Is it an obvious move? I can work from home, and currently do, but much prefer working in an office. I'm more productive when I'm in the office. It's easier to get into and stay in a more focused headspace. There's also a lot of relevant context and info that I pick up just by being around the office that I don't have when working remotely.

There are many people who feel differently. Which is enough to change the market significantly since real estate prices are highly demand-elastic.

I'm aware that there are people who feel differently than I do. However, I believe there are a reasonable number of people on both sides of this. That's why I don't think going completely remote is an obvious move. Not having offices will eliminate some people from the applicant pool. Not offering remote positions will eliminate other people from the applicant pool. It's okay for a company to do either of these but I don't agree that the choice to go remote only is obvious.

I'd imagine that a group of employees who already work well together moving to remote work would be very different than hiring/training/integrating new remote employees.

Different, yes, but nowhere near as difficult as I expected. We've continued to hire a lot over the past 7 months, and while onboarding people remotely took longer at first, I'm not really seeing meaningful productivity differences (due to the remote onboarding) after a month or two on the job.

It's also possible that after the pandemic, when it's an option again, the youngest employees will prefer to work in offices. Won't the talent drive their choice ultimately?