The Recession is Good for Communities

I wrote this in 2009 at the former Agent Genius, now The Agent Genius; (archived: 2023) the audience then was other real estate professionals, but it’s very relevant to consumers.Balance and stability – those are the new buzzwords for buyers.

Really. In the long run, communities will benefit.

Communities will be able to grow organically – many are already seeing this shift . Rather than focusing on the next house, the next rung, the next something, neighborhoods will be able to develop and grow by the people rather than artificially by the developers. For the established neighborhoods that are in turnover mode, perhaps new people will (get this) move in and stay for a while rather than buy, slap up some contractors’ grade paint and put a new “for sale” sign in the yard.

What does this mean for those associated with the buying and selling of properties? We can to help build these communities – we’ve seen what works elsewhere – and we can help by getting involved.

Less transience is a good thing.

I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s newest offering, Outliers, and the Introduction is about a particular community’s collective health and the reasons why –

“Wolf and Bruhn had to convince the medical establishment to think about health and heart attacks in an entirely new way: they had to get them to realize that they wouldn’t be able to understand why someone was healthy if all they did was think about an individual’s personal choices in isolation. They had to look beyond the individual. They had to understand the culture he or she was a part of, and who their friends and families were, and what town their families came from. They had to appreciate the idea that the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.”

The first time I read this, the lightbulb went off.

Look beyond the immediate or even the foreseeable transaction and work to build a better world – be it two blocks, two miles or twenty miles wide. A lot of you are or have the potential to be much more than “Realtors” – you can be community organizers, development advocates – people who work to make the (local) world better.

Think big(ger). We will all benefit.

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