Tag Archives: Housing Bubble

What White Flight Looks Like Today

Below is a letter/article I submitted to my local community paper for publication.  After some back and forth, the paper decided not to publish it, at least in its current form, for reasons that are not worth reciting here.  I have changed the location references but the rest of the article remains unchanged.


My wife and I live in [Springfield], next to an eyesore that is one of the many newly constructed homes in the area. These new housing projects tend to share common characteristics like massive foundations (the one next to our house promotes itself with a sign that says “SIZE MATTERS!”), cheap construction and a confusion of styles (a Craftsman, bungalow townhouse with the vibe of a ski chalet). What often happens is a bulldozer swoops in and makes quick work of an older house – one that had no defects to speak of except perhaps for those that arose out of the developer’s post-purchase neglect. The house is demolished because it is considered too “old” and too small even though countless families have once called it home. It is replaced by a behemoth of a house that is built with blazing speed out of what looks like clapboard, and has an expected lifespan that is a fraction of what was once the standard for newly constructed homes in this area. But the family that ends up buying and moving into this new and “improved” house won’t know any of that. They will be told it is a state of the art home with the best amenities and “green” technology money can buy. There is nothing “green”, however, about demolishing a single-family house only to replace it with another single-family house that is twice and sometimes triple the size of its former self. The only thing “green” about such a process is in the massive sums of money that will change hands, and most of that will be going to only one or two individuals.

Not all new housing projects are objectionable. Some occupy once vacant lots or replace structures that are no longer habitable, and can longer be made so. Some are modest in scope and seek to improve the existing structure without ballooning its footprint and overall size to absurd proportions. But such projects are few and far between. Instead, what one sees in the area with increasing regularity are larger and larger houses that dwarf the 1,200 square foot house that was once a staple of [Springfield’s] housing stock. The houses now being built invariably cost upwards of half-a-million dollars thus making them prohibitively expensive for almost everyone except the rich. These are the same people who once fled the city to the suburbs only to realize that their distaste or fear of city life was no match for their frustration of having to crawl along the interstate at five miles an hour on a Friday afternoon. So they decided to import a piece of suburbia into the city.

And we are now forced to suffer the consequences. Many who have considered moving to [Springfield] are forced to look elsewhere, depriving [Springfield] of the diversity that is necessary for a vibrant community, not one that just cares about keeping “suspicious looking youths” off its streets. And for those who chose to stick around [Springfield] and brave the “white flight” that has, strangely enough, contributed to all this development craziness, all I can say is: my condolences. Your neighborhood is quickly becoming just another gated community.