Sweet Spot Suburbs

As a recruiter, part of the job is encouraging job candidates to relocate for a terrific job.  Once the excitement of landing the job drifts away a bit, the question for the new employee becomes, “where am I going to live?”

Recruiters may be noticing that more and more people are choosing to live in first-tier suburbs, close to the cities where they will work.  Trends suggest that many workers are avoiding the outlying suburbs difficult to commute to.

A recent press release of the Urban Land Institute explores this phenomenon by describing the keynote presentation at an event hosted by NC State University College of Design and the Raleigh Department of City Planning.  During the presentation, Patrick L. Phillips, CEO of the Urban Land Institute, announced that these areas “are emerging in the post-recession era as major magnets for urban growth.”

“It’s clear that the disconnect between housing and jobs, long daily commutes, and time wasted in traffic is causing more and more people to rethink how and where they are living,” Phillips said. “This bodes well for first-tier suburbs. Not so well for the exurbs.”

“We’ve learned that there is a market for compact, mixed-use design, smaller housing space, and development that minimizes the need to drive. The demand for this has stretched beyond downtown cores and into the suburbs, and it is the first-tier suburbs that are best positioned to accommodate this type of development.”

“The land use industry has reached a pivotal point. We have entered a time in which reuse and redevelopment will be prevalent. In this environment, inner-ring suburbs are in the sweet spot.”