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WSJ has been writing about this a while during COVID[0]. Their take seems to be that people don't want to move, so they aren't putting their houses up for sale.

by kyrra 6y ago

WSJ has been writing about this a while during COVID[0]. Their take seems to be that people don't want to move, so they aren't putting their houses up for sale. This means decreased supply of existing houses. So reduced supply plus really low interest rates have led to increasing housing prices. This probably helps motivate builders to get more houses built. Then you have the added fact that COVID has made your home the place where you spend all your time. As I've seen my California co-workers joke about, they spent a bunch of money on an apartment right near work so their commute would be short, but it's a tiny apartment. This is now biting them, which is why lots of people are going elsewhere during this time. It's also leading to rent prices dropping across the country (as those high-price apartments near job/downtown/important spots don't matter as much. [0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-home-prices-are-rising-during-the-pandemic-11588671002 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-home-prices-are-rising-duri...

brownbat 6y ago
Great point. I've been wondering -- if commute times suddenly become close to irrelevant, because most hours worked are remote, that changes a ton of housing calculations, right? Remote work is over-represented in tech though, so I don't know how much of the population it will really effect, since we're primarily a services economy. Not sure what the effect size is, but if I could easily live anywhere it'd probably be more remote.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Sure. There are advantages to being within range of a major city for the occasional day/evening trip or weekend: eating out, airport, theater, health care, etc. That said, some of those things are less of a big deal for some people than others and stretching the distance to, say, a 2 hour drive increases the area that you could potentially live in enormously if you don't need to worry about a commute. (And for a rare visit to an office, you can just stay at a hotel if you're normally remote.) Of course, for some, there are advantages to living somewhere that is truly remote.

by kyrra 6y ago

brownbat 6y ago

Great point. I've been wondering -- if commute times suddenly become close to irrelevant, because most hours worked are remote, that changes a ton of housing calculations, right? Remote work is over-represented in tech though, so I don't know how much of the population it will really effect, since we're primarily a services economy. Not sure what the effect size is, but if I could easily live anywhere it'd probably be more remote.

ghaff 6y ago
Sure. There are advantages to being within range of a major city for the occasional day/evening trip or weekend: eating out, airport, theater, health care, etc. That said, some of those things are less of a big deal for some people than others and stretching the distance to, say, a 2 hour drive increases the area that you could potentially live in enormously if you don't need to worry about a commute. (And for a rare visit to an office, you can just stay at a hotel if you're normally remote.) Of course, for some, there are advantages to living somewhere that is truly remote.