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Notes -
There is a simple and relatively general reason why we expect housing costs to have increased relative to pre-pandemic levels. Remote working increases demand for housing everywhere because people who work from home require more square feet of living space for an equivalent quality of life. And the impact of increase in price on demand is greatest where supply is constrained - i.e. in blue-state NIMBY cities.
So we have three effects:
A general increase in house prices due to the demand effect of WFH. Positive everywhere, and relatively more positive for the Bay Area than elsewhere.
The relative attractiveness of different places changes due to WFH. There is a general flattening effect (within a metro area for people who sometimes need to network in person, globally for people who can be 100% remote) on the value of neighbourhoods, and there is also a shift in value away from places with a convenient commute to good jobs, and towards fun places. This is a small net negative for the Bay Area as a whole, but within the Bay Area it is a big positive for SF at the expense of Silicon Valley.
The specific problems with social decay in SF.
It doesn't surprise me that these are net-positive for SF house prices.
Why would you expect WFH creates a demand increase everywhere? Seems to me that if you need not commute, you will get some x% if the population moving to generic cheap jurisdiction which may decrease the demand in very expensive neighborhoods.
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