WFH Drove Housing Price Surge, Study Finds

Working from home drove more than half of the increase in housing and rent prices during the pandemic, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. House prices rose 24% in the two years that ended in November 2021, and more than 60% of the increase is linked to the rise in remote work during the pandemic. “This suggests that the fundamentals of housing demand have changed, such that the persistence of remote work is likely to affect the future path of real estate prices and inflation,” the economists wrote.