Wasn’t sure which forum to plop this topic in. Since the pandemic and the rise in remote work opportunities (with some forced “return to office” policies in the last year), there still has been noted of a growing surge in people fleeing major cities and moving to desirable rural areas and towns around the US where as long as the they have Starlink or decent wifi they can work just fine. If I were to guess for the Gen Z and millennials doing tech, sales, or admin type work that can be performed anywhere, they are probably left leaning politically. With all the dying small rural towns and counties with major population decline, are these young white collar city slickers being welcome or despised on this migration into these areas? I assume it’s very transient and not a permanent change. Regardless of political leaning, for American citizens that have this freedom to do research’s bd pick a spot to go live in a desirable place without the restrictions of proximity to an employer, I think it is wonderful. Great to be an American in 2025, but hopefully we won’t be corralled like cattle into the 15 min. city in the future as some predict.
Remote workers moving from urban to rural areas
- Thread starter bubs
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I've seen a lot of angst on this and some ideas that the boomers are mad and firing people for not coming back to the office, which may have something to do with the residential real estate issues, or just the idea that they want to fire more people. Who knows.
I don't think much of the old system really remains, and we'll start seeing this as early as 2028. Many of the problems moving ahead will be based on bankrupts states and tax issues from the more decentralized nature of things. But those will all happen at the same time as the cost of living continues to whittle down the middle class to nearly nothing, and the poors will also get less and less due to the system being broke, or having to print more to try and fake it all.
Protecting residential and commercial real estate they own, plus all the big city businesses commuters end up using, coffee shops, etc
I think we will continue to see a shrinkage of number of mom and pop brick and mortar businesses that can stay afloat. AI will be replacing a lot of self employed Youtubers. I think perhaps blue collar small business owners are probably all that will continue to flourish as there is a lot more demand for their services and the blue collar guys can turn down the small jobs for the big payday repairs in the wealthiest neighborhoods. Self employment is trending towards only providing services for the wealthy.
My in laws have a broken pane in a window in their garage. I took a picture, sent it and called 5 different local window / handyman companies. Only offer I got was for $450 to replace an 18-24 in window pane and had to decline as that seemed way overpriced. It’s an old house and not an easy fix for DIY, so need a pro. I just ended stapling up plastic over it for now to keep the bats and bugs out. Maybe revisit getting new quotes in a few months.
These days one has to be ready to DYI everything, even though the outcome might not always end up looking up to fancy modern standards. Commodification of residential real estate and building codes put pressure on home owners to depend on expensive professional jobs, which have to be insured and bonded too, making them even more expensive.
Yes, the glut of real estate led to both this and the lack of desire to participate due to increasing prices, constant repairs, and overall headaches. It should improve as population decreases continue, but that won't fully open things up until probably another 10 years. We're going to see so many changes most don't expect, needless to say. That's why they claim that population loss is so bad; they're used to things being the same and papered over, so they can't fathom the good that would come out of the scenarios moving ahead, with all the tradeoffs.