FILE PHOTO: Research finds a connection between housing prices and more people working from home. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — A new study suggests the increased number of people working from home could be the reason that home prices have skyrocketed over the past couple of years.
The study by The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco notes that home prices saw a 24% increase from Nov. 2019 to Nov. 2020, while work from home rates rose from a pre-pandemic 5% to 60% in the Spring of 2020. As of August, 2022, around 30% of people work from home, according to the study.
Researchers attribute 15 percentage points of the 24% increase from 2019 to 2021 to remote work.
One reason for the increased home prices, according to researchers, is that people needed the time and space to do in their homes what they traditionally did in their offices.
As remote work remains a constant, the researchers think it will also impact future home prices and inflation.