Chronicling the changing trends in the modern economy – the proclaimed "Death of Suburbia" – Business Insider reported the lines between cities and suburban areas are blurred as consumers value efficiency, proximity, and fiscal responsibility more than ever before.
"Some people still attribute the oldest part of the city, which is predominantly pedestrian-friendly and more dense as 'urban,' and then everything else that starts going out further in distance from the core as 'suburban,'" University of Toronto professor Fadi Masoud told Business Insider.
"But that definition doesn't work as well now. What you would usually define as urban and suburban is eroding."
Consumers have become tighter with their spending, buying smaller homes, closer to work, at companies moving back into more densely populated cities. They are also bargain hunting online, visiting and spending less at marked-up shopping malls, and free spending at places like golf courses and restaurants is down, forcing marketplaces not viewed as life necessities to close.
Fadi Masoud contributed to an upcoming book "Infinite Suburbia," available on Amazon, which inspired Business Insider's unveiled series on what is changing our view of city and suburbia in the modern economy.
The overview of the series outlined an evolving housing market ("McMansions Are Out"), consumer trends ("Malls Are Crumbling"), businesses migrating back to the cities (after decades of sprawling out of them), infrastructure is in disrepair, and golf courses and restaurants shuttering (as a tightened economy has forced people to cook more affordably at home).
"The youngest generations of homebuyers tend to value efficiency more than ever before, and feel McMansions [defined as oversized homes] are impractical and wasteful," experts say, according to Business Insider.
Those less-visited suburban malls? Well, due in part to more online retailing and a public move back to cities, per the report, they are closing down, which will dramatically impact the economy in those less-populated areas.
"Malls are big, big contributors to city and state taxes, jobs, and everything," Davidowitz & Associates chairman Howard Davidowitz told Business Insider. "Once they close, they are a blight on the community for a very long time."
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