Today, instead of expressway frontage, apartments are measured by their “walk scores”—how many steps to public transportation, to the grocery store, to Starbucks, to the gym. Go deeper and you can see the changes from the deferral of marriage across industries. The shift in priorities, lifestyle, and discretionary income that began in the 1990s was a harbinger for a new era of consumerism. Real estate isn’t just about buildings as inanimate objects. It often reflects the pulse of the nation.
