The Economics of Belonging
By: J. David Chapman/February 27, 2026
When teaching and discussing real estate, we spend a great deal of time talking about square footage, cap rates, vacancy, and absorption. We measure rooftops, traffic counts, and lease rates. We debate density, parking ratios, and zoning classifications. But what if one of the most important economic drivers in a community is something far less technical?
What if it is belonging? In my book subURBAN!, I argue that transforming suburban downtowns is not simply about buildings. It is about creating places where people want to linger. Where they see familiar faces. Where they feel part of something larger than themselves.
That may sound sentimental. It is not. Belonging has an economic impact. When a downtown has coffee shops with outdoor seating, pocket parks with shade trees, micro retail tucked into renovated garages, and festivals that close the streets for an evening, something measurable happens. People stay longer. Urban planners call this dwell time. Retailers call it sales. Cities call it tax revenue.
The longer someone stays in a place, the more likely they are to spend money. The more often they return, the more likely they are to invest. Not just financially, but socially.
In suburban environments designed primarily around the automobile, transactions are efficient but brief. You drive in, conduct your business, and drive out. There is little friction, but there is also little connection.
Contrast that with a vibrant suburban downtown. You park once. You walk. You bump into a friend. You grab coffee before dinner. Your children play in the park while you talk to another parent. That extra hour is not accidental. It is engineered through design, zoning, and intentional programming.
And that hour has economic consequences. Property values in walkable downtown districts routinely command a premium. Small businesses thrive in environments where customers are not rushing back to their cars. Employers increasingly locate in areas where young professionals want to live and socialize.
Belonging reduces isolation, but it also increases resilience. Communities where people know one another recover faster from economic shocks. They support local businesses during downturns. They advocate for thoughtful development.
We often think of infrastructure as roads, water lines, and fiber optic cable. Those are essential. But third places, public spaces, and human scale streets are also infrastructure. They are the connective tissue of an economy.
If we want strong suburban markets, we should invest not only in buildings, but in belonging. Because belonging, it turns out, has a balance sheet.
Dr. J. David Chapman is the Chair of Finance and Professor of Real Estate at The University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu)