Brokers in one of Amazon's chosen HQ2 locations are reportedly already selling condos sight-unseen - and development hasn't even begun
- Amazon has settled on a new home for its second headquarters, HQ2. It will be split between two locations: Long Island City in Queens, New York, and an area of Arlington, Virginia, dubbed National Landing.
- Even before Amazon made the announcement, brokers in Long Island City reportedly said that they had seen a flurry of inquiries from customers looking to buy real estate in the area. Reports surfaced last week that Amazon could develop its new headquarters in the neighborhood.
- Some were even buying up units, sight-unseen and even over text message, brokers told The Wall Street Journal.
Amazon has finally settled on a home for its second headquarters, dubbed HQ2.
The new offices will be split between two locations: Long Island City in Queens, New York, and an area of Northern Virginia that is now being called National Landing. National Landing consists of what a website for Virginia's HQ2 bid calls three "connected urban districts": Crystal City and Pentagon City in Arlington and Potomac Yard in Alexandria.
While the news was officially announced on Tuesday morning, it didn't come as a surprise to many people after reports surfaced last week that Amazon would likely be picking these two locations.
In fact, people were so convinced that this would happen that they began snapping up real estate in this area before the official announcement was even made.
Long Island City real estate brokers told The Wall Street Journal that they had witnessed a flurry of inquiries over the past week. Some of these people were even buying units, sight-unseen, via text message, The Journal wrote on Tuesday morning.
"This is the first time in my 20-year career that I have seen the market go from a buyer's market to a seller's market overnight, based on a rumor," Patrick W. Smith, a Stribling agent in Long Island City, told The Journal.
According to The Journal, searches on the real-estate listing site StreetEasy surged 295% for the neighborhood last week versus the week before. The biggest spike occurred in the first few days after news broke that Amazon could be opening an office in Long Island City. Search volume jumped more than 400% at that time, according to StreetEasy.
"Buyers are hoping it will become the next Silicon Valley and want to be in on that," Kayla Lee, a broker at Modern Spaces, told The Journal.
But while many are hoping to capitalize on an upcoming real-estate boom, some locals are worried about the potential downsides that this will have on rental prices, gentrification, and traffic.
Read more: The losers of Amazon's HQ2 contest have been revealed - but some locals are rejoicing
These people have most likely taken note of the impact many say Amazon's main headquarters has had on Seattle, where locals complain of skyrocketing rents, prolonged construction, gentrification, and gridlock traffic.
Business Insider reported earlier this year that Seattle's median rent increased by nearly three times the national median from 2005 to 2015.
Read more about Amazon's HQ2 project:
- Amazon officially announces its HQ2 will be split between New York and Virginia
- Amazon finally explains why it's cutting its second headquarters in half
- Arlington, Virginia, lured in Amazon with promises of a helipad and a cash grant of up to $550 million
- New York City has lured Amazon with more than $1.5 billion in incentives - here's what else they agreed to
- We walked around Long Island City, the New York neighborhood where Amazon is planning to bring HQ2, and saw why it'd be appealing to the e-commerce giant