USA’s EV Tech Industry Is Boosting Real Estate in Secondary Cities
The EV (electric/hybrid vehicle) technology industry is an increasingly powerful one in the U.S, with sales of electric vehicles growing faster than those of standard cars during the first half of 2021. A new, massive infrastructure bill would also devote significant funds to the creation of EV charging stations, and investors are increasingly putting their money in EV exchange traded funds, or ETFs—indexes of companies creating electric, hybrid or autonomous vehicles, or the batteries these cars require. And as EV tech companies grow, real estate in many regions of the U.S. stands to benefit from the influx of new tech workers and local economic growth. Beyond Silicon Valley, there are burgeoning EV tech hubs in cities like Austin, Texas, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Phoenix. Brokers in these cities say that growing EV tech companies setting up camp in their areas have helped spur the property market, with increased demand driving up prices and speeding up the pace of sales. They anticipate that the industry in their regions will continue to exert a powerful influence over the real estate market in the months and years to come, as supporting companies move in to offer the particular products and services that tech employees demand. In the Austin area, for instance, Tesla founder Elon Musk is building a facility for Cybertrucks—the company’s first electric pickup truck—and has himself relocated to the Texas capital. The city has had a booming tech industry for some time now, and the growing EV industry is further fueling demand for real estate. Detroit, famously home to the American auto industry, is now also becoming a hub for EV tech, with major auto companies shifting toward electric and EV-specific companies seeking to capitalize on the city’s engineering talent. “Ford and GM are coming out with great EV tech, and we also see new tech and battery companies moving into metro Detroit,” said Doug Hardy of Signature Sotheby’s International Realty in Detroit. These newcomers are being absorbed into an already strong market, which in June saw a 16.8% increase in home sales and a 21.6% increase in median home prices compared to June of the previous year. Real estate experts anticipate that the growing EV industry will help fuel pre-existing market trends, increasing competition and pricing in the months to come—especially because many of the new tech workers are coming from more expensive housing markets and are willing to spend more. “Overall, the market is already competitive, with low inventory and high demand driving up prices,” said Chris Dickson, president of Piatt Sotheby’s International Realty in Pittsburgh. “Because these new buyers are coming from less affordable areas, they’re more likely to be pushing prices up.”
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