When people are looking for the perfect ‘forever’ home that will last them for a lifetime, any additional cost isn’t going to phase them – or at least it won’t affect the affluent folks. Most are making it up elsewhere when they sell their previous home or rental properties, inherit big money or receive a gift, and/or sell their businesses/stocks or other assets and just want a trophy property.
If they weren’t bothered by home prices rising 60% to 80% over the last two years, a measly 2% increase in the mortgage rate isn’t going to stop them.
https://eyeonhousing.org/2022/04/high-home-prices-are-leading-more-buyers-to-give-up-home-search/
NSDCC Actives vs Pendings
Monday: 224 vs 205
Wednesday: 228 vs 192
With a bunch of closings this week, the pendings count might slip into the 170-something range
I’m surprised at the unwillingness to search wider. It isn’t as if technology is reversing making proximity a premium. In just a few years driving won’t be a thing for seniors.
It’s an extra plus to stay closer to home.
It’s hard to quantify but the last move isn’t as scary if you can return to your doctors and familiar spots if you have to. A travel-time of 60 minutes or less is probably the comfort zone, and they are probably expecting a driver by now (spouse).
Hopefully somebody is buying up all the desert land and planning for El Centro Estates! Driverless travel is right around the corner:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211126-how-driverless-cars-will-change-our-world
Though there are always the doomers:
Despite all the developments and innovations the next decade is likely to hold, some experts still feel we might be a way off from full deployment of driverless vehicles. By 2031, “full-self driving – human-level or above, in all possible conditions, where you can put kids by themselves in the car to send them to arbitrary locations without worrying – is not something I expect to see,” says Ozay.
Wait until seniors figure out they can pool transportation resources. Ten houses can share 4 vehicles. One can be the autonomous truck for going to the Home Despot. Another a citi-car for errands and the doctor. The third holds six for getting to the Padres game to watch them lose to the Red Sox. Again. Etc.
All that said there will always be people absolutely wedded to the La Jolla lifestyle and such. Personally those extreme experiences are best visited not invest in.
The LA City bus we take to the Hollywood Bowl gets arrival priority. I expect it won’t be long before large venues accommodate autonomous vehicles and once deluged, start charging for it.
I predict it will only be a few years before the close in cenurbs start applying “No Autonomous Vehicle Parking” to their streets. The inner urbs will equally prohibit autonomous vehicle loitering.
I’m all for the communes. This is a great solution – expand this into commune size:
http://www.casagogo.com
The standard of all-time, and I’ve been here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania