THE BYTE

Welcome to the BYTE, where we serve up the latest home and tech news from the last week for you to sink your teeth into.

This week we’re taking a BYTE out migrations, VR becoming wireless, single family homes, the effect of listing comments, and car vision. Dig in! 

Generally

Heading Red For The Winter
Last week we received some insight into where people are moving and what they are moving for. Redfin found that more people are moving from politically blue areas to politically red areas.  PulteGroup shared some research that showed the reasons baby boomers are moving and what they are looking for.

What Are We Looking At?
The big democratic blue cities are becoming more and more unaffordable and as such it is causing residents to move out into the more rural red areas of their state. This is mirrored in the research that showed 34% of boomers wanted to move to a different city in their same state, with the most popular state being Florida. In deciding exactly where to move next 82% said cost of living was most important with 74% saying preferred healthcare programs as close second. The research also showed that the most desired community amenities are grandchildren close by, access to water, and green space. Most desirable features in a home are multi-car garage with storage, eat-in kitchen, open floor plan, and open deck or patio.

It’s A Party

The More The Merrier
In this season of product announcements, we just got a big one from Oculus. Facebook owned Oculus is trying to be the powerhouse name when it comes to VR. The easiest way to do that is to make it so almost everyone using VR is using it with Oculus headsets. So, Oculus announced an array of new products to make it more accessible. The biggest features of these new updates are that the new headsets don’t have wires and the even cheaper on has VR built into the headset with no added phones or computers necessary. They are hoping that without the need for big computers or lots of cords that more people will adopt the technology.

Take Notes

Single-Family
The Urban Institute has shed some light on the fastest growing segment in the housing market. Single-family rentals. When it comes to new households being created year over year single-family rentals have outpaced everything else. With tight supply in affordable homes to buy and millennials on average waiting longer to buy homes they don’t expect this trend to slow down anytime soon. Another insights found was that most, or 87%, of the single-family investors hold fewer than 10 units.

Say What?
CoreLogic tracked the public listing comments and compared them to the prices that homes were closing at to see if certain phrases or descriptions led to a higher closing price. They found that several words seemed to keep popping up for homes that sold for higher prices. Some words make sense such as “New Construction”, but the description that popped up the most was “Pane Windows.” Other big hitters were “Remodeled Kitchen”, “Single Level”, and “Outdoor Living.”

Do You See What I See?
A group of researchers wanted to help bridge the understanding gap between autonomous vehicles and humans. To bridge that gap they made an autonomous buggy that lets users “see” what the buggy sees. The person is actually in charge of the driving but can only see what the car is telling it through a VR headset.

Totally Unrelated

Nope.
If you’re terrified of heights this bridge in China may not be for you, especially with the special effects they’ve added…