Question:
What is the average cost of a home in suburbia?
What is the average cost of an apartment in Manhattan?
In my neck of the Upstate South Carolina, new “starter” patio homes have a price tag of $170K. Although I adhere to the Dave Ramsey philosophy of personal financial management and that the goal of buying a house is ownership, most people who buy a home now are doing no more than leasing the house from the mortgage company. Which is better, a house mortgage of $900 a month with a chance to profit when sold or rent at $1,200 per month. Unfortunately in today’s economy, cash is no longer king. Leverage (debt) is.
We moved from Seattle to Rural KY where I bought 12 acres and a new home for less than one year’s wages. Those wages could only get me into a rundown three bedroom rambler on a postage stamp lot in Seattle. And the taxes on that lot would have been around $3,000 a year if I was lucky. Here they are $250 a year.
And now that we can work from home full time, why the heck would I live in an urban or suburban area?
My olf friend from High school bought a new home in the Bonnie Lake area a few years ago. I think the virus response was the last straw for them, added to their $7,000 a year property taxes.
FINALLY, they are putting it on the market and heading out here to get their own piece of heaven.
Oh, and my daughter and her husband moved out here two years ago. They purchased a house on five acres here for $625k that would have cost them millions in Seattle. My other daughter and her husband are visiting them as I type this. He owns his own business and now that the whole company is working remotely, he’s done hiring expensive Seattle residents. He’s looking for employees who will live in the Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky area. And they are planning on moving as well.
In all seriousness, the face of the nation is finally changing due to a lot of social and tech issues. Working from home has been shown to be a practical solution, and the virus forced us to do it en-mas with tremendous success. Expect the cities and their close suburbs to be drained as more distant suburbs and even small towns to grow with new residents working from home.
Who it will negatively affect are those that were able to live comfortably in small towns on $15 an hour. They may find themselves being displaced as people with city wages move in and drive up all prices.