Some Americans now pick rentals and home purchases by the clock drive to Costco, a thrift-minded shift agents say is reshaping neighborhood wish lists.
Adam Staley hunted for a rental house in Kansas City, Missouri, and put warehouse distance near the top of the list. He chose a place five blocks from Costco. The three-minute hop by car sealed it.
USA TODAY reported that real estate watchers now label this proximity pull the "Costco effect," as renters, buyers, agents, and listings treat the warehouse club like a core neighborhood amenity rather than a weekend errand.
Staley hits his local warehouse at least four days a week for samples, deals, and hot dogs. His wardrobe leans hard into Kirkland Signature. He calls Costco his favorite place on earth.
"It was one of the top reasons why we wanted to choose this house,"
Staley said.
"Walking out the door, getting in the car and being there in three minutes was a huge plus."
That habit is not fringe. Agents say the sweet spot for many shoppers sits five to 15 minutes from a warehouse. On Reddit, users trade tips about moving closer, check Redfin maps against warehouse pins, and even build spreadsheet columns for distance when they relocate. One asked if anyone else only looks at houses near a Costco. Another admitted the distance math felt almost embarrassing, and still real.
Thrifty households have long chased bulk staples, gas discounts, and predictable private-label pricing, the same value streak that shows up when Costco adjusts Kirkland seasonal prices under member pressure. Location is simply the next line item.
Zillow reviewed active listings across 606 ZIP codes that already have a Costco. Roughly 3% explicitly flag the store in the write-up. That share is small, yet loud enough that marketers treat it as lifestyle bait.
Amanda Pendleton, a Zillow home trends expert, told the paper sellers are leaning in.
"Sellers are actively marketing proximity to the warehouse club as a selling point, treating it more like a lifestyle amenity,"
Pendleton said.
Arizona agent Lisa Bayless hears the question on the buyer side first.
"Buyers have asked me where the closest Costco is when considering an area,"
Bayless said.
In Pensacola, Florida, a recent listing for a three-bedroom cul-de-sac home sold the commute package in plain numbers: 20 minutes to downtown, 30 minutes to the beaches, and Pensacola’s first-ever Costco opening 2.6 miles away. The warehouse made the amenity sheet beside sand and skyline.
Member passion for specific finds runs just as hot as the map math, from nostalgia snacks to beef-tallow potato sticks that sparked childhood memories in the aisles.
Sean McCormack, broker-owner of Nice Move Realty in Austin and a 21-year Costco member, turned the preference into a sales tool. His site lets shoppers filter homes by radius to local Costcos and to H-E-B. He has three boys, ages 9 to 17. His own family lives less than 10 minutes from a warehouse.
"I thought it would be a cute idea to differentiate myself,"
McCormack said.
"It’s for people who care about saving time and saving money."
That pitch is pure pocketbook logic. Time is money. Gas adds up. A shorter haul with a full cart beats a cross-town slog after work. Families who already stretch paychecks notice. So do developers. In Los Angeles, builders are putting hundreds of apartments directly on top of a Costco warehouse, stacking housing on the same footprint as the bulk aisle.
Retail strength helps explain the pull. When Costco posted a sharp September sales jump, it underscored how central the chain remains to household budgets and weekly routines.
Not everyone wins the proximity lottery. Kathy Spangler, a retired school administrator and English teacher, lives with her husband in a Pinehurst, North Carolina, golf community more than an hour from the nearest warehouse. They make the trip two or three times a year as a day outing. She coined a phrase for what she feels in the parking lot.
"Whenever we're up there and I see somebody walking out with just a rotisserie chicken or rolls of toilet paper, I say I have Costco envy because they obviously live so close that they can come here and get one or two items,"
Spangler said.
Close-in members can grab one chicken and go. Distant members plan like a supply run. That gap is the whole housing story in miniature.
Some members go much farther for the same haul, including a Sitka couple who boats many hours each way for Juneau’s small warehouse. Drive-time buyers are chasing a milder version of that same devotion.
Staley’s bargain did not last forever. His local Kansas City Costco recently closed to transition into a Costco business center aimed at commercial buyers, not the usual household run for samples and a food-court hot dog. The next traditional warehouse sits about 25 minutes across the metro.
Moving again is off the table. The kids and their schools come first.
"If it was just us and we didn't have kids to think about, it might be a different consideration,"
Staley said.
"I’m going to have to go through some withdrawal there and get better at making sure I get everything on that one trip."
He will plan longer trips and tighten the list. The preference did not vanish. The map just got less kind.
Shoppers can be fierce about what belongs on those lists, and they call out new deli items that miss the mark just as quickly as they reward staples that deliver.
Strip away the cute labels and the pattern is straightforward. Households want lower prices, fewer wasted evenings, discounted gas, bulk goods, and a predictable private brand. Builders, listing agents, and brokers answer that demand the same way they answer good school zones or a short freeway on-ramp. They advertise it. They filter for it. In Los Angeles, they even pour apartments on top of it.
No federal program ordered Americans to live near a warehouse club. No city council invented Kirkland Signature loyalty. Consumers voted with leases, search radius tools, and offer letters. Sellers answered with copy that name-checks the store. Zillow’s 3% figure shows most listings still skip the shout-out, yet the buyers who care ask anyway, and the brokers who listen build the tool.
Common-sense thrift still moves real money. A three-minute drive for the weekly stock-up is not a personality quirk. It is household logistics. Parents clock school runs, shift work, sports practice, and grocery burn. Shaving errands off the calendar is a raise by another name.
The "Costco effect" label may sound trendy. The behavior underneath is older than any ZIP-code analysis: Americans reward places that save them time and cash, and the housing market notices.
When families rank a warehouse next to parks and commute times, they are not chasing status. They are guarding the budget, and the market is smart enough to keep up.