Found an Associated Press story in the U-T‘s Home section yesterday examining the national trend for tear-down communities — new home development in neighborhoods formerly typified by smaller (1,000-square-foot), older homes.
Families want newly constructed homes, but they don’t want to add the hours of commute time associated with the suburbs. I wrote about Del Sur last week, a new subdivision in North County that patterns itself after older, character-filled San Diego neighborhoods. When I was talking to residents of those imitated neighborhoods, one of their big bragging points was that they were a lot closer to town than their suburban counterparts.
The tear-down trend tries to get around that:
Some families weary of long commutes from the newer suburbs are turning back inward and remaking older neighborhoods to suit modern tastes. …
This urban trend is intensifying across the country, said Robert Lang, head of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech.
“Commutes are so long people are wanting places closer in,” he said. “‘I want a McMansion, but not out in McMansionville.’”