Ask HN: Evidence for remote work equalizing real estate costs worldwide?

6 points·hiAndrewQuinn··5 comments

Just curious to know what research currently exists on this, and whether my hunch is correct or totally off.

Probably totally off as remote work is a very small % of all the work done globally.

Furthermore, there are significant barriers getting into the kind of remote work that pays significantly more than local work: language and culture, legal considerations, the skills to find remote jobs and, particularly in less developed countries, having education that would allow you to develop globally marketable skills.

To counter that: only a very small % of real estate is on the market at any given time, but the sales made set the "value" of all other real estate.

Still, unless the deal volume is really low, I doubt that's what driving the price growth.

Capital is much more fungible and flexible than labor. Foreign capital inflows, particularly speculative, can do a lot more to drive up the prices for locals than a handful of remote workers.

That's going to be a very small signal in a huge amount of DC pulse that resulted from Fauci's deadly toy, and the subsequent lockdowns. I'm not sure it's measurable separately.

Housing prices are something best measured 10 years later, so there's still time to go on this one.

More than likely the equalizing effect you're seeing is due to private capital from foreign investors - e.g. the Vancouver housing market.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com