How WFH will impact where people move
*This is not financial advice. All content should be considered opinionated. We are not responsible for any of your gains and losses. I am neither a licensed nor registered financial expert. Please see a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
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Yesterday, I was traveling to the coastal city of Santa Barbara to visit UCSB. While I can't tell you where I live, I can say that I live in Silicon Valley (and that is a broad term for the Bay Area).
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Santa Barbara and Silicon Valley are separated by the Central Valley, a section of California that is full of farmland and has a sparse population. The thing that makes the Central Valley great is that its unique landscape can serve as a hiding place during a war, a pandemic, a zombie apocalypse, etc.
Driving by 101 in the Central Valley, I was thinking a lot about the many analysts and economists that predicted that many will move to cheaper places like Alabama and the Midwest since work from home will allow people to work from anywhere while receiving the same pay, alleviating stresses like commute and expensive housing. The Central Valley was one place I originally thought many would move to.
When thinking about the many inexpensive places of living like Alabama, Nebraska, etc. one thing that many of them have in common is that their school system isn't as great as school systems in California or New York. That's the thing that made me realize that the work from home movement wouldn't cause many people to flee places like Manhattan, San Francisco, Seattle, etc. It might even bring more people to those areas.
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It's a crazy thought but consider this: while parents have to do everything in their power to ensure that there is food on the table and that their family is prepared for any emergencies, parents are also willing to do everything in their power to give their kids the resources to excel at school, get into great universities, and have a great life. Even if it means being creative to get their kids to the top schools. That's why I can see many families moving to these expensive cities just so that their kids can get a better education and hopefully get into a great university.
Another thought also came to my head when thinking about the topic: demand for urban housing will actually increase, not decrease. The pandemic has shown us that the removal of daily social interaction makes us crazy. Humans craze for social interaction. The amount of phone time Americans had during the pandemic skyrocketed.
With great schools and a lot of social interaction being located in urban areas, more people are going to flock to the urban areas one way or another. As much as people will want to protect themselves from the virus, at the end of the day, many people have realized (thanks to history class) that pandemics don't last long and that they're temporary. Because of it, they're going to continue treating daily life like the virus didn't affect it one way or another.
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