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What's happening--Penturbia, Exurbia, or Both?

  • Penturbia

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  • Exurbia

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  • Both

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What's occuring--Penturbia, Exurbia, or Both?

5K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  LSyd 
#1 ·
From bigger cities to better

by Paula C. Squires
Virginia Business

Forget the Big Apple. These days, companies and people are moving to small- and medium-size apples — to places such as Richmond, Charlottesville, Blacksburg, Virginia Beach and the rural counties in between.


At least that’s the theory behind “penturbia”— a term coined by Jack Lessinger, a retired professor of real estate and urban development at the University of Washington, to describe the fifth significant migration trend in America’s history. Penturbia refers to areas he believes will experience significant property value increases over the next 20 years as corporate America continues its movement away from major metropolitan areas.

The frantic pace, high cost of doing business and traffic congestion are some reasons why companies leave big cities. “It’s a quality of life issue,” says Petch Gibbons, president and CEO of Advantis/GVA, a commercial real estate company in Washington, D.C. “People are getting fed up. They have no time for themselves, their family life,” Gibbons said at a recent real estate conference.

The terrorist attacks in 2001 were another blow for big cities, says Gibbons. The dwindling number of Fortune 500 companies in New York City supports the penturbia trend. “Locating in New York used to be critical for retailers. Now not one of the nation’s top retail companies is there,” he says. Even the suburbs of major urban areas don’t offer solace, he says, because many have the same problems, namely traffic gridlock and crime. Thirty years ago the suburbs of Washington extended just a few miles out to Arlington County and Bethesda, Md. Today, Washington commuters are fighting traffic from as far away as Manassas and Fredericksburg.


Philip Morris USA’s relocation from New York City to Richmond is a good example of the penturbia movement, Gib-bons says. He sees plenty of opportunity for the migration to take hold in Virginia, “from Virginia Beach to Central Virginia and all the way to Blacksburg.” Cities in the mid-Atlantic and South-eastern states with temperate climates, good medical facilities, airports and schools will be prime targets for corporate location. Other hot spots for the trend: revitalized factory towns, resort towns near the beach or mountains, such as Charleston, S.C., and Santa Fe, N.M., and college and university towns that typically offer many cultural events.

If a penturbian paradise doesn’t grab a company’s fancy, there’s always exurbia, a reverse migration back to trendy urban areas. Who knows, it may be enough to create “disturbia” — the attitude big cities will develop if all their companies leave.
 
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#2 ·
jasonb said:
The frantic pace, high cost of doing business and traffic congestion are some reasons why companies leave big cities. “It’s a quality of life issue,” says Petch Gibbons, president and CEO of Advantis/GVA, a commercial real estate company in Washington, D.C. “People are getting fed up. They have no time for themselves, their family life,” Gibbons said at a recent real estate conference.


So they believe that after ten years of sprawl it will be any better ? Look at Atlanta . Many suburbs there now have worse traffic I would bet than NYC and you have to drive . There is no subway , bus , way to bike , and if you try to walk .... bless your soul . Traffic congestion in the sprawl-metro of LA now has hordendous traffic because of sprawl . They are trying to spend billions to build their way out of it but they have only dug themselves their grave to roll over in when they have to widen yet another road .


Family time ?! Did he just say family time ?! So , spending five or six hours on a commute from the exurbs of Atlanta or Richmond into the city gives you more time with your family ? Wow , this guy just proved he is a moron .


Also , real estate confrence ? Wow , real estate people have gotten their way for years now and they have been wrong . They build more and more sprawl saying that it wont do a thing to the traffic of an area , polloution , or anything ..... they are wrong and it is the cities that believe such nonsense that get screwed over big time . Oh , wait , that is every city in America at this point !
 
#3 ·
lol, that looks bad w/ my name being given credit fo that quote!

Penturbia is another example of short-sightedness to say the least.

Here's another article on Penturbia...which further talks about sprawl.

'Penturbia'
Richmond is on the leading edge of a migration trend


BY CAROL HAZARD
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Oct 26, 2003


Three years in a progressive city on the shore of Puget Sound was long enough.

"Seattle is a beautiful city," said Karen Dalton. But the traffic was bad and the rent was high.

After nine years with the Army, her husband called it quits and the couple came home. She's originally from Mechanicsville, Richard is from outside of Lynchburg.

They bought 4.5 acres in Powhatan and built a four-bedroom, three-bath home.


"The mortgage is only $100 more than what we were paying for a small, two-bedroom apartment."

Dalton, an office manager for a real estate firm, has never heard the word "penturbia." But she and her husband are part of it.

Penturbia is the next major migration shift away from large cities to smaller cities. "Pent," meaning five, refers to the fifth significant migration pattern since the founding of the United States.

The "penturbian" isn't looking for a second home or get-away. The person wants to move away from urban stress and smog.

"It was rush, rush, rush in Seattle," Dalton said.

"My work was only six miles away and it took 45 minutes to an hour get home in normal traffic. Richard's drive was less than 20 miles and his normal commute was one hour or more. I have to laugh when I hear about backups on the Powhite on morning radio. If they only knew."

The Daltons lived just outside Seattle. They could always hear sirens, traffic and their neighbors.

"We really wanted a calmer lifestyle and had dreams of owning property, a nice house and starting a family one day," Dalton said.

"This move would be on our terms, not Uncle Sam's. We had the option of moving anywhere we wanted to, which was a really cool feeling."

Virginia was at the top of the list.

"The job market was stronger than any other area we were considering, the housing market was great and you can't beat location - a short drive to the mountains or the beach and if we ever missed the big city life, well, there's always D.C."

They couldn't have come closer to penturbia if they had tried.

"We are on the brink of the next major population migration fueled by the same incentive that drove us to the suburbs - an affordable, high-quality lifestyle," said Petch Gibbons, president and chief executive officer of Advantis/GVA, a commercial real estate firm in Washington, D.C.

"An enormous number of people will escape overcrowded and expensive sub urbia and move to a variety of attractive small towns and new-growth cities beyond the suburbs."

The next migration is not just about profit, Gibbons said. "It is about lifestyle and quality of life." Gibbons was a keynote speaker last week at Virginia Commonwealth University's Real Estate Trends conference in Richmond.

Key sites in Virginia: Richmond, Charlottesville and Hampton Roads.

Philip Morris USA's relocation from New York to Richmond is one of the best and most relevant examples of penturbia, Gibbons said.

He said the number of Fortune 500 companies in New York has fallen from 140 in 1955 to 39 in 2002. Moreover, no major retailers have their headquarters there.

"There is a dramatic shift afoot in urban fortunes, weakening the clout of the biggest cities while spreading power and influence to scores of smaller centers."

Small communities with temperate climates in the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states stretching from Virginia to north Florida are prime areas, he said.

"Americans are flocking to areas that offer natural beauty, rivers, lakes, greenery and open space near the beach or the mountains."

Penturbia was coined by Dr. Jack Lessinger at the University of Washington. Author Harry S. Dent Jr. expanded upon the concept in his book "The Roaring 2000s."

According to Lessinger and Dent, the first migration trend was the move westward from the original 13 Colonies, beginning in the late 1700s.

The second, from about 1875 to 1925, was from farms to cities, sparked by jobs and advances in the Industrial Revolution.

The next migration wave, from the 1930s to the 1960s, involved the mass exodus from cities to suburbia, made possible by cars, telephones and electricity.

The fourth began in the mid-1990s and will continue through the mid-2020s, Gibbons said. It is the migration from the suburbs to the exurbs, a ring of towns surrounding suburban areas outside of large cities.

Exurbia also includes a reverse migration back to trendy urban areas. Empty nesters and young professionals are drawn to the culture, diversity and conveniences offered by cities.

Gibbons said he expects 20 percent of the North American population, or 70 million people, to migrate to exurbia and small towns in growth areas over the next three to five decades.

"The suburbs are showing signs of urban decay," Gibbons said. "They are riddled with traffic congestion, crime, pollution and are no longer affordable."

Suburbia has failed precisely because of its success, he said.

Winning penturbia communities are resort towns and recreational areas such as Charleston, S.C.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Jacksonville, Fla.

Also in vogue are college and university towns, "liberal havens, which typically are small, serene and offer beautiful communities with art, theater, music as well as sports teams and athletic events."

Revitalized factory towns such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Bethlehem, Pa., are attractive penturbia sites.

Other considerations are safe communities with good medical facilities, an airport and good schools.

So Richmond's high murder rate doesn't help, Gibbons said. Nor does it's less-than-stellar school system.

But compared to Washington, D.C., Manhattan or Philadelphia, it's probably not that bad, he said.

"We love where we live," Dalton said. "It's peaceful and quiet, our stress levels are hardly what they were, we are surrounded by family again, we both have good jobs and we have more time to enjoy the simple things in life. Even our pets like it better. "
 
#5 ·
Atlanta would not be considered as part of the penturbia movement, the city is too large. Athens, Savannah, or Augusta, GA would be cities considered. The penturbia dispersal is attracted to small to medium sized cities, not large metropolitan areas.
 
#6 ·
jasonb said:
They bought 4.5 acres in Powhatan and built a four-bedroom, three-bath home.
These articles are a little confusing to me, probably mostly because they're based on data from real estate industry folks, not urban sociologists and anthropologists who constantly study residential movement in the US. The articles don't note the important distinction that they're not moving from big cities to smaller cities: they're moving from the suburbs of bigger cities to the suburbs of smaller cities. This couple didn't move to Oregon Hill or Church Hill, they got a house with a huge yard in Powhatan for cheap. They're not moving to a small town, they're just moving to another suburb.

"It is about lifestyle and quality of life"

Real Estate professionals are odd. This quote is totally meaningless. Lifestyle and "quality of life" are subjective and vague. You might as well say that people like houses that they think look nice. No shit they do! People like things that are good? Duh... it's tautology. Examining why people are drawn toward certain things is a lot harder than just saying the meaningless: "people like nice things." People will always be drawn toward things that they think improve their quality of life. That's self-evident and has little to do with internal migration patterns.

Revitalized factory towns such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Bethlehem, Pa., are attractive penturbia sites.

I don't believe this one yet, although it'd be nice if it were true. Pittsburgh and Bethlehem continue to lose tons of population. The gentrifiers are still far outweighed by the old children of factory workers leaving and dying off.

If anything I think it's more productive to look at "penturbia" as a combination of the more complete suburbanization of the country, and the draw toward places with little land use regulation. Cities like Seattle are already have had too many suburbs for a while now. There's consciousness of what suburbanism does to local economies and environments, and growth boundaries around the Puget Sound have been put into affect to try to mitigate sprawl-- and make it more expensive to own a 4.5 acre lot. But down in Richmond? Oh, people don't even know what the suburbs are like yet. It'll take another 20 years for people to come to terms with the traffic jams and do something about it. So, no, I don't think penturbia is quite a valid concept. If anything, this quote is evidence of it just being further suburbia/exurbia:

"you can't beat location - a short drive to the mountains or the beach and if we ever missed the big city life, well, there's always D.C."

This is the same argument used to promote the original suburbs in the first place! Looks like Henrico county will one day be a suburb of the great great megaopolis of DC!
 
#7 ·
passdoubt said:
These articles are a little confusing to me, probably mostly because they're based on data from real estate industry folks, not urban sociologists and anthropologists who constantly study residential movement in the US.
The real estate industry employs sociologists and anthropologists.

The articles don't note the important distinction that they're not moving from big cities to smaller cities: they're moving from the suburbs of bigger cities to the suburbs of smaller cities. This couple didn't move to Oregon Hill or Church Hill, they got a house with a huge yard in Powhatan for cheap. They're not moving to a small town, they're just moving to another suburb.
That's exactly what penturbia is.

Real Estate professionals are odd. This quote is totally meaningless...
They obviously talking about conservatives. To real estate professionals, those are the only people that matter, right?
 
#8 ·
James704QC said:
The real estate industry employs sociologists and anthropologists.
But that doesn't mean they listen to them - ;)

But seriously, you're joking right? I don't remember the chump that sold us our house quoting Margeret Mead.

James704QC said:
That's exactly what penturbia is.
No, penturbia does not describe suburb to suburb or city to suburb migration but large city / suburb to small city / town migration. Washington DC to Richmond, Atlanta to Macon, Birmingham to Dothan, AL. The belief that moving to a smaller city or town will improve your lifestyle by communing with those charming 'rustic' folk that does not have the luxory of moving around as you do.
 
#9 · (Edited)
TheBrad said:
But that doesn't mean they listen to them - ;)

But seriously, you're joking right? I don't remember the chump that sold us our house quoting Margeret Mead.
Real professionals do not just sell homes. The real estate industry includes marketing researchers, bankers and developers, as well. Many marketing researchers have backgrounds in social science. Being a GIS Developer, you should know that.

No, penturbia does not describe suburb to suburb or city to suburb migration but large city / suburb to small city / town migration. Washington DC to Richmond, Atlanta to Macon, Birmingham to Dothan, AL. The belief that moving to a smaller city or town will improve your lifestyle by communing with those charming 'rustic' folk that does not have the luxory of moving around as you do.
Exactly, penturbia includes suburb of large city to suburb of small city migration, which is what I was talking about.
 
#13 ·
TheBrad said:
But that doesn't mean they listen to them - ;)

But seriously, you're joking right? I don't remember the chump that sold us our house quoting Margeret Mead.


No, penturbia does not describe suburb to suburb or city to suburb migration but large city / suburb to small city / town migration. Washington DC to Richmond, Atlanta to Macon, Birmingham to Dothan, AL. The belief that moving to a smaller city or town will improve your lifestyle by communing with those charming 'rustic' folk that does not have the luxory of moving around as you do.
Who in the hell wants to move to Macon, when we have lots of small towns to sprawl over nearby.
 
#16 ·
SChristopher said:
So basically we are going from big cities that we have made congested and made grow too fast and we are going to throw that in the trash and forget it to go ruin a smaller city the same way.
SPREAD THE SPRAWL!!!

ONE NATION UNDER THE SPRAWL!!!

penturbia sounds like teh suck. but joe schmoe wants his house in the burbs, with his wife, 2.5 kids and 1.5 dogs, and SUV with a "W" sticker on it.

and sadly, he's got the money and balls to do it.

-
 
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