Hacker News Reader

Comment by booleandilemma | Hacker News Reader

Who are all these people that can just uproot themselves and make a “flight to the suburbs” at seemingly the drop of a hat? And then what, in 6 months time they’re going to move back?

Moving for me has always been a big deal. Am I thinking about it the wrong way? Don’t these people have leases or something? Or kids that they’ll have to find a new school for?

View on HN

I know off the top of my head I think 5 people that decided to buy houses during lockdown. As I heard somewhere early in this, "Crises accelerate life." Largely these are people who were planning to buy / upgrade in the near term anyway.

Suddenly they had time on their hands and it seemed like the right time. Not to mention that interest rates are dropping through the floor.

The only thing that's kept me in the city is the lack of remote work and the difficulty of moving. I came here for the higher salaries, which was key to paying off my absurd college costs. If remote work is easier now, it's a big motivator for me to get out to someplace I can live comfortably for reasonable costs.

What makes you think they want to move back in 6 months? Moving is a big deal, you are right about that. It's not impossible to do in a couple of months if you have the means to put down 20% and get a traditional mortgage.

Cost/benefit analysis. Leaving cities often comes with substantially lower rent.

They are people who were thinking about moving anyway, or people whose situation has changed. Most leases are one-year leases. If you've already been thinking about moving from the city, the fact that 1. much of the city is closed and its benefits have declined, 2. you're now working from home, so short commutes are less important, and 3. many cities haven't seen sufficiently steep rent declines, may make you leave.

Furthermore, no one knows when we're going to get a vaccine. It could be in December. It could be much later than that. Winter in a cold-weather climate in a small, expensive domicile may be very difficult right now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com