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Gigabit Internet Connections Make Property Values Rise
Jason Koebler writes: When families go to buy a new home, they're most often looking for a couple things: Good schools, a safe neighborhood, maybe something that's near public transportation. And, increasingly and undeniably, access to gigabit internet service. A study by RVA LLC Market Research and Consulting found that fiber optic internet adds roughly $5,250 to the value of a $300,000 home. "It's getting to the point where, if my neighboring community has a gig and we're still doing satellite, the property value in that town is going to go up," Deb Socia, director of Next Century Cities, a coalition of cities trying to provide gigabit internet speeds to their citizens, said. "You're going to lose people and you're going to lose revenue without it. I'm hearing it from folks in different chambers of commerce, in real estate, in politics."
It's increasingly going to be about multiple users or automated users though. You're going to have two or three televisions streaming high definition content, you're going to have people using Internet-connected applications or games while those televisions are on in the background. You might even have security systems with offsite data storage at the security company; further streaming video content, this time sending rather than receiving.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
All those that talk about "location location location" really mean "the things you can't change". Interior, exterior, garden, floor plan, pretty much anything can be redone but you're stuck with your surroundings. And you're usually stuck with a crappy Internet connection. And despite most people not getting around to changing all they'd like to change, they kind of know they could. Things you can't fix tend to gnaw at you a lot more. I'm probably more Internet-addicted than the average person but I don't think I'd want to live at any place with <10 Mbit/s Internet. Unless it's a tropical island or something, then I'd make concessions. Or put up a big satellite dish, not really sure.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
And they'd be right to do it, because 5000 dollars is way excessive to apply at once, much smarter to amortize the costs (which will usually be less than 5,000 dollars), over the life of the system.
Y'know, the sane way to do things.
That's not how statistics works. If their sample size is large enough then, yes, it may be possible to determine that a good internet connection gives your house an increase in value of 2%.
And why shouldn't it? Small improvements like putting in a nice jacuzzi tub to make the bathroom nicer can also be shown to have single-digit-of-a-percent increase in value.
Additionally, I think it's more believable because it's such a small percent. If people were willing to spend 25% more, that'd be pretty crazy, right? 2% is something someone might not care about over a 30 year mortgage.
I'd still rather have a strip club nearby. Also ready access to marijuana.
Fortunately for you, the supply and demand curves will provide you with much cheaper housing.