I have been thinking about this question for the last 5-6 months, and everyday, both positive and negative thoughts come into my head about the future of Hudson County. I am honestly a very optimistic person and I still think I am optimistic about NYC and Hudson County over the long-term but I think we are headed into a nose dive in the next 3-5 years. Remember this is specifically for this area (Hudson County/NYC). It is funny when I look back on pre-pandemic comments. One of them is "I don't see Hudson County Real Estate ever slowing down unless something drastic happens". Well I think we all know what that drastic thing was.
Let's face it, New York City is not doing so well right now. Companies are not urgent to go back to their 100-200k dollar monthly office rents and to be quite honest people do not want to go back. I had a friend the other day complaining to me about the thought of going back to work, and I think higher ups at other companies are thinking the same exact thing. Some people hate working from home on a regular basis and believe me the boredom, repetitiveness, etc is very annoying. But, I think people like the benefits that come with it as well. Working from home people can spend more time with their kids, prepare meals & food for the family, get everyday things done at a timely schedule instead of dragging your feet home to be left with a pile of laundry, being able to get a few minutes extra of sleep, the list can go on and on.
Why do I bring this up? Well, this culture change we are about to experience is nothing like we have ever seen before. For the first time in history we are going to have a massive change to digital and electronic working setups from your own home. This technology has been around for a couple years now, but coronavirus has given the mass population an excuse to finally put this home style working life into the main screen. And guess what, the verdict is in, and people love working from home. There are downfalls, as mentioned, but there are also downfalls to commuting to an office and I think there are more positives than negatives in working from home. This is just my opinion, but now companies are committing to becoming carbon NEGATIVE in 2021, including one big four Accounting Firm a company with over 300k people worldwide.
Let's backup because that is pretty shocking to me. One of the big 4 accounting firms is committing to be carbon negative with over 300k people commuting worldwide everyday? That would be absolutely impossible. The hidden message here is we are going to keep our employees home.
Let's move on.
I wanted to outline that for you to help you understand the current environment of the professional world. NYC is so heavily populated because of the business that happens there. It is the financial capital of the world. Take away the people that create the finance district of the world, you are getting rid of the financial district. This directly affects Hudson County, where most people live and commute to the city. With nowhere to commute, people are moving all around the country. Bosses are moving to Flordia, Vermont, Upstate NY, etc etc.
Well, if you put all the pieces together we are not on a good trajectory. To me coronavirus created a much bigger issue at hand and I think it is going to heavily affect the NYC and Hudson County area for many years.
Let me know what everyone thinks! Would love more insight from talented individuals with an inside view.
