... "It's not so much cities versus suburbs, but suburbs versus exurbs," Dr. Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California said. While the suburbs are feeling the pinch from the current economy, it is the areas located even further outside of metropolitan centers that will be seen to be taking the real hit, Green believes. "The incentives to build on the peripheral have disappeared," Green said. "It's an economic question for builders, who can't justify expanding further into the outreaches of the state."
"It's property value that motivates developers," Green said, and right now that value for both builders and buyers appears to be closer to the core of major markets. The numbers appear to back up Green's theory, even at a time when housing prices continue to fall in nearly every area of the Golden State.
December 1, 2008