18 California Buildings News • Q3 2020
Multifamily News
Pandemic to Reshape Multifamily Living in California Flight from Cities, Work from Home & Fear of Others Drive Change The pandemic is radically transforming multifamily living design... and forcing developers to rethink building apartments and condos in big cities. De-densification of cities is being driven by people's generalized fear urban centers, their declining use of mass transit as well as concerns about riding elevators up soaring residential and office towers. Once magnets for knowledge workers and those that support them, urban downtowns like in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego are experiencing a migratory outflow of people. City budgets are hard hit by massive costs of fighting the virus and huge revenue shortfalls from business interruption. The urban fiscal crisis will likely drive out more people when attempts are made to force already burdened companies and affluent citizens to bear the costs with higher taxes and fees. Downtowns will be much less appealing when they can no longer feature many of the urban attractions supported by public revenues that the booming private sector once funded. Trendy restaurants are closing, along with clubs
and formerly packed sports and entertainment venues. The numerous workers that were once drawn to these downtown magnets are now free to work from anywhere. Consequently, populations are spreading out to the suburbs and smaller cities throughout California and neighboring states. Car sales, already rising, are another harbinger of the looming flight to the suburbs and towns beyond metropolises. Moving companies are recording the outflow. And since the economic devastation will likely affect consumers’ ability to buy homes, apartments and condos —always popular in California —will be the homes of choice for many.
Above: Apartments with balconies are becoming more popular as people seek more personal space they once enjoyed in common areas. And lower-rise apartments don’t require residents to be dependent on elevators. Photo: Getty Images.
