Americans empowered to work remotely in 2020 chose to move away from cities, and that trend hasn’t stopped.and found outer suburbs and recreation counties have been big gainers.
America’s rural counties and smaller metro areas, places with fewer than 250,000 people, became the top destinations last year for the first time in decades, he said. In 2000, the median rent in Washington, D.C., was 10% cheaper than in Charlotte, North Carolina, Lombard wrote in his recent analysis. By 2019, Washington’s rent was over a third higher and its median home price 2.5 times higher than Charlotte’s.Working from home rose five-fold from 2019 to 2023, according to Stanford University researchers.40% of employees worked remotelyPeople kept moving from big cities last year despite headwinds that would typically stop such a trend, Lombard said.
He said outer suburbs, farther from the city centers, and recreation counties have seen some of the strongest growth.