Rethinking suburban housing
Description
Over the past century, suburban living has been a sign of prosperity and a manifestation of the American dream. Owning a large single-family home, a spacious yard and a car have become a measure of success. The trend towards suburban habitation has created a surge of sprawled development that has led to an inefficient built-environment The attitudes, and lifestyles of the current young population are no longer the same; millennials are getting married and starting families later, with a greater demand to settle in urban areas. They are placing higher value towards living near jobs and walkable amenities and are choosing to wait longer on purchasing a home. The increased demand for urban living has caused city rents to skyrocket. The percentage of individuals who live in urban areas is expected to increase by 20% in the next 35 years. The overpopulation of cities has caused a surge in housing costs - making urban settlement increasingly unaffordable. The suburbs fail to provide millennials and young profession s with an adequate supply of rental housing due to its dominate presence of single family homes. The expensive cost of cities, along with the lack of viable housing in the suburbs has many young professionals stuck, in search of a feasible place to live. The suburbs have potential to be urbanized, and to provide a mix of housing types that accommodates a more diverse set of residents, however, there is a slew of pre-development hurdles that halt the process of high-density housing construction. This is especially seen in Long Island, NY, where residents are hesitant to allow the production of multi-family projects in their backyard. Transit Oriented development can serve as a solution to this problem, by stimulating the growth of long island towns, minimizing traffic impact, and catering specifically to millennials and seniors. This would allow the built environment of areas outside of transit hubs to preserve their single-family character, and would have little effect on the existing structure of school districts.