People leave cities because a mixture of zoning regulations and high real estate prices lead to a scenario where the city becomes a place of work and only work.

People leave cities because a mixture of zoning regulations and high real estate prices lead to a scenario where the city becomes a place of work and only work. Car culture leads to a loss of locality and continuity (you can go from A to B and not give a damn about, or interact with, any of the points between them). The city starts losing people, and a death spiral begins as it turns into a "5 o'clock town". The balance of amenity vs. inconvenience/expense drives people to the suburbs. Throw in a bit of white racism (although that's not a major factor anymore) and "white flight" is what you get, along with "inner city" ruin. One major cause of this is that real estate prices are "sticky downward"; they skyrocket easily (Bay Area, early 90s) in an economic boom, but don't decline fast enough along when the market softens; people become unduly attached to real estate (as opposed to other investments) and hold out forever. This process kills a city, and you'd expect that to depress real estate prices and bring back equilibrium, but the price movement that occurs is too little, too late. If you want to buy a house in the ghettos of Chicago's South Side you will still have to pay at least half a million for many of them.