Some who bought homes in more far-off locations expecting remote work to last forever during the covid era, were thrilled by how much more home they could afford. Often they paid over the asking price in highly competitive markets, many of them neglected in prior years mostly due to a lack of local job availability. This frenzy was further fueled by low mortgage interest rates and Federal stimulus. This did not happen exclusively amongst the middle class. Many rich people did this too, many fiscally fueled by 2018 tax cuts and the desire to offset new SALT deduction limits by moving to lower tax states, driving the cost of housing in many areas/classifications up.

Not unlike any party that has extremes, most wake up the following day with a hangover at varying levels. Some hangovers are worse than others. One consequence now of the (growing) return-to-office movement is that many workers are being told they have to be in the office 3, 4 and 5 days per week. Many jobs cannot be performed remotely and those workers are not thrilled by the 'unfairness' of the 'work-from-homers'. Millions of remote workers are now being confronted with demands to return to the office: selling their home in markets where they may have paid more than what the market is willing to bear now is a big problem, further compounded by the fact that the places they moved from have not gotten cheaper, with interest rates and rents much higher today.

Some are quitting in the hopes of finding a local job that often pays less, but allows them to stay put and not have to commute 3 hours per day. Some corporate relocations help, but often don't pay the same wages. The big gains of relocating have begun to erode, more so in some areas with notably higher local inflation than others. Some blame those employees who thought they could live and work in sweats forever and still earn big city incomes while staying in more affordable, lower taxed states, cities and towns. That will probably remain so for some, mostly those with established careers.

However, we may not want to underestimate the role big corporations played in encouraging work from home (smaller offices make for much more profit with less overhead). Until teams and company culture start to weaken and it hurts the ability to innovate and function well.

The offices around the world that remain fully leased are those with services and amenities that emulate life at home with gyms, lounges, kitchens, outdoor space, easy access, easier commutability. If there is one thing we can all agree on, most miss the office but very few like the commute!