Walkable neighborhoods with easy access to public transit have traditionally been attractive to home buyers. After all, who doesn’t like the convenience of having the things you need close by? But while convenience is appealing, it’s not the only thing home buyers weigh when deciding where to look for a new house. And after the pandemic upended our daily routines and changed where and how we work, access to transit began to fall from the top of buyers’ wish lists. In short, the pandemic changed home buyers’ priorities too. That helps explain a new analysis showing car-dependent neighborhoods experiencing sharper home-price increases than areas close to transit. In fact, the analysis found the median-sales price in car-dependent areas has increased 32.8 percent since January 2020. In transit-accessible neighborhoods prices have risen 15.6 percent. The disparity is a reflection of how many buyers have chosen privacy, space, and affordability over convenience and transportation since the beginning of the pandemic. Whether or not this trend continues will depend, in part, on how many remote workers are required to return to offices as the economy’s reopening progresses. (source)
