Many Americans chasing the dream of home ownership have turned to rural areas, where it’s more affordable and you can get more space for less. But while homes everywhere are becoming less affordable, the problem is actually accelerating faster in rural areas, according to new analysis by Redfin.
When Kristin Fuerstenberg bought her cabin in northern, rural Wisconsin five years ago, it was supposed to be a part-time thing. But she loved the change of scenery.
“I wake up every day, I look out at a lake, and you can’t beat that,” she said.
Like a lot of people who bought in the area around the time of the pandemic, she stuck around. She’s a realtor there in Oneida County and said, even now, inventory is low and prices are high.
Take the home she sold earlier this year: “3 bedroom, 1 bath little ranch. $350,000. And prior to 2021, that house probably would have been $170,000.”
Housing everywhere is less affordable, but in rural areas — like where Fuerstenberg lives — the affordability crisis is accelerating fastest, per Chen Zhao, head of economics research at Redfin.
“Rural buyers, they have to earn about $75,000 in order to afford the typical home, and that is double what they needed to earn before the pandemic,” she said.
Income has only gone up 33% in rural areas.
Colorado realtor Dana Cottrell is seeing this play out in communities outside big ski destinations in the Rockies.
“When you get priced out of maybe the bigger resorts, you tend to look a little further afield, and then what happens to the people that are living there, to the ranches, it becomes harder and harder for people to afford their local areas,” she said.
On the flip side, Cottrell said, for those who were able to get into homes five years ago, that investment is paying off.