are protected by gun toting security forces like homeowner in the philipines
It has zero to do with why energy prices are high.
Gas is down 13cents a gallon here to 2.99. Hardly a disaster....
I dont know about that...you move companys to the suburbs and people will just move again...hense the reason suburns were created in the first place
That's what I did. Get a job in the suburb close to my house. I'd be willing to pay $20 a gallon for gas just to avoid living in a city.
I'm in the process of setting this up for myself. I've determined that buying DSL will allow me to telecommute 1 day/week and save money, based on my gasoline costs.
Current projections by the UN's Population Division, based on the 2004 revision of the World Population Prospects database [3], are as follows.
Year Population (billions)
2010 6.8
2020 7.6
2030 8.2
2040 8.7
2050 8.9
Other projections of population growth predict that the world's population will eventually crest, though it is uncertain exactly when or how. In some scenarios, the population will crest as early as the mid-21st century at under 10 billion, due to gradually decreasing birth rates.
9 billion does seem to be somewhat of a consensus for the topping off of the population.
"What an amazing conclusion!"
Nah, just the fantasies of "sustainable urban planners". ;)The same ones they've had for the last 30 years or so. ;)
I'll *never* move back to town. There's plenty of other ways to cut down on both my gas consumption and my spending. :)
I'm one of those commuters. I work in West LA and live in Santa Clarita. It has to do with more than affordable homes though; the politics in West LA are almost communist, while Santa Clarita is a conservative haven.
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