HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
LEAD ARTICLE
Amazon and the Battle for Tomorrow’s Communities
BY PETER MILLER, STAFF WRITER
The decision by Amazon to build a massive second headquarters – the HQ2 – has set off a gold rush of sorts, one where 238 states, provinces, districts, and territories in the U.S. and Canada have each suggested they alone are worthy of Amazon’s $5 billion investment and 50,000 new jobs. The Amazon victor will be the symbol of a newly emerging economic landscape – one where a limited number of winners
do very well while lagging counties and communities are being hollowed out: jobs are few, property values are weak, taxes are insufficient, and the local standard of living is stalled This is not some dire and dystopian prediction for the future, this is a reality today for tens of millions of people, individuals who no longer have the option of living in a hip and happening metro core, the places with arguably the best jobs and the highest standard
of living. At the same time, changes in social values are opening up new opportunities in cities and counties not named New York, San Jose or Seattle. The Affordability Gulch Large numbers of people in high-tech centers are increasingly priced out of traditional real estate options. In some cases people with jobs in high-cost areas — the homeless employed — can only afford to live in their cars.
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DECEMBER 2017 | ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS
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