HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
AMAZON AND THE BATTLE FOR TOMORROW’S COMMUNITIES
METRO JOB LOSERS
MEDIAN HOME PRICE 2017
NET JOB GAIN/LOSS IN 2016
SAN JOSE
LOS ANGELES
WASHINGTON, DC
NEW YORK
CHICAGO
$950,000
-2,406
-2,484
-3,245
-3,380
$590,000
$375,000
$366,000
-7,659
$217,000
SOURCES: ADP, ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS
cost per hour for a robot is around $8 when installation, maintenance, and the operating costs of all hardware, software, and peripherals are amortized over a five-year depreciation period. In 15 years, that gap will widen even more dramatically. The operating cost per hour for a robot doing similar welding tasks could plunge to as little as $2 when improvements in its performance are factored in.” (Parenthesis theirs.) In such an environment a development offer from Amazon or any other company is tough to ignore. Amazon, in particular, is not just bringing in 50,000 new jobs with the HQ2 project, it’s bringing in jobs with “an average annual total compensation
exceeding one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) over the next ten to fifteen years.” Like a major government facility, it’s also bringing in contractors and manufacturers who want to do business with the giant tech company. Armies of new people with money to spend need shopping, entertainment, medical care, auto repair shops, and all the other services one expects in a booming local economy.
Retailers before World War I were able to sell goods with huge mark-ups. There were few discount shops, automation as we know it today was in the future, and most Americans did not live in big cities. “In 1890,” says the U.S. Postal Service, “nearly 41 million people — 65 percent of the American population — lived in rural areas. Although many city dwellers had enjoyed free home delivery since 1863, rural citizens had to pick up their mail at the Post Office, leading one farmer to ask: ‘Why should the cities have fancy mail service and the old colonial system still prevail in the country districts?’”
Sears Roebuck And The Case For Amazon
Long ago the retail marketplace was very different. As Noam Chomsky explains, “the shift from sailing ships to telegraph was far more radical than that from telephone to email!”
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DECEMBER 2017 | ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS
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