# How would a star trek transporter affect real estate prices **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 29, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749 "2015-06-29T00:40:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/21 "2015-06-30T18:32:58Z")
Step into a booth and pay a few bucks to move from one room to another? $3 to make a sandwich. $3 to go to the bathroom. That would add up after a while. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/22 "2015-06-30T19:31:44Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Step into a booth and pay a few bucks to move from one room to another? > > $3 to make a sandwich. $3 to go to the bathroom. That would add up after a while. So do all the other expenses of teleporting to a house in the boonies - bringing in food, water, furniture. I’m not saying everyone has a house like this - this isn’t for low income families. But there are people right now paying up to 1200/month in home association fees or whatever you call it in condos. You can rack up a lot of 3 buck trips to the fridge and not even come close to that. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/23 "2015-06-30T23:39:04Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > If you could transport anywhere in the US near instantly … Why would such technology be confined to the US? If it could be used across national boundaries, it would raise other issues: immigration control, customs and quarantine. If it’s cheap enough, it won’t just be rich people commuting 2,000 miles for lunch: it will be people in poor countries by-passing the people smugglers, and migrating (legally or illegally) from the third would to the first world. So, unless attitudes change in places like North America, Western Europe and Australia, there would need to be border controls around every transporter. You won’t be able to have one in your home unless it’s limited to accepting from other machines within your national borders. There are also issues of defence. Another thread here asks about a possible war between China and the US. If either side can instantly transmit personnel and materiel between the two countries, that would seriously change how such a war might be carried out. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/24 "2015-07-01T16:03:39Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Why would you want a hotel? For tourists, a hotel is a place to sleep and keep changes of clothing. If travel is instantaneous and cheap, you just use your home for that. That’s a good point. Hotels probably mostly go out of business. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/25 "2015-07-02T05:44:14Z")
What if things went the other way? Instead of becoming more “spread out” housing became more concentrated - instead of 1/4 acre plots in the boonies with single story houses, we all started living in story high rise apartments. Thus leaving more prime space for all the recreation activities. if getting to “somewhere pretty”, or going for a walk, or playing in the meadow was as simple as walking through a door - who said that houses need to be located there? ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/26 "2015-07-04T02:35:48Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > $3 to go to the bathroom. That would add up after a while. Nah. Chamber pots would make a quick comeback. Dump it only once a day for three bucks, even from the bedroom window, the street below being 12,000 miles away, or for four bucks, a river. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/27 "2015-07-04T16:10:10Z")
If we could open a huge portal, dumping all the excess floodwater to the places that need it would be great. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/28 "2015-07-06T02:16:25Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > But! If I can get utilization to 90%, I can sell 2592 trips per day! Sure, it’s all around the clock, but let’s assume people are willing to travel at 3:00 am (it might not be 3 am on the other side, after all). Over 20 years, that brings the cost of each trip to less than $75. I might not be a super-rich person, but I could probably write a business case and get the funding I need to make this a business and sell cheap travel to people who aren’t super rich. Even at a 10x markup, that’s some pretty cheap, pretty convenient travel. > > In both cases, of course, we’re missing the transporter at the other end. In Star Trek’s world, sometimes you need a local transporter, sometimes you don’t. In the second case above, at $75 cost, it would still be cheap enough to cover costs by having transporters in most major destinations. Prague. Beijing. Paris. Once you’re in Beijing you can take a six hour flight to Bangkok instead of a 16 hour flight from home… This kinda my take as well. Having just taken a 14 hour flight recently there is a huge perk in the time of travel and relative comfort. You were mentioning $75/person, the efficiency factor alone could easily demand airline prices. Even a $200-300 each way from any city big enough to have a decent sized airport today would probably change the world dramatically. It would make jet airliners look like greyhound. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/29 "2015-07-06T02:21:41Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Medium-sized towns would be under pressure to provide more utilities… if a city the size of, say, Dubuque, suddenly got 50,000 more people moving there, they’d need more water, power, gas and services coming into the town. This would be a boon for the grocery stores & Targets of the world. If we also assume that cargo transport is simpler & cheaper by virtue of not needing to be alive when it reaches its destination, we could assume a certain increased amount of goods being transported in from overseas which would be fresher and closer to being ripe, rather than being picked a month or two early. Small enough units and food delivery. Honey, what was that sushi bar in Tokyo we liked? Do they still deliver to Duluth? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/30 "2015-07-06T03:33:48Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > What if things went the other way? > > Instead of becoming more “spread out” housing became more concentrated - instead of 1/4 acre plots in the boonies with single story houses, we all started living in story high rise apartments. > > Thus leaving more prime space for all the recreation activities. > > if getting to “somewhere pretty”, or going for a walk, or playing in the meadow was as simple as walking through a door - who said that houses need to be located there? I suspect that _actual_ proximity to things like beaches, etc… would cease to be a factor in where you buy your home, so instead, the new “status” homes would be places with terrific views, wherever that may be. People would have others over to their houses to avail themselves of the view, since anyone can teleport instantaneously to Waikiki or Santa Monica, or wherever. But they can’t all have a view looking out on Pike’s Peak, or the Gulf of Mexico miles from anyone else, so that’ll be what people pay for. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/31 "2015-07-06T05:10:20Z")
Although initially the cost of transporting would be high, the cost of using it, like many other technologies, would eventually fall through the floor, especially once the general public begins to fully comprehend that transporting from one location to another means death for all travelers at the beginning of their journey and reassembly of their mapped molecules at the destination. There would also be the concern of molecular degradation over continued use. Even if reassembly could be guaranteed to be 99.9999999% that of the mapped original, after 20 or 30 trips how much of yourself would be lost? Would cognitive loss be an inevitable by-product? Who knows, but I think it would assuredly dampen enthusiasm worldwide, relegating the use of such technology solely to delivery of hard goods and possibly military or police actions. I don’t think, over the long term, there’d be mass or frequent use for frivolity such as vacations or to visit Tokyo Tower for lunch. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/32 "2015-07-06T05:29:33Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I suspect that _actual_ proximity to things like beaches, etc… would cease to be a factor in where you buy your home, so instead, the new “status” homes would be places with terrific views, wherever that may be. People would have others over to their houses to avail themselves of the view, since anyone can teleport instantaneously to Waikiki or Santa Monica, or wherever. But they can’t all have a view looking out on Pike’s Peak, or the Gulf of Mexico miles from anyone else, so that’ll be what people pay for. Possibly true - although I can’t help but think that in a world where such technology is possible - a 3D type display will replace a window - so “view” will have a different meaning ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/33 "2015-07-06T05:43:53Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > If you could transport anywhere in the US near instantly how would that affect real estate prices? Would prices drop like a rock in large metro areas, or would there still be demand to live in those areas? I portend that such a device would [Destroy us](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=700599). ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/34 "2015-07-06T06:00:39Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > But! If I can get utilization to 90%, I can sell 2592 trips per day! Sure, it’s all around the clock, but let’s assume people are willing to travel at 3:00 am (it might not be 3 am on the other side, after all). That’s an interesting point I never really thought about. Most stores set up their work hours around the local daylight time. A diner might open its doors at 6 am and close at 11 pm. It won’t bother to open during other times because a) Not enough workers around willing to work that time, and b) Not enough customers around to justify staying open. But if people from other time zones can instantly transport in, they can each lunch at their own local 12 pm, regardless of what time it is at this diner. You’d see a lot more places open 24 hours, since their available workforce is literally anyone in the whole world. I wonder if it would change the whole notion of meal times. Would it make sense to distinguish breakfast from lunch if anyone can jump around to any time zone to eat a meal? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749/35 "2015-07-06T16:31:49Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Why would you want a hotel? For tourists, a hotel is a place to sleep and keep changes of clothing. If travel is instantaneous and cheap, you just use your home for that. :shrug: That’s part of the vacation experience IMHO. Staying away from home. Might be nice to be able to zap back home to do a load of laundary though.🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-star-trek-transporter-affect-real-estate-prices/723749.md?page=1)