Suburbs spread farther afield as more families do the math

The Chicago Tribune reports:

"I moved to Oak Park because of her," Barry Haskins said, nodding toward his wife, Ginny. "Then we moved to Berwyn because of the children. And then we moved to Naperville because of the schools. And we moved to Yorkville for the house and the land."


Their house and land are in Kendall County on Honeysuckle Lane in Whispering Meadows, north of Yorkville's modest business district.

The 300-acre development, where, not so long ago, corn and soybeans rustled in the wind, eventually will have 437 ranch and two-story single-family houses, each on about a quarter acre. It is surrounded by a white rail fence and has space for a park, school and clubhouse.

Development around Yorkville has come so fast that the homes in Whispering Meadows haven't yet made it onto MapQuest. Longtime residents have looked on with awe and trepidation as their agricultural community has quickly morphed into suburbia.

Barry and Ginny Haskins' house, the 2,800-square-foot, $262,990-base price Farrington model with hickory-colored siding and "downing-sand" trim, sits on 19,000 square feet of land. It has four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a two-car garage, an unfinished basement and a fireplace. They've added a kettle grill out back, a pool table (in the unfinished basement for him) and a hot tub (for her).

The family came here after living in an Oak Park condo, a red-brick Berwyn bungalow and a Naperville trilevel. They say they don't miss the tree-lined streets of their former homes and are confident that the single, spindly sapling near the driveway will grow.

"It reminds me of Naperville eight years ago," Barry said. "There's so much land. .
.
. They're bringing in Kohl's. We went to the Yorkville festival and talked to the old-timers, the farmers."

"They're not really thrilled with us," Ginny said.

A great migration is rapidly changing the face -- and the faces -- of Chicago and its suburbs. Although there has been an outward exodus for more than a century, new census and other government data show that the edges of the metropolitan area are being pushed ever farther out, and at a much faster rate than had been predicted.

It's not just more people in places they weren't before. This trend has political, environmental, economical and cultural ramifications.

Rising populations give suburbs increasing clout. Some of the country's richest farmland is being paved over. More mileage driven by more cars increases the demand for foreign oil. Longer commutes mean less time at home with families. When large numbers of children enter a community they put a heavier burden on the tax base, with needs for more schools, parks, etc.

And the migration affects us all, whether you are on the move or staying put. The neighborhood where you live is being altered by the seemingly insatiable desire for more house for the money.

Kendall County, where the Haskins family lives, is the second-fastest growing county in the nation, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Kendall's population has grown 62 percent since 2000. By contrast, Cook County suffered a net population loss of 88,000.

"The best deals in housing," demographer Kenneth M. Johnson said, "are usually farthest out. I don't care if it's Rolling Meadows in the 1950s or Schaumburg in the 1970s or now when it's even farther out. There's also an ongoing desire in the American people to have more space.

Old urban cities aren't going to grow faster than the new suburbs.You can count on that.