Hip loftsters will stay lonely, for suburbs still seduce

URBAN BOOSTERS have embraced a new panacea for what ails central cities, including downtown Los Angeles — residential high-rises and converted luxury lofts. But like the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, the downtown residential building craze is based more on hype than on economic fundamentals. If the announced projects ever get built, many cities will be stuck with a glut of overpriced housing when market fundamentals reassert themselves.

By Joel Kotkin

August 14, 2005