A growing number seeking urban neighborhoods are choosing the suburbs
An April 29, 2013 story in The Dallas Morning News on DFW’s urban neighborhoods attempts to answer the question, “If you’re an ‘urbanite,’ where do you live?”
“The answer,” warned News columnist (and Flower Mound resident) Jacquielynn Floyd, “is not necessarily ‘in the shadow of downtown Dallas,’ as I would have expected.”
Floyd’s column focused on one of the surprising findings in the 13-part series “Best Neighborhoods in the City,” but she makes the point that such surprising findings can have important implications.
While the series of stories may be aimed at home buyers, it offers lessons for any forward-looking developer, municipal official, or homeowner in North Texas.
The exhaustive methodology — a combination of surveys, census data, and serious analysis — gives the findings in this series more credence than those annual beauty contests of the “best suburbs” to which we have grown accustomed.
So where do those seeking urban neighborhoods live these days?
“In fact, a lot of ‘urbanites’ in these parts apparently live — hang on to something if you feel faint,” Floyd told her readers, “in the suburbs.”
Floyd pointed readers to the April 28 installment in the series (“Valley Ranch one-ups Uptown for sophisticated urban living“) by Marc Ramirez.
The story studied the rankings of neighborhoods favored by the market segment they call “urban sophisticates,” those desiring neighborhoods that offer entertainment and dining options within a walkable distance.
As the story’s headline suggests, Valley Ranch trumped Uptown (not to mentio the Henderson-Knox area, Oaklawn, etc.) in the minds of most urban buyers by virtue of its affordability. (Note that only 64 of the 1,200 census tracts in the Dallas area were classified as urban, defined as a minimum of 10,000 housing units per square mile).
This finding isn’t just a curiosity, Floyd suggests.
What if, she asked, urban isn’t a “thinly veiled doublespeak for poor, minority, crime-plagued neighborhood?”
And what if suburban isn’t “an insult that describes selfish, conformist commuters who drive everywhere in super-sized SUVs?”
“The truth,” Floyd insisted, “is that the places we live are as individual as we are, and we choose them based on our individual priorities — entertainment, safety, good schools, friendly neighbors, what we can afford, what we want to see when we look out the window.”
An understanding of the market’s true, ever-changing realities lie at the foundation of sound decisions for the future.
At Lakeside DFW, we’ll do our best to stay abreast of them.
kay Flynn says
I have lived in Turtle Creek Highrise for ten years and decided that I needed a little more room so I bought a home in Royal Lane Village……still sort of an urbanite! It is 2300 sq ft. Will you have one-level patio homes……will you have one-level condos with terraces? How can I get prices and plans for construction on patio homes,, zero lot lines or condominiums……would love a view if afforardable. My children and grandchildren live in Bartonville close by and we drive almost 40 miles each time we get together. I would like the over all plan and prices. I am also a Broker and have a couple of other friends interested. Thank you. (I did drive the model home site last week and if they have a plan laid out, I will return this week)