Buyers Will Pay a Premium to Avoid Long Commutes

A new study finds out why the wealthy have been returning to city centers
Nov. 18, 2015

Compared to downtown home prices in the 1980s, the cost of city living today is stratospheric. A new study aims to find out what attracts the wealthy to city centers.

A new working paper by economists at Columbia University and the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian think tank, summarized in their studies that “gentrification can be found in the shrinking leisure of high-income households.”

This means, though some economists dismiss the death of exurbs as a myth, that a significant number of households are tired of long commutes.

“As well-educated, high-income, dual-breadwinner households have put in longer hours at the office, they’ve likewise become starved for free time,” CityLab reports. “And since a shorter trip to work is one of the simplest ways to make up for lost moments, they’re willing to pay handsomely for it.”

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