Rural VS Suburban

[hglenbetts]

Help!! I just read a thread a week ago about this and can't find it.

Is there a HUD/FHA/FNMA guideline defining rural vs suburban? I have one of those "ruburban" properties happening. 2 miles from Village limits (town of about 7,000 persons) 10 miles from Downtown Ann Arbor (Go Blue!) and nothing but farm land in view. Most every home is on at least 1 acre site with an 80 acre farm field behind it. Zoning is Agricultural/low density res.

Is this subjective, or is there a standard??

Report's already done. We marked it Rural, with comments. The MB wanted comments removed because "it's clearly rural, and you'll alarm the UW"
Comments stay!! :new_2gunsfiring_v1: woohoo

 

[stefan olafson]

Good Job! It's not written in stone anywhere, there are different standards by different folks. What's wrong with comments? Don't they help make your report more easily understood?

If there are fields all around or farm animals all around then it's rural to me.

 

[Pat Butler]

They used to define those terms as urban 'relating to a city'. That was easy because the Census Bureau has a list of what they consider to be cities.

'Adjacent' to a city meant suburban, and that was determined as a matter of fact by looking at a map. All else was rural.

Those definitions only got clouded when appraisers tried to convince themselves that the definitions really didn't apply. I think Fannie finally formally dropped the definitions and that gives more latitude.

 

[c w d]

Suburban vs. Rural

It depends. If it's going to kill the deal then it's suburban. If not, who cares? *joke*

As far as I know and it has already been stated there are no clear cut rules to defining a property urban, suburban or rural. My rule of thumb is this:

Urban - within the city limits, close or in downtown. Some neighborhood amenities are conveniently accessible by foot, some by car.

Suburban - Neighborhood amenities are conveniently accessible by car within a few miles. Could be within or outside of city limits.

Rural - Most neighborhood amenities are accessible by car but you've got to spend a good 15 minutes or more to get them straight driving, lite traffic conditions. Mostly located outside city limits. But, like here in Jacksonville, the entire county is incorporated within the city limits so some areas can be considered rural.

 

[Ben Slaughter]

My definition of rural: predominant land use is commercial agriculture or open space.