A new Apartment List study examines how HQ2 might impact rental costs in metros contending for Amazon?s second home As cities scramble to complete their bids for Amazon?s HQ2, which are due today, mayors and state leaders from around the country have been doing seemingly everything they can to land the massive development opportunity, from offering billions in subsidies to reviewing hundreds of Amazon products in a humorous PR campaign.
But the experience of Seattle, home of Amazon?s original headquarters and the company?s stratospheric growth?as well as a number of affordability and city planning challenges due to the retailer?s massive footprint?should offer caution to any city that thinks adding upwards of 50,000 employees and $5 billion in investment over the next few years is going to be easy. Recently, Apartment List crunched the numbers to see how Amazon?s potential arrival might impact rent prices in a number of U.S. cities. At a time of rising affordability and housing shortages in metros across the country, any large influx of new residents, especially those with high salaries, would strain and impact the housing market.
To make their predictions, Apartment List analyzed data for 15 cities from the U.S. Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as historical home-building statistics, to determine both how much housing each market could build, the slack in the market in terms of how much housing could be added, and the overall impact of an influx ...