General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: stunning graph [View all]hunter
(38,264 posts)A family without a car doesn't need a garage.
A garage could be turned into a grocery store and a transportation stop for other neighborhood families who don't have cars. That business would support the family living in the house.
Or else the population density of the neighborhood increases with multi-generational housing -- grandma and grandpa, kids and their spouses, grandkids, all sharing one house and grandpa's old car, which is parked in the driveway because somebody's cousins are living in the garage.
That's probably the inevitable future of the suburbs as the U.S. middle class evaporates.
Or else these suburbs will be abandoned entirely and people will move away to places where it's easier to survive with less money, as somebody's cousins, living in a converted garage in another suburb, or a tiny apartment in a city with good public transportation services and, most importantly, jobs.
The fear of "falling property values" will increase the rate of destruction in some suburbs as empty houses are left to decay because the bankers and neighbors won't allow their conversion to viable housing adapted to a world with fewer automobiles and work that pays poorly.