IDEA BAR: Brainstorming TweetUps at secret locations tonight in Boston

This doomsday scenario is worth
scanning, not just because the author — a former editor of Rolling
Stone magazine and author of three books on suburban sprawl — calls the
real estate bubble the “last act in the sorry drama of the hallucinated
economy” but because it’s the second economic doomsday scenario we’ve heard in 36 hours and offers some potential decision-making criteria for home buyers.  Writing about James Howard Kunstler’s new book The Long Emergency,the Santa Cruz Sentinel says:   

"Understanding the deep changes the United States and the rest of the
world will experience as early as this decade, he said, could be the
deciding factor in which thriving communities of today become the ghost
towns of tomorrow."

"The middle
class will become distressed, the construction industry flat,
interstate hauling will disappear, airlines will become toast and our
daily lives will be defined by what’s within walking distance."

"Suburbs, large cities and McMansions will become slums."

The
good news is that “Some communities will fair better than others during
the “Long Emergency.” So how do you find one if you are planning on buying a home this year despite repeated warnings of the real estate bubble?