What are Exurbs?
An exurb is a largely residential community located outside of a major city and its suburban periphery that maintains a connection to the metropolis through jobs and services. "At the urban-rural periphery, outer suburbs bleed into small-town communities with an agricultural heritage." The term first came into the popular lexicon with A. C. Spectorsky's The Exurbanites in 1955, but has become much more widely used in the last two decades. As urban areas grow, suburbs and exurbs can become enveloped by the greater metropolis, becoming neighborhoods rather than isolated enclaves. As such, "[t]hey lie at the forefront of important local debates around growth and development issues" and "their prevalence may serve as an important indicator of emerging social trends or the effectiveness of various policies to shape metropolitan development."