Why the Amazon effect on house prices may be muted in the chosen HQ2 cities

[nitpicker]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-the-amazon-effect-on-house-prices-may-be-muted-in-the-chosen-hq2-cities-2018-11-07?mod=newsviewer_click

Why the Amazon effect on house prices may be muted in the chosen HQ2 cities

Published: Nov 7, 2018 5:40 a.m. ET

By Kari Paul

Jacob Passy

As Amazon AMZN, +1.73% closes in on selecting the location for its second headquarters, experts say property speculators to tread carefully. The company is reportedly in late-stage discussions with communities in Crystal City, Va., just outside Washington, D.C., and Long Island City, N.Y. to build its second headquarters, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The company’s current headquarters is in Seattle, Wash. (Some reports have said Dallas is also still in the running.)

Amazon has said that its second headquarters or HQ2 would bring more than 50,000 employees and create more than $5 billion in economic investments over 20 years, and potential HQ2 locations went to great lengths to woo Amazon. (Amazon declined to comment on this story.)

Marc Cenedella, chief executive officer of Ladders, a careers website, said New York City and Northern Virginia are two of the best places for talent. Amazon employees generally fall into two categories: Low-wage warehouse employees and high-wage “knowledge workers.” Jobs at these two HQ2s are expected to fall into the latter category.
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A PayScale analysis placed Northern Virginia and New York City as the second and third best locations for HQ2 in terms of concentration of skilled talent, surpassed only by Boston. Both the New York and Washington metropolitan areas already have burgeoning tech sectors, giving Amazon a pool of talent to hire from, said Aaron Terrazas, senior economist at Zillow Z, +1.46%.
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Earlier this year, Citigroup C, -0.92% vacated One Court Square in Long Island City, the tallest skyscraper in New York City outside of Manhattan, opening up 1 million square feet of office space. Citing sources, Crain’s New York reported that Amazon is considering that building for its Long Island City outpost.
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House prices and rents will likely rise, especially close to the new HQ2s, experts say, but it won’t be sudden and there may not be a significant spike that some homeowners in Long Island City and Crystal City are hoping for. “A sudden influx of highly-paid workers can be good but can also have negative effects on local economies,” Bardaro said. “People who want to live near their work location could price out those who already live there.”

The ‘Amazon effect’ on house prices could be tempered given that the HQ2 is reported to be split between the two developed metropolitan areas.
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