[simonblack]

I can't remember if I read this somewhere or whether it's something I discovered for myself. Surely I couldn't be that smart to think of it all by myself.

I certainly remember remarking on the presence of the 'doughnut' several times over the years: when seeing older industrial slum areas of the inner-city becoming desirable (and expensive!) again.

And when seeing the street-pedestrians in the suburb that I'd just bought into change in the space of only 18 months or so from all 'little old ladies' and no young-mothers-with-prams to there being very few 'little old ladies' and becoming mainly young-mothers-with-prams. A year or two earlier, young relatives had moved into the next suburb inwards that was the 'new yuppy suburb'. That's probably why I noticed the changes.

My rule-of-thumb is to always buy within about 15 minutes drive of the CBD or even closer, if you can afford it. Even if that is currently an 'unpopular' area. I have arguments with relatives over this: 'Yuk! How could you live there? Where all the prostitutes/immigrants/factories/poor people/lower socio-economic classes/etc/etc/etc are?'

I currently live on the boundary of the CBD and the next industrial suburb, in the top storey of a 7-storey apartment block. (Literally on the 'right' side of the tracks! I can hear the level-crossing bells.)

This city has only about 150,000 population, but the 'doughnut effect' is discernible here. Those other suburbs I mentioned above were in a city of five million.