Americans are choosing to abandon the suburban sprawl in favour of a more comfortable, cheaper and greener life in the city centre.
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By Tom Leonard in New York
The mass migration of America’s middle classes from urban areas to the suburbs amounted to a demographic revolution in the years after the Second World War.
But the so-called “driveable suburb” is becoming increasingly unfeasible as soaring fuel costs make a long commute too expensive for many.
Higher energy prices are also having a disproportionate impact on bigger homes, such as those found in the suburbs, as they inevitably cost much more to heat in winter and cool in America’s often fiercely hot summers.
The sub-prime mortgage crisis has accelerated this flight to the cities – experts have christened it New Urbanism – as property prices have particularly collapsed in more remote areas.According to a poll for Reuters, about 10 per cent of Americans said they were considering moving closer to work while roughly the same percentage said they were thinking about getting a job closer to home.