WASHINGTON – Aug. 12, 2008 – High gas prices are affecting American workers' attitudes toward commuting and are prodding many to trade in their large homes in the exurbs for smaller, more urban properties. Buying a 6,000-square-foot home with a large yard and a sport-utility vehicle to boot made sense when gas and property prices were low, economists say, but gasoline is now cost-prohibitive for many. If the federal government lifts the heavy gas subsidies that encourage suburban growth, many Europeans pay $8 a gallon for gas, suburban residents will abandon their properties en masse and move in closer to urban transit stations. "What were pluses of that lifestyle are now liabilities: a big SUV, a big home to heat, the energy needed to mow the lawn," says CEO Tom Darden of the Raleigh-based real estate conversion group Cherokee Investment Partners. The firm takes properties close to transit centers in urban areas and develops them into housing. Properties in the Washingto
