Originally Posted by
Roody
I very clearly said American cities. For a few reasons I won't go into, American cities took a different path compared to some other countries.
The topic here is sprawl. What relationship are you thinking of between sprawl and real estate prices?
The US doesn't have the monopoly on sprawl. Many cities throughout the world sprawl.
In many cities, it is cheaper to buy a decent sized house and plot of land in a subdivision on the edge of town than it is to buy a small, cramped apartment in the middle of a city.
In Melbourne, for example, an inner-city apartment can cost $800,000. While a house and bit of land on the edge of Melbourne might only cost $400,000. That's a fairly significant difference. It would be less expensive for a family to buy a house on the edge of Melbourne plus a car than to get a place in the middle of the city with plans to walk everywhere.
And so sprawl is financially attractive. In addition to being attractive in other ways.
Regarding American cities ... have you looked up the housing costs in places like San Francisco, New York, Boston ... ? I'd be interested to see maps similar to what I just posted about Melbourne. I found a similar map for Vancouver, BC (located in America) and of course, the most expensive areas were quite near the downtown.
Lots of Vancouver maps:
Metro Vancouver Mapped | The Vancouver Sun
Home values in Vancouver:
Shaughnessy homes ten times as expensive as those in Guildford