Your neighborhood sounds lovely, but definitely out of our price range :)
You are right about the logistics of rural with children, I only have one, but it seems I spent most of the summer up and down the road to swim lessons, soccer, bible school, etc. But the rural living also allows us to afford those types of things, without me having to go back to fulltime employment.
there are pros and cons to all types of living arrangements - I just find these types of studies to have hidden agenda and take them with a grain of salt. Unfortunately too many folks don't.
Well, to be honest, it would be out of our price range now, also. The price of houses in our part of town has almost doubled since we bought our house 9 years ago. Seems that there are a lot of people hereabouts who don't really want to live in the suburbs....