Location choice

This report gives a detailed analysis of the United States’ housing market, demographic drivers, homeownership, rental housing, and housing challenges for 2019.

This report outlines the factors contributing to Millennial homeownership, explaining why their preferences differ from previous generations'.

While many rural towns across the U.S. are experiencing shrinking populations as young people pursue opportunities in more urban areas, the small town of Onalaska, WA has been growing. This is due in large part to the community’s investment in education and outdoor recreation.

From 2000 to 2008, there was a shift in the geography of poverty in the U.S. from urban areas to the suburbs surrounding major metro areas.

This report discusses 761 walkable urban places in the United States' 30 largest metropolitan areas and their impact on social equity and educational attainment, and their economic impact on office, retail, and housing land uses.

U.S. Census estimates through 2017 indicate a revival of suburbanization and migration towards metro areas in the middle of the country.

“This study investigates neighborhood scale net migration of young adults in the top 20 urbanized areas (UAs) in the United States between 1980 and 2010.”

This is a survey of 3,000 adults in the top 50 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. about the quality of life in their communities.

“While most big cities are still gaining population, the rates of that gain are falling off for many of them as the nation’s population shows signs of broad dispersal.”

"A pioneering urban economist presents a myth-shattering look at the majesty and greatness of cities."

Between 1998 and 2005, employment in the U.S. warehousing industry grew at a compound annual growth rate of 22.23%, and the number of establishments increased at compound annual growth rate of 9.48%. Over this same period of time, the price for transportation fuels increased dramatically and became much more volatile. In this paper we examine the microeconomic and macroeconomic forces that have enabled such rapid growth in the warehousing industry. We also analyze structural change through employment and warehouse construction starts data and show that a new breed of warehouse has emerged – the mega distribution center, or mega DC.

This article explores the rate of retail store closures, its effects on employment, and the role of economy market forces on the changes.

"This paper presents a comprehensive discussion of the value capture mechanisms that cities can and do use to help finance their public transport systems. It highlights the most important findings from the literature and adds to it with new insights gained through case studies of public transit finance in six European and American cities. The objective is to inform a lively and productive dialogue on non-fare sources of public transport finance, and ultimately to find the best ways to finance the maintenance and extension of transit service in cities around the world."

This study examines the potential changes in residential location choice in a scenario where shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs) are a popular mode of travel in the Atlanta metropolitan area. This hypothetical study is based on an agent-based simulation approach, which integrates residential location choice models with a SAV simulation model. The coupled model simulates future home location choices given current home location preferences and real estate development patterns. The results indicate that commuters may relocate to neighborhoods with better public schools and more amenities due to reductions in commute costs.

Using data from the recently released American Community Survey, this report examines population change in the 51 metropolitan areas with 1 million or more population, and focuses on the change in population in close-in neighborhoods, those places within 3 miles of the center of each metropolitan area’s primary central business district.

This article explores the possible motives for online retailers to open up physical stores.

Bonobos, a popular menswear e-tailer, opened a brick and mortar store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, but you can't actually leave with anything. This article explains how the store works.

In 2013, eyewear e-commerce pioneer Warby Parker opened its first retail store in SoHo with fairly low expectations. In 2015, that store still occasionally had a line out the door on weekends, and Warby Parker had 12 retail locations across the country, with plans to open seven more before the end of the year. This article explores why the online-native eyewear retailer chose to open so many stores in such a short period of time.

Applying the simulation research, the scholars recently found that Millennials are moving back to the city, and also moving to the suburbs, even though the question of whether they are leaving the city for the suburbs is unsure. The demographic factor also drives their living preferences.

A new analysis tracking the relationship between transit access and apartment rent seeks to put some numbers behind the dramatic shifts in urban mobility. The new study by RCLCO, a real estate consultancy, and TransitScreen, a company that provides real-time arrival and departure info, analyzed 40,000 apartment developments nationwide, which contained roughly 9 million units, to determine how access impacts costs in different cities and neighborhoods. Results found that improvements in access to bike-sharing and ride-hailing made a more significant difference nationally than access to traditional transit or carshare services.

This paper examines the suburbanization of warehousing and trucking activity within US metropolitan areas between the 1980s and the present using Gini indices as a measure of concentration. While historical work exists on the relocation of transportation and warehousing activity to suburban locations, there has been little to document the most recent shifts in warehousing and logistics. This research does so via spatial analysis of Economic Census data, finding that while most US metropolitan areas have experienced decentralization in the spatial distribution of freight-related activity, there is also some growth in core counties, indicating that a more complex process is going on than simple suburbanization.

This article looks at how "retailers are honing their distribution center strategy to meet current e-commerce demands.

Between April 18 and May 9, 2014, Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall, Inc. (DHM Research) conducted an online survey of respondents living in Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington and Clark counties about their current and preferred residential and neighborhood preferences. The objective of the survey was to assess general opinions and preferences around housing and neighborhood choices and factors that may influence those choices. Portland State University and Metro developed the questionnaire with input from DHM.

Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to take space in a first-of-its-kind three-story warehouse, a new type of distribution center that could reduce delivery times in congested cities to hours rather than days. While common in densely-populated Asian and European cities, modern warehouses with multiple floors have been absent until recently in the U.S., where higher land and construction costs deterred developers. But now that more retailers are racing to deliver more same-day packages, developers are starting to build the multistory fulfillment centers needed to speed delivery in congested cities.

As e-commerce sales march ahead of in-store sales, the major issue discussed at the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s (RILA) Retail Supply Chain Conference: Logistics 2013 was best practices for developing and executing an omni-channel distribution strategy. And real estate—particularly distribution centers (DCs)—is a significant part of the process. This article reviews the main questions asked during the conference.

This article discusses the trend of corporate entities moving to downtown areas. The reasons include millennial generation, livability of downtown, industrial shift, active transportation access, etc.

At 92 million strong, millennials are an economic and demographic powerhouse. They’re also different from every preceding generation since they’ve grown up with personal computers and smartphones. They’re used to a connected world in which information, goods and services are readily available at the click of a button. This millennial mindset is shaping how the tenants of tomorrow are looking for space to live, work and shop and what they expect. In this whitepaper we break down the three most important millennial trends and what they mean for commercial real estate.

Ever since Amazon began selling books online in 1995, retailers — and plenty of other commentators — have been asking what role, if any, physical stores might play in the retail arena. Some have gone so far as to predict the ultimate demise of stores, and others expound the virtues of various hybrid omnichannel solutions. This report explores where things stand in retail in 2017.

The Young and Restless—25 to 34 year olds with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education, are increasingly moving to the close-in neighborhoods of the nation’s large metropolitan areas. This migration is fueling economic growth and urban revitalization.

For decades, many of the nation’s biggest companies staked their futures far from the fraying downtowns of aging East Coast and Midwestern cities. One after another, they decamped for sprawling campuses in the suburbs and exurbs. Now, corporate America is moving in the other direction.