By REALTOR Magazine
Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos flew to suborbital space and back on Tuesday. His journey follows Virgin Records founder Richard Branson’s space trip last week. But what do these billionaire space joyrides have to do with real estate? A lot, if this trend truly takes off, real estate experts say.
The hub locations for aerospace giants such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin could drive average median real estate prices as they attract job growth and higher incomes.
“If, say, a large tech company decided to open another headquarters with high-income jobs, then the local area will experience a sizable growth in home prices,” NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun told Fox Business. “Given that SpaceX and Blue Origin employees have sophisticated high-tech skills with presumably high income, the impacted small community real estate market will clearly benefit.”
SpaceX, located in Cameron County, Texas, and founded in 2002, plans to transport passengers to Mars by 2024. It also has a launchpad in Santa Barbara County, Calif. Bezos’ Blue Origin was founded in 2000 and conducted its first flight in 2006 from its Van Horn, Texas, launch site in Culbertson County. These companies also use Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Brevard County, Fla. Both companies are actively hiring.
