Moving is a big deal. You want a house or apartment that's going to fit your lifestyle and a neighborhood that's nice, safe and isn't too boring.
But maybe you should start factoring in proximity to the nearest Starbucks in your search.
Apparently, there's a correlation between having a Starbucks in your neighborhood and rising home values. This is according to Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff and Chief Economist Stan Humphries, who compared a database of Starbucks locations with data from Zillow, the online home and real estate marketplace, in an excerpt of the book Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate recently printed on Quartz.
Yes, many people know that if there's a Starbucks in their neighborhood, the value of real estate is usually higher since Starbucks coffee isn't cheap. However, Zillow found that properties near Starbucks locations also appreciate at a faster rate than U.S. housing overall. For instance, a home located near a Starbucks sold for $137,000 in 1997 would have increased 96 percent in value to $269,000 in 2014. This is compared to a home not near a Starbucks that sold for $102,000 in 1997 and appreciated 65 percent to $168,000 in 2014.
Though it seems like a lot of factors could be at play here, Zillow found that Starbucks is in fact "the fuel" behind this appreciation. Zillow compared the appreciation of homes located near a Starbucks to those located near a Dunkin' Donuts and found that they both outpaced home appreciation nationally. However, homes located near Dunkin' Donuts have appreciated 80 percent since 1997 compared to Starbucks' 96 percent appreciation. So there's got to be something in that venti Caramel Macchiato after all.
The value of your home may even come down to a few feet in relation to Starbucks. Zillow compared the appreciation of homes a quarter-mile and those between a quarter- and a half-mile from a Starbucks. The homes closest to Starbucks appreciated a little more than 21 percent over five years while those a bit further away appreciated a little less than 17 percent.
"Whatever the reasons — because they genuinely like drinking coffee, or because they see Starbucks as a proxy for gentrification — it seems pretty clear that people are paying a premium for homes near Starbucks, Quartz points out. And furthermore, it looks like Starbucks itself is driving the increase in home values."
Of course, there are many factors that determine the value and appreciation rate of a home that don't have anything to do with location. But it's nice to know that your need to have Starbucks readily available at all times is somewhat valid.
