This has an interesting inheritance of why properties go up in value in relation to supply and demand and an economy. If the needs of society are pushed to an average of not needing to venture out anymore due to automation and manufacturing + remote work then we start to focus internally on community. If that's the case, how much does the location matter outside maybe the view you're able to afford?
I'd argue that it matters _more_ in that case, because the returns to clustering will be higher, and the non-work features (access to outdoors, climate) will matter more.
I think in a world where you don't worry about jobs, and worry less about living expenses, Boulder and San Diego and Manhattan get _more_ desirable.
(I hope i'm reading your hypothetical right) in a world where I don't have to venture out to go to work, and don't have to live in a set place to chase an industry, I'd put more value on being in a nice climate, close to fun things to do, and near other people that have 'interesting' established communities (walkable culture, food, know your neighbors, all the standard millennial trend stuff).
I'm assuming a situation where I have more leisure time and less income scarcity here.
There are some people who take the "given no constraints I'd move to flyover country" but even then many of them are doing that because it's cheap, not because it's the absolute most desirable right?
Strictly speaking you _could_ just plop a new city down from scratch in Nebraska, but why would i live there when i could live somewhere where I go to the beach or the mountains every weekend, and walk to a hopping established strip of restaurants and coffee shops in 10 minutes?
Moving to flyover country is more than affordability. It's also a matter of culture. Some people want stand-your-ground, constitutional carry, and lethal defense of property. Some people want to be surrounded by a particular religious group.
Affordability is also more than just being able to buy a place to live. People want land. This can mean being able to hunt in the yard, own a private pond, or walk around without seeing any sign of the existence of other humans on Earth. Technically, there is some amount of money that would let you do that kind of thing in San Francisco. It would start with funding political campaigns, leading to a massive eminent domain wipe-out of the existing city... but this is not realistic. In a practical sense, getting the space is not a matter of affordability. You can't have that space for any realistic cost.
Bingo. I live in a “constitution carry” state in flyover country. Currently on travel in a heavy gun-control state that looks like a documentary on the opioid epidemic. Can’t wait to get back.
I wasn't really thinking in terms of politics -- There's still a few hub cities in conservative land that are the main places people live, right? More people live in just the Houston metro area than in all of Missouri, despite rural MO being cheaper and just as conservative.
I guess the point i'm trying to make is in regards to the original poster -- They posited that if people don't have to care about job locations and as much about cost, real estate values in concentrated places would drop.
I'm arguing that if people could move anywhere they preferred, concentrated places would get _more_ popular, because the gains you get living in currently desirable places get more valuable the more time and money you have. Obviously you have some people who's preference is to live somewhere isolated, but most of those people don't currently live in expensive places. There are some people who are holed up in San Diego and waiting until the day they can leave, but that number is probably swamped by the people who'd move there in a heartbeat if they could find a job that payed well enough.
Maybe my sample is skewed, but I'm from a small city in MO, most of my friends are early 30s and starting to settle down and start families, and I know a lot more people who would rather live in NYC/Boulder/Nashville/Dallas than either where they live now, or somewhere more rural.
I have a lot of friends who have moved to rural areas. A few of them went stir-crazy and moved back.
I called one friend who had moved away, pining after a property and he said moaned "nobody to talk to about anything more complicated than a hammer and nail".
