The same problem of the house price to income ratio shows there is as much of a housing shortage in rural America as well. "Solving" housing by moving all high CoL people to rural America is just going to price out all those with lower CoL area salaries. Our vacancy rate nation wide is low, likely well within the frictional margins that need to exist for a healthy market.

"The same problem of the house price to income ratio shows there is as much of a housing shortage in rural America as well."

Not necessarily. You can't use the overall picture data to make claims about localized or subcategories of data. Especially if the bulk of the people live in suburban and urban areas.

This is certainly happening in small cities right now, as prices skyrocket.

Remote work could solve a lot of this. I would love to live in a more rural area with cheaper housing.

"... a long distance from any of the amenities that most Americans now demand."

Like what? Many amenities and services have been moving to the at-home or online model for decades - arcades, movies, shopping, car buying, telehealth, etc. It seems there should be less reliance on physical amenities now than in the past.

We are starting to movement from HCOL and high tax areas. Companies are moving for tax and regulatory purposes and most people seem happy to follow when the cost of living is significantly lower.

The data seems to imply that remote work is letting high paid workers move from the coasts to smaller cities, not rural towns. The persistent low prices of houses in rural America certainly backs this up. Meanwhile home prices in small cities are skyrocketing.

> Like what? Many amenities and services have been moving to the at-home or online model for decades - arcades, movies, shopping, car buying, telehealth, etc. It seems there should be less reliance on physical amenities now than in the past.

My parents town’s nearest major store is a Walmart 45 minutes away. There is a significant difference between “we need less amenities now” and “we need no amenities”. Committing to an hour and a half drive for anything Amazon can’t deliver is sub ideal.

The price of houses in rural America seems to also be skyrocketing. My house 40 miles outside of the nearest "smaller city" (population ~20k) has gone up in value over 50% since I bought it 3 years ago.

The price of land in the middle of the desert east of San Diego (Ocotillo Wells, Borrego Springs) is skyrocketing.

It would be utterly impractical to live there most of the year. And yet compared to NFT's and some cryptocurrencies it's probably a great investment. There's definitely a bubble going on, I just don't know when it will end or why.