many metros across the country. With all that said, in 20 years, do I think that most folks are going to be moving into the cities as some suggest ? No, I don't. My best guess is that the biggest winners in the housing market two decades from now are going to be small- to mid-sized cities, some close to larger metros and others more distant. "Small and mid-sized cities are poised to do well over the next couple of decades." A subset of these small- to mid-sized cities, college towns like Madison and Boulder, are poised to do particularly well over the next couple of decades. Why do I think that these communities are going to fare better than rest? The suburbs and exurbs around large coastal metros like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, and DC have grown in large part because of strong job creation in these markets paired with rising home prices close to the urban core. New arrivals coming to these markets in search of jobs often end up living in the suburbs or exurbs to find affordable housing. Or they rent housing in the urban core until they marry and have children, moving out in order to find a bigger home they can afford. What threatens the affordability of suburban and exurban living are rising energy costs, particularly oil prices, which I believe will increase over the next 20 years. This fact will upset the Faustian bargain made by many homeowners who