News
Anthony Perl, coauthor of the book Transport Revolutions, talks to the Vancouver, B.C. Georgia Straight about the effect of high oil prices on property values. The upshot: properties that are far from jobs and other important amenities will lose value, while ones that don't require cars will be more desirable. And it's happening already.
[This is an EXCERPT: read the whole article here.
Perl is the coauthor of a book Transport Revolutions, about moving people and freight without cheap oil, and the author of a report Hamilton: The Electric City, commissioned by the city of Hamilton, Ontario. - Ed.]
By Carlito Pablo
"The reality of peak oil will see properties classified into two types in the near future, according to Simon Fraser University professor Anthony Perl.
"One will be properties from which owners can get to work, leisure activities, and services predominantly by car. The other offers alternatives to the automobile such as public transit, biking, and walking.
"'The one that is accessible without a car will have a higher value,' Perl told the Georgia Straight... Perl said that cities with more suburban sprawl are suffering more in terms of depressed prices than denser areas that are less dependent on cars."
"'I think that there is an obvious relationship between the way the land is used and the transportation alternatives that are available,' noted Perl."
Photo credit: Aaron Gustafson 
