Housing prices are unaffordable in big cities, while abandoned properties are rotting in the countryside everywhere. It's time we start spreading the economy rather than concentrating the people.
we artificially subsidized sprawl for generations. leading to a periphery of, as you say, rotting/abandoned countryside homes, because the economic activity generated by people living that spread out does not cover the cost of modern standard of living infrastructure over that distance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG1T03NuZKM
cities are expensive because they do have the economic network effects of people in proximity, they are simply where the money is, combined with restrictions on building new units.
continuing to pour good money after bad down the sprawl money pit will only make things worse. the only way out is up.
Technology is a lot more than InfoTech. It includes core engineering and infrastructure.
You have it backwards. Density makes mass transit feasible. You want to talk about commute times, spreading everyone out is going to magnify that.
Cities are efficient. At least, they can be. Busses and trains/subways work a hell of a lot better in urban cores than suburbs, and are effectively worthless from an efficient standpoint for moving individual people in a rural environment.
It's moving the need for everyone to commute (via mass transit or w/e) to just a much smaller amount of shipping to happen between cities to move goods.
Many jobs can be done remotely today and this will move annex jobs with them. Cities will remain central hubs but this will reduce the pressure and demand.