Suburbia. For some, it represents a life goal of finding a quiet place to buy a house for sale and settle down with the kids. For others it represents a prison that people of a certain social class willingly confine themselves to. Whatever your point of view on the subject, suburbia and its dwellers, the suburbanites, make up a large and important part of North American culture. To help you figure out if suburbia is somewhere you'd want to live, this guide should introduce you to it and the suburbanites who live there.
Suburbia is no one place. It cannot be located on a map. Rather, it is a blanket name for a large number of similar places scattered throughout North America. Many houses for sale are located in neighborhoods that could be known as suburbia, as are houses in New York, Florida, California, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and everywhere else. Suburbia is found in Australia as well, and to a certain extent in Britain, but it not commonly found in Europe, Asia, South America, or Africa. Neither is it found in the sparsely populated areas of North America.
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There are several factors which distinguish suburbia from other types of communities, such as cities or towns. First, suburbia is located on the outskirts of large cities. It also contains many homes such as the ones on the real estate listings that are in the same styles, shapes, and colors, and were built around the same time. It has little to no commercial space or apartments. Almost all of the dwellings are single family. The streets wind, dead end, and cul-de-sac, and are not busy. There are parks and schools nearby.
The people who live in suburbia all have very similar lifestyles. All of them work outside of suburbia, engaging in a practice known as commuting where they travel upwards of an hour work in white collar jobs such as advertising houses for sale or working in an office. Residents of suburbia are always well off. Most have enough money to wear designer clothing and have two cars, even if there are only two members of the household. Many suburbanites have children, and their major motivating factor for moving to suburbia was to raise them in a safe and quiet area.
Suburbia is very homogeneous in terms of house style, street layout, and landscaping while suburbanites tend to be very homogeneous in terms of socioeconomic status, opinions on major issues, and vehicle choice (they tend to choose SUVs over compacts). As such, they often form a tightly knit community that involves hosting block parties, car pooling to events and after school activities, and fund raising for local causes. Suburbanites often count their neighbors among their best friends.
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