I totally support this move by Amazon and Apple. My hope is Microsoft/Google/Facebook would follow. There is a desperate need for larger tech companies to move away from Bay Area/Seattle and expand into other cities which actually may have cheaper housing and where life may not feel such a challenge, specially for folks with dependents and families.
That's why I hope they don't go to the obvious cities that already have high rents (New York, Austin, Chicago). They could make an enormous, positive impact on many smaller cities, or could do damage to already expensive ones.
> cities that already have high rents (New York, Austin, Chicago)
I was curious about this. I live in Austin, and don't think the rent is particularly high there. I just wanted some data. Looking at rent prices on one website in particular (https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Austin) and using Austin as the baseline:
Less expensive candidate cities:
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 43.54% higher than in Columbus, OH
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 40.87% higher than in Indianapolis, IN
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 34.51% higher than in Raleigh, NC
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 26.93% higher than in Pittsburgh, PA
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 24.66% higher than in Newark, NJ
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 18.86% higher than in Dallas, TX
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 9.24% higher than in Atlanta, GA
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 7.51% higher than in Toronto
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 5.29% higher than in Nashville, TN
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 4.49% higher than in Philadelphia, PA
More expensive candidate cities:
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 6.64% lower than in Denver, CO
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 10.82% lower than in Chicago, IL
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 20.41% lower than in Miami, FL
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 26.91% lower than in Los Angeles, CA
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 31.45% lower than in Washington, DC
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 36.17% lower than in Boston, MA
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 49.78% lower than in New York, NY
- Rent Prices in Austin, TX are 56.44% lower than in San Francisco, CA
Real property in general, not just homes (and even moreso, not just owner occupied homes.)
But also can be sales taxes.
> People who rent have this hit them less.
Wrong. Property taxes (even those limited to residential property) hit renters at least as much as people living in homes they own. Sure, the landlord gets the tax bill, but that immediately goes into setting rent.
> Wrong. Property taxes (even those limited to residential property) hit renters at least as much as people living in homes they own. Sure, the landlord gets the tax bill, but that immediately goes into setting rent.
If the supply of homes are relatively inelastic, the landlords are already maximizing the rent the market will pay. So they can't pass tax increases on to renters -- as they are already charging the maximum renters would pay!
(This starts to break down only if new housing is no longer built due to lower returns or owners devalue their housing to cut taxes)
