Paper bark maple is sssllllooowwwwwww growing and $$$$.

Does Yellowwood grow where you are? Showy blooms, showy bark (not quite as showy as the others on your list though), good fall color, and moderate growth rate. They are becoming more and more available too.

Parrotia may get too large, and mine has no fall color to speak of. Very disappointing.

I haven't found paperbark maple to be that slow given it is a smaller tree. In fact, it grew about 2ft this year. Bark is great, but fall color has be so so. Another small maple with great fall color is 3-flower maple, Acer triflorum.

I would highly recommend the paperbark maple. I have one and it's grown quite rapidly. It's only six years old and the trunk on it (it's best feature) is huge. In my area, the fall color can be disappointing because it's the very last tree (later than the oaks!) to change colors and sometimes the frosts zap it before it can change. When it does have time to change, it puts on quite the show. The leaves are a fiery scarlet. I like the leaves on it too. They are somewhat unique and very dark green in the summer. They contrast the copper-colored bark really well. It's really cool when the sun shines through the peeling bark on the tree. It looks like the whole trunk is glowing. I've been thinking about getting another one of these trees because I like the one I have so much.

Anyone growing shantung maple or trident maple in the east and to the north? I have paperbark maple which isn't doing very much at all. Maybe it doesn't like growing in limestone rubbles where pH is high. Shantung maple has no problem and grows 2-5 feet a year. Nice red(rare) and yellow (common) fall color.

Here's a picture of 'Fire Dragon' shantung maple -

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Typical yellow fall color for shantung maple -

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When they are bigger, they produce a lot of tiny yellow flowers before spring growth. I thought they looked interesting.

My front yard is small - 25-30 from porch to street - full sun, zone 5.

"Small" being relative of course. That would be a large front yard in modern developments here.

Nevertheless, I second Acer truncatum and the paperbark maple.

However, hawthorn will alleviate the biological desert of the typical suburb and provide leaf color and food for birds - C. ambigua OK fall color, great berries; best IMHO is C cordata for lf color and berries for birds and color in winter.

Dan