Soaring gas prices spur beginnings of a flight from suburbia

When it took $45 to fill the gas tank in Eric Wallace’s Honda Civic, he knew his days of driving 40 miles each way to work couldn’t last.

“I went home and said, ’We have to do something,’” said Wallace, 36, of Arnold, who is looking to move closer to his job as director of information technology at a steel distribution and service center in Leetsdale.

Wallace and his wife, Tammy, 32, put the three-bedroom house they bought in 2000 up for sale and are hoping to cut their fuel costs with shorter commute times. Tammy Wallace is a registered nurse at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC in Oakland and drives 23 miles each way to work.

Across the country, people who traded longer commutes for life in the suburbs are starting to look for ways to cut their drive times as gas prices rise. A recent survey by Coldwell Banker showed that reducing the work commute was the primary reason for interest in urban living.

More people could join the Wallaces if predictions on oil prices ring true, real estate agents say.

Growing demand and supply constraints will push oil prices to $200 a barrel and gas prices to $7 a gallon within four years, economist Jeff Rubin of CIBC said last week. That could force a drastic change in driving habits, he told The Associated Press.

Eric Wallace’s $45 fill-up, for example, would balloon to $91 if a gallon of gas cost $7.

Plans for building homes in some suburban communities already have felt the pressure of rising prices for gasoline and other materials.

“Planning of new developments has slowed. We’re not seeing any huge developments being proposed,” said Andrew Blenko, planning director in North Huntingdon, one of the fastest growing communities in the region in recent years.

The HET Corp. of Monroeville has shelved a plan to build Oak Hollow Farms, a 100-acre residential development in North Huntingdon, because of the housing downturn.

Although a number of factors have contributed to housing market woes, the attractiveness of the suburbs is fading as gas prices climb.

The idea of urban living is appealing to more potential homebuyers, said Dan Turkowski, vice president of HET.

“Townhomes and lifestyle living projects” the company has developed in Pittsburgh are doing well, he said.

Many young professionals aren’t looking for”a house with a yard and a picket fence and 2.5 kids,” said Jim Bindschadler, executive vice president of the Realtors Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh. People want something different.

Housing plans in many suburban communities are based on a”formula that was developed in the 1950s that hasn’t changed at all,” said Mark Weber, one of four principals at Renaissance III architects in the South Side.

The average price of a home in Pittsburgh rose 34.85 percent between 2004 and 2008, while the average price of a home in Allegheny County increased 15.82 percent, according to an analysis by Real STATs, a real estate information firm.

Average home prices rose 7.55 percent in Beaver County during that period and 7.89 percent in Butler County. Home prices rose 11.74 percent in Westmoreland County.

Pittsburgh’s urban population will increase as the infrastructure to support it -- grocery stores and other amenities that lured people to the suburbs -- continues to grow, Bindschadler said.

“It will be a subtle process,” said Joe Cortright, an economist at Impresa Inc., a Portland, Ore. consulting group that studied housing prices in a number of urban areas, including Pittsburgh.

The return to urban living has been occurring rather quietly over the past few years, said Hoddy Hanna, CEO of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.

“Clearly there’s been a rejuvenation of urban areas. The magnet of our Downtown is great. A lot of people are working there,” he said.

In Pittsburgh, the sports stadiums, Downtown housing and a rejuvenated Cultural District helped transform older areas of the city into fashionable neighborhoods.

The Penn Garrison Apartments, a block and a half from the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, has all 117 units leased and a waiting list, said Mary Donato, property manager.

“Owning a home isn’t the American Dream anymore. The American Dream is convenience,” Donato said”People want to put the house behind them. When they are through working, they don’t want to go home and work again.”