According to this USAToday article, the building industry that once created “massive communities of cookie-cutter homes, cul-de-sacs and McMansions in far-flung suburbs” is doing an about-face and building “smaller neighborhoods in and close to cities on land more likely to be near a train station than a pig farm.” In response to changing market demand, the industry is rethinking what type of housing to build and where to build it.
More and more homebuyers (especially younger millennials and older baby boomers) are favoring urban living and its amenities to traditional suburban life. They want shorter commutes and walkable, vibrant town centers with proximity to shops, parks, and schools.
As a result, builders are moving from developing wide-open "greenfields" to compact "infill" housing in already-developed urban settings.” And the nation’s development pattern—from California to Ohio to Florida—is shifting “from the old crabgrass frontier to the new Main Street."
