Zoom Towns

I recently read a fantastic article from the Wall Street Journal on some of the greater effects of remote work.  Being an office broker, I of course am focused daily on the office sector, but this article explores much more as this trend spreads throughout urban geography across the US. Some of my thoughts are below:

• The competition for talent in America just got tougher.
• Smaller communities will compete for remote workers and are already incentivizing (paying) employees to pick them.
• The communities closest to unique amenities will fair the best, e.g. Park City near skiing and cities within striking distance of major hubs like Woodstock, NY, etc.
• Controversial, company-specific, incentives will be redirected to community investments. So instead of a check, it will be the community`s infrastructure and services that win new jobs for the area.
• The rental graphs below show that enough skilled remote workers value affordable housing over tech hotbeds enough to affect real estate prices outside these hotbeds.  Prices are going up in smaller communities and down in gateway cities.