Forecasting home appreciation (Dallas, Allen, Paris: houses, square footage, quality of life)

[rowlett mom]

I hope you are right. I work out of my home, my companies headquarters is in chicago. We had a web conference call yesterday, well the Owner and CEO of the companiy did all the talking, but every employee in the US and Europe could log on to it and send in questions. In years past we have had to trek to chicago for a lot of meetings and this was so nice. More companies could do this, think of all the gas that could be saved.

[USA_Mom]

I think telecommuting for *some* jobs will be the way to go at least on a few days a week basis. My husband has this ability for his old work and really could for his new place of employment, but they are like 20 years behind as far as management (can you say micromanagement issues ). My girlfriend works in Plano and as of tomorrow will be living in Plano, and she telecommutes sometimes...even though work is less than 5 miles from her apartment. My old neighbor across the street would telecommute when the roads were icy or if the kids (they had 3 under 3 at that time, now they have 5 and are expecting No. 6!) were up all night and wife needed help. I think it's fabulous. Oh yeah my mom does too, her company is in Richardson and she's in Frisco. Mine is in South Carolina and currently I work in Georgia.

[KantLockeMeIn]

Given the tools, many jobs would work for telecommuting. It's just that today many companies lack the tools that make telecommuting productive.

Given high def video conferencing, ip telephony, online collaboration, meeting capabilities with audio, video, and collaboration tie-ins all make it much easier to virtualize a team. There's less overhead involved for the company since it has to maintain less office space, it has green benefits with reduced emissions due to commuting, and Sun Microsystems found that employees wound up working 60% of the time they would have spent commuting to/from work. It's also a huge win for disaster planning... if your team is spread out across the US, a single natural disaster has limited impact on the workflow of the team.

Eventually the tools and bandwidth will be available to provide a ubiquitous environment for remote workers. The earlier statement was about 20 years from now we will all live close to cities, and I feel the opposite way. The technology available in 20 years will enable us to do the opposite.

But back to the subject at hand... home appreciation I feel people will come into this market from the coasts where there is a high cost of living. These are the people that will flock to Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Southlake, Keller, etc. I would guess the areas of highest potential appreciation would be in Collin and Denton.

[Jameslone]

How did the topic go from home appreciation to telecommuting?

[lpepping]

People in the suburbs trying to justify why they think the burbs will appreciate faster than Dallas.

[Lakewooder]

The MLS reports are against them!

[lh_newbie]

Originally Posted by twojciac

The earlier statement was about 20 years from now we will all live close to cities, and I feel the opposite way. The technology available in 20 years will enable us to do the opposite.

Actually, I believe if you read my entire statement, you will see that I said that densities in the US are going to increase along with public transportation, encouraged by steadily increasing energy and materials costs. As that happens, appreciation near downtown locations will happen at a faster rate than the outlying areas.

Surely, technology has offered telecommuting as a viable option and will increase in popularity over the next 20 years, but I highly doubt it will replace the office. Until there can be a virtual reality office world from home - offices are going to remain the main business places. Telecommuting is not going to play a role in housing appreciation (atleast not to any notable extent).

[USA_Mom]

Originally Posted by lh_newbie

Actua Telecommuting is not going to play a role in housing appreciation (atleast not to any notable extent).

Oh I agree with that, I was just sharing my experience with telecommuting because to be honest I *like* the burbs and in some areas/regions...the country.

From my life experience the closer to the major cities you are, the faster your home appreciates AND sells if you want it to AND is in demand. I mean I remember Riverside, California or Temecula NO ONE would live there and want to commute, but a house there was significantly less than say Anaheim or some areas of Los Angeles county. Same with Baton Rouge versus say Watson, Louisiana. I think that's the nature of the beast, and it makes sense the closer you ARE to the majority of the jobs, the more valuable your real estate is.

[lh_newbie]

Originally Posted by USA_Mom

Oh I agree with that, I was just sharing my experience with telecommuting because to be honest I *like* the burbs and in some areas/regions...the country.

Totally cool with that. In fact, I think even in the future, suburbs are going to continue to be popular. My posts were about macro trends as they apply to home appreciation. I do feel that DFW is a rather extreme example of suburbanization - and in the future, that trend will slow. It's not, IMO, ever going to stop - there are too many people with different wants/needs. But the trend in the future will slowly shift toward higher density developments with work/live/play designs.

Speaking of far reaching burbs - if you've been to California, you're well aware that people will drive 2 hours to the office so they can get an affordable home. It's obviously a long, LONG ways away before Dallas has that sort of issue since we have one thing California doesn't - large quantities of flat, buildable land (yup, it's a strength as well as a weakness - no ocean means more land). Public transportation can, and has in CA, made living further from the more densely packed job centers a viable option. For this reason, I believe home appreciation will also be higher the closer to a transit station a home is located.

Brian

[USA_Mom]

I think in the future that being closer to public transportation will be a big seller, Americans love their cars (I do!) but at some point there is going to be a cut off if things don't change.

I noticed also even in the suburbs the trend towards work/play/live lifestyles. There is a place up in Frisco trying to do that (I think it's called Frisco Square but I'm in Georgia and don't drive by it regularly enough to remember obviously ) and the one at Legacy and the Tollway. If I was single or married without 3 kids, I think it would be a blast to be in an area like that. When I moved out initially as a 19-year-old I got an apartment in downtown Huntington Beach just for that experience. It was fun and I never regreted the then $535 a month for 535 square feet. My husband, being from the South, couldn't believe rent was that much for my first place--but you pay for the niceties and well the ocean.