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>Real Estate prices and regional inflationary spillovers. Just look at the
>development of the I-270 corridor from Bethesda to Frederick, MD over the
>last 25 years. That's one metro region that knocks your correlations to
>pretty much to bits. That dynamic has played in lots of metropolitan
>areas. People do make substantive responces to price signals.
>
while some of that's going on here, I remember when we first moved here, we were in the market for a starter home. Here, one of the barriers to moving to the 'burbs was that people wouldn't move north because that's where, ostensibly, all the 'rednecks' lived. 20 yrs ago, a town called Dunedin was considered "redneck" In that time, though, a lot of artists and artisans moved in--because it was affordable and had lots of neat craftsman bungalows, a little art deco here and there, and some Spanish architecture. Today, people resist the possibility of moving to the more affordable county north, Pasco. There's a wealthy community that borders Pasco. The kids there like to 'police' the borders, making fun of people who drive "redneck" trucks with Pasco county plates. Same kids drop the n-word like it's nobody's business -- and are some of the worst racists I've ever encounterd. They're also not really 'southern' either. Their parents are professionals, academics, managers, etc. making enough to put the median salary their at 90k -- where it's about 34k in the middling neighborhoods.
Just a little heads up on the culture of one county in one red state.
Kelley
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling