Re working from home:
Quote:
. . . a number of corporations are developing plans for more work-from-home options beyond the pandemic. A recent separate survey of firms from the Survey of Business Uncertainty that I run with the Atlanta Federal Reserve and the University of Chicago indicated that the share of working days spent at home is expected to increase fourfold from pre-COVID levels, from 5 percent to 20 percent.
Of the dozens of firms I have talked to, the typical plan is that employees will work from home one to three days a week, and come into the office the rest of the time.
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Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom @
https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/29...-home-economy/
I think this is right and it means, essentially, that employees who can do some work at home will still have to come into the office about half the time and that means that living within a convenient range of the office will still be desirable. While you could move 2 states away and fly in for your days at work, that would both get expensive negating savings of living in a cheaper location, it could also get exhausting.
Then there’s the question of what does this mean for the amount of office soace companies need. It probably does mean they need less but maybe not as much less as some people think because the reason for having employees come to the office is to network and collaborate with other employees meaning many employees would likely be in the office at the same time. One large SF company, Salesforce, seemed to be contemplating this when CEO Mark Benioff talked about not so much reducing space as redesigning it to facilitate employees getting together in groups; in other words no cubicles but rather open living room like office spaces.
I do think it can mean less commute traffic, much lower peak demand on commuter transit systems and less business for downtown services like restaurants serving lunch. You could see a greater emphasis on dinner service in downtown dining spots.