>>At least you have options, right? You could take a bus or a train. While most large metropolitan areas have some type of mass transit service (although it doesn't run to all areas), here, I have neither available to me.
>
>Actually, we may want to switch places, or types of places, some day. One of the reasons we picked this one was that it's in a relatively densely populated area, so it won't be a likely candidate for demolition when the next urban change-of-mind comes and the European (if not even Asian) style density becomes de rigeur. And if I wanted to invest, I'd pick a city which will be among the first to rethink its zoning, and would allow for splitting larger lots into two or three smaller ones. Then tear an old house and build two or three cheaper and smaller ones on the lot, or just partition it so each part would accomodate a family (or a single). Insulate, install whatever solar stuff is available and advertise as eco-friendly.
>
>Because this will come, the sooner the better. The current zoning laws all over the country are based on cheap gas. There are big box shops in Europe too, but they are the places where you go once or twice a month - for the rest of it, there's the little grocery on the corner, remember? Here, your only choice is the big box grocery a mile or five away. Your only choice of work is between driving 10-20-50-200 minutes or telecommuting, and the latter isn't really available for most of the cases.
>
>All of you who live in the forests may just want to move to town, once there's enough density that you'll be able to have a school or job at walkable distance (or bicycling). Back home, the city wasn't that small - 70000 people - and I've always lived at the edge of the industrial zone, and I've always either walked or pedaled to school/work, save for my first year of high school, when I took to riding the bus. Only in the last couple of years I took the car, while the youngest was in a school downtown, or when I expected to have to visit customers in the wider city area (i.e. too far for the bike, and the company car was busy with a longer ride).
>
>Now, as a telecommuter, as soon as the last of our daughters hits college, we'd gladly move into one of them houses in the woods, make everything solar - insulated - selfsufficient, grow our own food, and I could still telecommute like I'm doing since 2002. These houses will soon be dime a dozen.

I really got a kick out of that last paragraph (emphasis mine) :o)