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Finding Exurbia: America's Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe

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Finding Exurbia: America's Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe Metropolitan Policy Program Finding Exurbia: America’s Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe Alan Berube, Audrey Singer, Jill H. Wilson, and William H. Frey Findings This study details a new effort to locate and describe the exurbs of large metropolitan areas in the “Not yet full- United States. It defines exurbs as communities located on the urban fringe that have at least 20 per- cent of their workers commuting to jobs in an urbanized area, exhibit low housing density, and have relatively high population growth. Using demographic and economic data from 1990 to 2005, this fledged suburbs, study reveals that: ■ As of 2000, approximately 10.8 million people live in the exurbs of large metropolitan areas. This represents roughly 6 percent of the population of these large metro areas. These exurban but no longer areas grew more than twice as fast as their respective metropolitan areas overall, by 31 percent in the 1990s alone. The typical exurban census tract has 14 acres of land per home, compared to 0.8 acres per home in the typical tract nationwide. wholly rural, ■ The South and Midwest are more exurbanized than the West and Northeast. Five million peo- ple live in exurban areas of the South, representing 47 percent of total exurban population nation- wide. Midwestern exurbs contain 2.6 million people, about one-fourth of all exurbanites. South exurban areas are Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Maryland have the largest proportions of their residents living in exurbs, while Texas, California, and Ohio have the largest absolute numbers of exurbanites. undergoing rapid ■ Seven metropolitan areas have at least one in five residents living in an exurb. These metro areas include Little Rock (AR), Grand Rapids (MI), and Greenville (SC), as well as areas like Poughkeepsie (NY) that serve as “satellites” to nearby larger metro areas. Both fast-growing and change in popu- slow-growing metropolitan areas have developed exurbs. ■ Nationwide, 245 counties have at least one-fifth of their residents living in exurban areas. lation, land use, The Louisville metro area has the highest number of exurban counties (13), followed by Atlanta, Richmond, and Washington, D.C., which each have 11. These exurban counties grew by 12 per- cent overall between 2000 and 2005, faster than population growth in urban, inner suburban, or outer suburban counties (like Loudoun County, VA). However, outer suburban counties added 4.5 and economic million people in the last five years, exceeding the 1.8 million-person gain in exurban counties. ■ Residents of the “average” exurb are disproportionately white, middle-income, homeowners, function.” and commuters. Yet exurbanites do not conform to all popular stereotypes. For instance, they do not appear to telecommute, work in the real estate industry, or inhabit super-sized homes at higher rates than residents of other metropolitan county types. Middle-income families’ “drive to qualify” for more affordable new homes that are in limited supply elsewhere fuels growth in many metro- politan exurbs. Despite their popularization by political analysts, media, and local growth activists, the “exurbs” do not abound nor fit a single, neat stereotype. Just 6 percent of large metro area residents live in an exurb, and these exurbs vary from affordable housing havens for middle-class families, to “favored quarters” for high-income residents, to the path of least resistance for new development. While they may continue to capture interest among political observers, the real test for exurbia lies in how our nation accommodates future growth. Will exurbs remain exurbs or become the suburbs of tomorrow? October 2006 • The Brookings Institution • Living Cities Census Series 1 Introduction rural in nature, these exurban areas torsky’s 1955 rendering, Fairfield are reportedly undergoing rapid County (CT) and Rockland County eyond the suburbs, at the far change in population, land use, and (NY) housed exurban commuters to edges of metropolitan areas, economic function. New York City. After five decades of communities both new and Notwithstanding what they will continuous metropolitan decentraliza- old are developing the become in future generations, exurbs tion, places like Greenwich (CT) and Bcapacity to house large flows of incom- are important places to understand in New City (NY) are nothing if not con- ing residents. their contemporary form. They lie at ventional New York-area suburbs. Popularized in books like David the forefront of important local Some common threads run through Brooks’ On Paradise Drive, and in debates around growth and develop- popular descriptions of the exurbs. numerous news articles analyzing the ment issues. As such, they help “set They generally lie within the orbit of a aftermath of the 2004 Presidential the table” for future metropolitan big city, but have weaker economic election (Bai 2004; Brooks 2004; growth, and their prevalence may and social ties to the urban core than Brownstein and Rainey 2004), these serve as an important indicator of suburbs, consistent with their more areas have come to be known as emerging social trends or the effective- remote locations. They are more resi- “exurbs.” Exurbs are drawing the ness of various policies to shape met- dential with newer housing stock, and attention of journalists, pundits, poli- ropolitan development. less commercial than suburbs. They cymakers, and sociologists attempting Yet exurbia is hardly a new concept. have population densities that are to understand how Americans live It first gained popular attention when lower, more like their rural neighbors, today and how different community A.C. Spectorsky described its residents and their economies may still depend types matter to politics and policy. In in his 1955 book, The Exurbanites. somewhat on agricultural employ- many exurbs, battles over roads, land, Despite this long history, the concept ment. sewers, schools, quality of life, and of the exurbs is enjoying greater atten- Perhaps most importantly, present- “loss of small town character” are tion now than ever before. The terms day exurbs seem to be defined by fast- reaching a fever pitch. exurbs, exurban, and exurbia appeared paced, low-density growth and But where exactly are the exurbs? in U.S. newspapers twice as many development. If that type of develop- And who lives there? times in 2005 as they did just two ment continues, new housing and In most metropolitan areas, a cen- years ago, and at four times the rate commerce could fill in the space on tral city (or cities) still lies at the core, they did ten years ago.2 the far fringes of metropolitan areas, containing a cluster of jobs and resi- All the talk about exurbs, however, turning them into more “mature” sub- dents. Outside the core lie suburbs, has yielded little methodical informa- urbs and potentially creating new areas that developed somewhat later, tion or consistent definitions regarding exurbs even farther out. More immedi- comprised today of both residential their location and their residents. In ately, however, the development pat- and commercial space. Suburbs are addition, it is unclear what might dis- terns typically identified as “sprawl” the dominant landscape in contempo- tinguish exurbs from the suburbs in intersect closely with those found in rary America, and their speed and which Americans have lived for gener- the exurbs. This paper does not scale of change has reconfigured the ations. Some researchers have tackled attempt to define “sprawl,” nor does it way Americans live (Hayden 2003). By these questions in the academic litera- equate sprawl with exurbia. But the Census Bureau’s definition, about ture. But many recent observers have because public policies designed to 53 percent of the nation’s residents resorted to an “I-know-it-when-I-see- curb (or promote) sprawl in metropoli- live in suburbs.1 Whereas most people it” approach for identifying the exurbs tan areas often affect the exurbs, it is used to work in cities and their imme- and their residents. Many counties, for important to understand more about diate environs, today more than half of instance, may have a more mixed char- where these communities are located, all metropolitan jobs are located at acter and are probably not well- who lives there, and why. least 10 miles from a traditional city described by alternating and Sparked by new popular interest in downtown (Mieszowski and Mills overlapping classifications. the subject, this paper describes an 1993; Berube forthcoming). A lot of journalists, and some aca- effort to “find exurbia,” based on a Exurbs, it is argued, lie somewhere demics, argue that exurbs represent a review of the academic literature and beyond the suburbs. At the urban- path-breaking form of development, analysis of data from Census 2000 and rural periphery, outer suburbs bleed defined in part by the extreme dis- beyond. We begin by examining previ- into small-town communities with an tances from these areas to the metro- ous attempts to identify exurban terri- agricultural heritage. Not yet full- politan core. Yet today’s exurbs may tory and its residents, and discuss the fledged suburbs, but no longer wholly just be tomorrow’s suburbs. In Spec- implications of those inquiries. We 2 October 2006 • The Brookings Institution • Living Cities Census Series then describe a new methodology for bia, Spectorsky’s 1955 book The labeled “exurbs.” Teixeira (2006) fur- identifying exurbs and the assump- Exurbanites, sought to describe not ther investigates the politics of exur- tions that underpin it. Applying that so much these far-flung (at the time) bia using Lang and Sanchez’s methodology, we proceed to describe places, but the people who inhabited classification system. the incidence and characteristics of them. To Spectorsky, these people These studies that attempt to char- exurban places nationwide, in states, were a new breed of commuters, acterize exurbia and exurbanites form and in selected large metropolitan seeking a semi-rural lifestyle to part of an even larger literature areas.
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