I recently read a NY Times article from 2010 about Google’s autonomous (driverless) car project and was struck with how much this could affect not only my profession, but millions of Americans. The world really. Here I am, sitting in a city with more miles of roads per capita than any other city in the nation. Who else better to benefit from a reduced dependency on people actually driving cars. Follow me on this:
I’m guessing I spend at least 5 hours per week in my car, to and from the office and showings. Imagine instead I could step into a car and be transported anywhere in the city with the push of a couple of buttons. Plus, now I can use my computer, make phone calls, grab lunch on the go, etc. I have just become 12-13% more effective.
But think now about how this affects real estate. Maybe now I don’t mind having my house be an hour from the office because I can eat breakfast, read the news, and shave all before I hit the front step. The “value” of highway visibility goes way down since I’m no longer forced to keep my eyes on the road, so now retail properties can locate further out without a major hit in sales. My industrial clients become less focused on the exact location and more on building layout. Traffic patterns become fundamentally different from what they’ve been for the last 90 years.
With a city surrounded on all sides by corn fields, maybe it’s a good time to speculate on some impending sprawl and buy up some rural land sites.
