People move to suburbia for many reasons, but around where I live they also do it because you can get so much more house for the money. It more than makes up the extra cost in gas. And if what they say is true, the burbs will become cheaper still.
This isn’t the first time this has happened. In the oil bust of 1982 whole neighborhoods in Houston went empty for a while. And, though I hate to say it, many of them didn’t really recover. They turned into urban sh!tholes of squatters and section 8 losers.
Sure, people are moving back in — sometimes it’s because the crime and criminals have followed them out. But it’s fun to live inside where there’s so much more going on... nightlife, culture.