Diana Olick, correspondent of CNBC, says real estate has always been all about location and this has never been more true than today. She observes that with the millennials and baby boomers trooping to urban areas, sharing cars and bicycles, comes the growth of living less expensively in places farther away from town.
John Burns of John Burns Real Estate Consulting wrote in a new report, "In my 26 years in the business, the price discount available to someone who is willing to commute has never been greater. "
Burns illustrates through these figures: home prices in closer-in Deerfield, Chicago are about 15 percent lower than their peak in 2006 and can go to as high as 30 percent below peak as you go farther out the interstate. In Los Angeles, home prices in the farther outskirt of Palmdale are 37 percent below peak, while those in the close- in suburb of Glendale are 2 percent above peak. In the "Willowsford" community in Ashburn, Virginia, which is some 30 miles away from downtown D.C, houses are significantly low priced at over 15 percent below the latest peak, compared to those found near the city. Willowsford is a 4,000 - acre residential area in Ashburn, Virginia and takes about an hour to reach from Washington.
Brian Cullen, head of development at Willowsford said, "We're still a little bit under prerecession pricing, whereas the inner jurisdictions are now above prerecession pricing. People will make a value decision that they want to live in Willowsford, that they want a community that offers a lot of things they want, and that the driving isn't that challenging for them."
Ian Walsh who owns a spacious new colonial in Willowsford commented, "It's easy to look at the math, the amount of square footage you can get inside your house, including the land, just the size of house you can get for the dollar, just drops dramatically as you get a little bit outside of the city. "
"When I get out here and into the neighborhood, I kind of feel the stress of the city roll off my shoulders a little bit and relax almost instantly, and any sort of stress from work or the commute is kind of wiped away when I pull in," added Walsh.
