Nobody expected a virus to remake rural America’s housing market.
Here we are, watching property values soar in places like Cornish, New Hampshire, where assessments rocketed up 78% last year (Cornish, NH Official Website, 2024)2. ping from $895 million to $1.6 billion1. Behind these numbers lurks a story of displacement, change, and the unexpected consequences of our great work-from-home experiment.
Back in early 2020, remote work belonged to a lucky few. Then everything changed. By late 2021, Pew Research found nearly 60% of eligible workers had abandoned their cubicles for home offices3. Many didn’t stop there. Freed from their daily commutes, they went looking for space, silence, and small-town charm.
They found it in rural communities across America. They also found bargains – at least compared to city prices. Local residents found something else entirely: a housing market spinning beyond reach.
This isn’t your usual gentrification story. Rural towns lack the safety nets and housing policies bigger cities have built over decades of urban change. When property taxes jump, fixed-income residents have few options. When local shops shift their inventory to match new tastes and budgets, longtime customers get left behind.
Some call it progress. Others see the death of rural America’s character. The truth likely lies somewhere in between, in the messy space where change meets community, and tradition faces tomorrow.
What’s certain? Rural towns need solutions: zoning changes, tax relief programs, affordable housing initiatives. Whether they’ll get them in time to preserve their character remains an open question – one that keeps a lot of people awake at night.
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We’d like to thank Ryan Cloutier for the Op-Ed. As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
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Sources:
1. Pew Research Center (2022): “How Remote Work Changed During the Pandemic”
2. Cornish, NH Official Website (2024): “2024 Property Tax and Assessment Questions”
3. Hopkinton, NH Official Website (2024): “2024 Revaluation Information”
