The classic rule still holds, but the drivers underneath it have changed enough that comparable sales based on the old logic are increasingly mispriced.
Proximity is being redefined
Distance to a central business district matters less when a meaningful share of work happens anywhere. Areas discounted purely for commute time have repriced, and some are still catching up.
The green premium
Efficiency and resilience now carry a measurable price difference. Rising energy and insurance costs turned sustainability from a preference into a monthly cost calculation.
Transit and connected ecosystems
Access to transit and to a working cluster of daily destinations supports value more reliably than raw square footage does.
Institutional attention to specialized assets
Large capital has moved toward niche property types, which reshapes competition and pricing in segments individual investors used to have to themselves.
The takeaway
Value is being set by usability, cost of ownership and access to what people actually do, rather than by a single location metric. Any valuation still leaning on distance to downtown alone is working from an outdated model.
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