Renters in New York City and the Washington, DC, area could soon be paying more in housing costs if Amazon splits its new headquarters between the two cities.
Amazon is said to be in the late stages of negotiations to build campuses in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York, and the Crystal City neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, The New York Times reported on Monday evening.
An analysis conducted in April by Zillow found that renters' costs could increase by more than $200 annually in the two cities relative to the real-estate site's base cases if Amazon were to set up in them.
Zillow's forecast was based on the assumption that Amazon would build a single campus for its new headquarters, meaning that splitting the headquarters between the two cities could lessen the impact to each city's rental costs.
Zillow projected that the new campus would increase rents in New York by 0.8 percentage points, equating to a 0.2% annual decrease instead of a 1% decrease that Zillow anticipated without the new headquarters. That would translate into about $17 more monthly, or $204 annually, given New York's median monthly rent of $2,401.
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In the Washington, DC, area, Zillow found that Amazon's headquarters, if set up entirely in Arlington, could cause rents to rise by 1.1%, more than twice as fast as the 0.5% increase projected without a new Amazon campus.
That would translate into about $24 more monthly, or $288 annually, for those paying the city's median rent of $2,146.
The increases in rental costs would kick off next year, assuming Amazon starts hiring for its second headquarters in 2019, according to Zillow.
More on Amazon's HQ2 project:
- Amazon is now reportedly going to split its HQ2 into 2 locations after more than a year of intense speculation. Here’s everything that has happened in the saga up until now.
- Amazon subtly hinted that it could have 2 HQ2s from the beginning
- Amazon made an important investment in Seattle, and it highlights a key issue for HQ2
- Amazon HQ2 candidates are going to great lengths to keep their plans secret
- HQ2 is making cities consider projects they've been ignoring for years — and it shows the power of Amazon
