The End of Sprawl?

Is the sprawl that has continually pushed Americans further away from the urban cores since World War II coming to an end?

That's the question posed by Eduardo M. Penalver, associate professor at Cornell Law School, in a recent Washington Post column, "The End of Sprawl?"

Penalver, who teaches property and land-use law, points out that, "American sprawl was built on the twin pillars of low gas prices and relentless demand for housing . . ."

However, according to Penalver, as gas prices continue rising, long commutes are becoming less desirable, and, "the price people are willing to pay for homes in remote areas will fall."

Meanwhile, according to the New Urbanist News (as cited in the article), "homes close to urban centers or that have convenient access to transit seem to be holding their value better than houses in car-dependent communities at the urban edge."

Penalver ends with a compelling statement on returning to walkable, urban neighborhoods:

"We may discover that it's not so bad living closer to work, in transit- and pedestrian-friendly, diverse neighborhoods where we run into friends and neighbors as we walk to the store, school or the office. We may even find that we don't miss our cars and commutes, and the culture they created, nearly as much as we feared we would."

Source: "The End of Sprawl?" by Eduardo M. Penalver