Housing-News-Report-December-2017

HOUSINGNEWS REPORT

AMAZON AND THE BATTLE FOR TOMORROW’S COMMUNITIES

But in 1896 things changed. Rural free delivery (RFD) was offered to homes and farms very much off the grid. One result was that retailing pioneers such as Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck began offering goods through mail-order catalogs. Now able to generate massive sales, the catalogers reduced prices and radically changed the retail marketplace. “In 1897 bicycles ran anywhere from $75 to $100 in retail stores,” writes Thomas V. DiBacco in his book, Made in the U.S.A. The History of American Business. “When Sears first sold them, the price was affordable. According to an 1898 magazine, Sears sends a

‘bicycle Catalogue free to anyone who asks for it, and, we are told, shipping several hundred bicycles every day to every state, direct to the riders at $5 to $19.75, on free trial before paying. If Sears, Roebuck & Co. continue to wage their bicycle war throughout the season it will be a boon to all those who want bicycles, but a sad blow to bicycle dealers and manufacturers.’” Sears, of course, eventually expanded from virtual marketing by mail to brick-and-mortar stores. For decades it was the most-dominant retailer in the United States, a company that at one time or another sold cars, entire kit houses, shirts, tools, and appliances.

The parallels are obvious. The internet is the new technology instead of mail. Like Sears itself Amazon is beginning to have a bricks-and-mortar future; just consider its recent $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods. The established retailers in town are feeling the squeeze: America is “overstored.” Green Street Advisors estimates that “the top 300-400 malls by quality should fare well for the next several years, but it is reasonable to assume that several hundred lower quality malls will either close or become irrelevant retail destinations over the next ten years.”

METRO JOB WINNERS

MEDIAN HOME PRICE 2017

NET JOB GAIN/LOSS IN 2016

$410,000

1,699

$360,000

1,591

$287,577

1,167

1,121

1,066

$200,000

$190,100

SEATTLE

DENVER

AUSTIN

CHARLOTTE

ATLANTA

SOURCES: ADP, ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS

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DECEMBER 2017 | ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS

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