Small City Life Losing its Luster

Tough times are forcing some to reevaluate their situation and move into the big city.

By YVONNE NAVA

Updated 4:45 PM EDT, Mon, Nov 16, 2009

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The cramped big city life can be a bit overwhelming for some and many have opted to move to smaller towns where they can get more privacy and space. But according to a new Associated Press review, that mentality is changing due to tough times.

America's small cities are losing some of their traditional appeal to upwardly mobile families seeking wholesome neighborhoods, a stable economy and affordable living.

Some of the reasons for this shift include growing poverty, the housing downturn and a spike in gasoline prices. For a small city, the average median income is $60,294. But Connecticut’s Darien tops all other cities with three times that number at $188,823.

In 2000, small cities, which include remote towns and the distant suburbs known as "exurbs," ranked at the top in the share of people with college diplomas. They slipped to number 2 last year with 30 percent holding degrees -- in between medium-sized cities, which had 31 percent, and big cities, at 29.8 percent.

Small cities looking more and more like bigger cities over the decade ranged from places like Hobart, Ind., and Mount Pleasant, Mich., to Anniston, Ala., and Greenville, Miss. Compared with previous years, they had smaller incomes, higher housing costs, longer commutes, more poverty and more single-parent families.

Demographers say some small cities may have become victims of their own success. Some of these areas have shot up in size and are now medium-sized communities.

"Small towns have a certain appeal to people, and their quality of life there is backed up by the data," said Mark Mather, associate vice president of the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau. "But as more people move in, small towns start to lose the qualities that attracted people there in the first place."