For a very long time, frequent travelers and full-time workers were rarely the same person. After all, if you need to be in the office every day, there’s only so much jet-setting you can do, barring those exciting jobs that involve a lot of business travel.
However, this past year has created some really interesting travel and permanent living trends, since the pandemic’s shutdowns prompted so much new remote work to occur. Companies who saw no decrease in productivity (or even an increase in productivity) during their employees’ time at home are now considering an exciting notion: work from anywhere, as both a perk for employees and a way to retain great talent through offering flexibility.
One particularly interesting case study of this larger trend is the way that migration away from and back to the big cities like New York occurred both during the height of the pandemic and more recently. Are cities worthwhile, with their sky-high rents and mortgages, if you don’t need to be there for work? The answer turns out to be complicated.
The Flight From People-Filled Cities
New York was an epicenter of the early COVID-19 pandemic, and those who had the opportunity to leave the city did. It ultimately benefitted both those who left and those who stayed, since less crowded subways and sidewalks helped reduce COVID-19 spread. The things that were charming if annoying about the city before – tiny expensive apartments, walking and public transit everywhere, generally having a lot of people everywhere – became dangerous and uncomfortable as people tried to work remotely from kitchen tables and their bedrooms, and it’s not surprising that for a few months, people seemed less intrigued by the idea of the big city.
Remote Work Changes the Equation, But How Much?
Companies who were initially hesitant to let their teams work remotely outside the city had a few different reactions to this past year, but for many of them, the experiment proved surprising. Workers who were strong contributors in-office often managed to get a lot done at home, sometimes even more than they did with the distractions of in-person office life. As a result, companies who didn’t see a dip in productivity had a lot of incentive to offer options to their workforce even after in-office work became safer. After all, if someone is happier with their salary because they can work remotely from a place with a lower cost of living, they may stay and contribute well for longer.
Given how many companies are having this revelation, some people wondered whether city real estate would see a permanent loss of demand, both for offices themselves and for the expensive homes that are conveniently located near those offices.
What Cities Can Do Even Without Mandatory Office Days
It turns out, at least right now, that the pull of the city is more than just being close to one’s office. Big superstar cities, according to Homelight’s top real estate agents this spring, are still seeing lots of people moving to them or moving back to them, with new home buyers and sellers citing the cultural attractions, social opportunities, and other life elements of living in the big city as the reason to live there. There may still be the option for remote work, but they can choose in-office on days when that is more convenient if they are in the city already.
No one knows if these trends will continue, but for now, cities are filling back up, and frequent travellers may now have options for living in cities short or long term while working for companies anywhere in the world. The options are endless!
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