Working Paper: NBER ID: w28526
Authors: Jan Brueckner; Matthew E. Kahn; Gary C. Lin
Abstract: This paper studies the impacts of work-from-home (WFH) in the housing market from both intercity and intracity perspectives. Our results confirm the theoretical prediction that WFH puts downward pressure on housing prices and rents in high-productivity counties, a result of workers starting to relocate to cheaper metro areas during the pandemic without forsaking their desirable jobs. We also show that WFH tends to flatten intracity house-price gradients, weakening the price premium associated with good job access.
Keywords: work-from-home; housing market; spatial hedonic equilibrium; telecommuting
JEL Codes: R14; R23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| WFH (J29) | workers relocating to lower-cost areas (R23) |
| flattening intracity house-price gradients (R31) | diminished value of access to CBD (R33) |
| lack of support for prediction that prices and rents would fall in low-amenity cities with high WFH potential (R21) | divergence from initial hypothesis (C12) |
| WFH (J29) | downward pressure on housing prices and rents in high-productivity counties (R21) |
| WFH (J29) | flattening intracity house-price gradients (R31) |