A new survey from Zillow shows that remote working will accelerate housing demand over the next few years as people transitioning to hybrid or remote work prioritize affordability over a short commute.
According to the survey, regions that are between 60 minutes to 90 minutes outside of major cities are seeing the quickest home value growth.
Because of this, rents overall rose 9.2% year-over-year in July. In particular, nine of the country’s 50 largest metro areas saw rent levels reach 10% higher than their anticipated levels based on pre-pandemic trends.
The findings showed that 64% of respondents value having the freedom to live where they want now that they are working from home, especially Millennial and Gen Z professionals.
Among these younger generations, 50% said they are ‘somewhat likely’ to consider looking for a new job if they are required to be in the office more than they prefer.
More notably, 84% of respondents said they would like to work remotely at least a few days each month, while 44% wanted full-time remote working abilities.
However, this desire is leaning on the uncertainty of what a pandemic-era office would look like, with over one-third of workers saying that Covid-19 is impacting how they make decisions about their lives.