Good schools, low crime rates, clean air, ample recreational facilities and short, traffic-free commutes are assets usually cited by penturban business recruiters.

The exodus to penturbia will be the fifth ("pent" comes from the Greek word for five) great migration since the Revolutionary War, Lessinger says. The first came between 1760 and 1789 when vast numbers of folks left the more established colonies—Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania—for the unrefined open spaces of places such as North Carolina, Vermont, New Hampshire. Economic depression fostered the second migration (1817-1846), when Americans pushed west. In the late 19th Century the great industrial cities, Chicago in particular, grew and attracted people from the countryside. Then they left. Lessinger dates the fourth great migration—the one to the suburbs—from 1929 to 1958.

To prevent runaway growth and conserve local resources, penturbanites demand judicious county planning. Penturban land is still available at bargain prices, so middle-income families can often afford to live on two- to five-acre sites. To the caring conserver, the old buildings in penturban towns are neither unattractive nor useless, but rich in nostalgia and generally less expensive than new construction.