Present tendencies point towards greatly increased values at strategic points, with relative and frequently absolute drops in value in locations formerly competitive. The quiet side streets, the back alleys and deserted nooks and corners where land has almost no value, despite its proximity to valuable land, will doubtless continue at their present low planes, unless they are either reached by the spreading growth from some center or are intersected by some new traffic street.

The most valuable location. The point of highest value, responding in scale and location to the growth of the city, moves from the first business center towards the best residence district, the crest of the wave usually being the middle of the retail shopping district, frequently strengthened by exceptionally large and handsome buildings, and occasionally checked by cross-traffic streets. Apart from any factors which may deflect the line of growth, the land lying in its path is certain to increase in value, the time of such increase however, being difficult to gage, while the land left behind will usually sink in value, although in the largest cities, while decreasing relatively in value and utility, it sometimes increases slightly in absolute value. New York, the one financial center of the country, is an exception in that its financial land is more valuable than its shopping land.

Causes of future changes. New inventions and new habits and customs will probably cause the most marked future changes other than those due to growth and transportation. All cheapening of the cost of buildings, all improvements in construction, all inventions, tend constantly to destroy the value of existing buildings. All improvements in transportation, such as the trolley, the elevated, the underground, the bicycle, the automobile - and in future possibly the flying machine - tend to destroy the value of these locations which depend on existing transportation. All changes in social customs, such as longer summer absences from the city, shift values, as in this instance from the city to the summer resorts. The great interchange of travel throughout the year from one city to another strengthens the radiating influence of the hotels, while the movement from residences to flats and apartments, concentrates population and augments the power of capital to attract.

Change is a law of life, and as long as human activity continues to alter the conditions of city life, and human tastes, prejudices, fashions, habits and customs continue to vary, city structure and values will shift and change, but the study of the basic principles of city growth should reduce errors in forecasting to a minimum, permitting well-equipped intelligence, whether in buying, selling, renting, loaning on, or in any way dealing with, city real estate, to largely eliminate the power of chance.