Housing prices surging in exurban/suburban areas, but is this a rural phenomenon?

Several major publications have run stories on this phenomenon in recent weeks, and I am acknowledging the trend here because many will view these places as rural, though I'd tend to classify them as exurban, if not suburban.  The demand by urban dwellers for homes outside the city is driven in part by pandemic life, by families cooped up as they have been compelled to work and go to school from home.   

Conor Dougherty and Ben Casselman report for the New York Times from Lathrop, California, population  18,023, in southern San Joaquin County.  The headline is "House Hunters are Leaving the City, and Builders Can't Keep Up."   Here's an excerpt:  

Tired of being cooped up, eager to take advantage of low interest rates and increasingly willing to move two or more hours from the urban core, buyers have propelled new home construction to its highest level since 2006. That was the year when the mid-2000s housing bubble started deflating on its way to what would become the financial crisis and Great Recession.

The Economist reports from France here under the headline, "The hidden side to French suburban living."  Here's an excerpt:

Cutting through farmland in a regional nature park, the approach to La Chapelle-en-Vexin is dominated not by its 12th-century chapel but by newly built two-storey homes. With their dormer windows, sloping tiled roofs and neatly hedged gardens, houses on such lotissements offer a French version of American suburban life: play space for children, a deck for the barbecue, and—crucially—off-street parking. In this village of just 333 inhabitants, an off-plan three-bedroom house with a garage is on sale for €260,000 ($320,000)—the same as a gloomy bedsit in central Paris.

The place featured is 40 miles from Paris.  

Finally, Candace Taylor reported for the Wall Street Journal from exurban Philadelphia. The headline is "Real Estate Frenzy Overwhelms Small Town America:  'I Came Home Crying.'" Here's an excerpt: 

Local buyers bid against one another as well as against investors who now comprise about a fifth of annual home sales nationally. Online platforms such as BiggerPockets and Fundrise make it easier for out-of-town investors to buy real estate in smaller cities across the U.S., said John Burns of California-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

Often, Mr. Burns said, “the cash flows are better in the Tulsas and Allentowns of the world” for those seeking to rent out properties. In the fourth quarter of 2020, nearly a fifth of homes sold in the Allentown area were bought by investors .... 

All of this reminded me of a January, 2021 story from my hometown newspaper, the Newton County Times.  The headline was "Moving trucks, trailers keep coming one way."  James White reports for the Harrison Daily Times, the sister paper based in neighboring Boone County, population 36,903.  The county seat is Harrison, population 12,943, and I'd say it is a rural area.  Here's the lede: 

There are dozens of U-Haul trucks parked around town.  The owner of the local franchise said that's unusual, but they're all coming one way.  He thinks it's got a lot to do with the pandemic and how it has changed the country. 

Jeff Crockett said the people renting trucks and trailers in other locations from diverse states--Colorado, California, Florida, North Carolina--are moving to the area.  No return trip is booked.  

How does he know they are moving? 

"With conversations we have in the office when they drop them off," he said.

People say they want to get away from the big cities.  The COVID-19 Pandemic has taught them something:  They can work from anywhere with internet access and no longer need to live within driving distance of the office building. 

The story then segues to local housing stock:  

Jeff Pratt, Harrison city clerk, owner of Jerry Jackson Realty and a member of the Harrison Board of Realtors, agreed the housing market in the area is an issue.  

Pratt said the Board of Realtors' multiple-county coverage area listed 136 residential properties for sale last week, about half of which were in Boone County. 

A couple of years ago, that cumulative number would have been 600.

"Our inventory is gone," Pratt said.

Houses selling for under $200,000 tend to leave the market almost as soon as listed.  

Of the 71 residential properties in Boone County, 12 were under $100,000; 27 fall into the $100,000 to $200,000 category; and 32 were priced over $200,000.  

Sometimes potential buyers in other states can't get here fast enough when a property in the area is listed.  A buyer in California might not be able to make flight arrangements to Boone County to look at a potential property before it sells. 

So, the property is shown via Zoom.  In some cases, the buyers make offers on a piece of real estate they've never even seen. 

The story does not indicate whether house prices are rising in the area.