More remote workers are willing to move to find affordable

More remote workers are willing to move to find affordable housing – CNN

Washington, D.C. CNN –

Housing is more affordable than it has been in about four decades. However, according to a recent study from Fannie Mae, buying or renting a home might be even less affordable if it weren’t for the ongoing impact of remote and hybrid workers as a result of the pandemic.

The study, which was an analysis of Fannie Mae’s monthly National Housing Survey, which asked questions of more than 3,000 mortgage holders, owners and renters between January and March of this year, examined how remote and hybrid work is affecting has changed in recent years and its impact on housing construction.

According to the report, more people are willing to move to cheaper areas in city centers that are further away from offices than they were a few years ago. The study found that the continuation of remote and hybrid work, which remains remarkably unchanged from two years ago, is enabling people to move toward affordable housing.

The report also showed that “affordability” is the most important factor when looking for an apartment, for both renters and homeowners.

At the start of the year, 22% of remote and hybrid workers said they would be willing to move to another region or commute more to work. Only 14% of these workers were willing to do so in the third quarter of 2021, which serves as a benchmark throughout the study and when many workplaces attempted a “return to work” until the Omicron variant of Covid-19 forced many employers to do so. Plans for this winter back.

Workers who are able to break their ties to the neighborhood because of proximity to work can spread out, reducing competition for a historically low number of homes for sale, which could drive prices even higher.

The research found that as of 2021, remote workers across all age and income groups are more willing to move or live further from their workplace. However, younger workers – aged 18 to 34 – are significantly more willing than older ones to live or travel further distances from their workplace, with the share willing to do so rising from 18% in 2021 to 30% in 2021 2023 increases.

“We believe this greater willingness to live further away from… the workplace may be an indication that some workers are feeling more confident about their remote work situation… or their ability to find another job if their current one “Employers would change their policies,” the researchers wrote in a summary.

That’s good news for remote workers at a time when housing affordability is crushingly low.

Remote and hybrid work could be here to stay. Or it’s been here so long that people might buy or rent a new home because of it, the researchers found.

Despite executives at some big-name companies requiring workers to walk in or out the door, the share of fully remote and hybrid workers has remained surprisingly consistent in the post-pandemic period, according to the study.

In the first half of the year, 35% of respondents worked fully remotely or worked a mix of time at work and time at home. That was only a slight decrease from 2021’s 36%.

While the share of workers going to work or the office every day remained unchanged at 49% in both 2021 and 2023, the share of people working fully remotely increased this year from 13% in the year 2021 to 14%.

Homeowners are still slightly more likely to work from home than renters. And those with more education and higher income are also more likely to have a work-from-home situation, consistent with 2021, the study found.

Only 30% of low-income earners earning 80% of the regional median income could work remotely or hybrid in 2021, and that share has fallen to 27% this year. Meanwhile, 42% of upper-income people earning 120% of the regional median income were able to work from home in 2021, and that number has not changed in 2023.

Lower-income people – who most need access to cheaper housing further from the city center – are also the least likely to work remotely, according to the survey.

With housing affordability declining sharply in recent years as rents rose, house prices remained high and mortgage rates shot to a 22-year high, it’s no surprise that “affordability” is the most important factor for people choosing a new home was. at 36%. This was a big increase from 2014, the last time the question was asked, when “neighborhood” was the top consideration at 49%.

Both homeowners and renters placed increasing importance on “affordability,” but the increase was greatest among renters, rising from 21% in 2014 to 46% in 2023.

“The change in renter preference is truly remarkable because it has not only more than doubled, but also represents a complete reversal of the relative importance of neighborhood, which was cited as the most important criterion by consumers in 2014,” they write Researcher.

Furthermore, despite talk of moving for more space, “apartment size” remained unchanged as a factor in choosing a next apartment and was still outweighed by “affordability.”

“The striking shift toward affordability as the top criterion among survey respondents for their next move underscores the need for households to find ways to cope with the significant increases in mortgage rates, house prices and rents in recent years,” the researchers wrote.

And that affects where people look for a home and what their priorities are when searching.

“Home affordability may also be a reason why remote workers have become more willing to relocate or live further from their workplace, especially given that a shorter commute to denser job markets has historically been considered a premium amenity,” the researchers wrote.

According to the report, the suburbs are increasingly where people want to be, part of an ongoing trend since 2010. And this share increased between 2021 and 2023.

According to the researchers, how remote workers are changing the housing market has broader implications for the connection between housing and the labor market.

The growing share of renters and homeowners who work remotely and are willing to live further from their place of work gives employers access to a broader labor market, which could be useful if a downturn in economic activity leads to higher job loss rates.

“Access to a larger labor market may also reduce the negative impact on local housing prices when a large employer or industry contracts,” the researchers write.