The coronavirus pandemic has spurred many city dwellers to move to rural areas. But researchers wonder how the trend will affect thise areas, and whether it will continue after the pandemic, Caroline Tremblay reports for The Daily Yonder. The story is produced by the organizers of Radically Rural, an annual summit of rural stakeholders in Keene, New Hampshire. This year it's Sept. 22-23.
States and municipalities have been hoping for young remote workers to invigorate local economies, but many of the rural transplants are aging baby boomers. That's partly because moving is expensive and they can more likely afford it, one researcher speculated. "An influx of new residents could be beneficial for the widespread labor shortage. But not if the newcomers are predominantly retirees," Tremblay reports. (Or, we would add, people wanting second homes.) "On the other end of the spectrum, how will rural towns respond to youth members who migrated to the big city but returned when jobs disappeared as a result of the pandemic?"
Such returning rural residents might have a hard time finding housing, since fleeing urbanites snapped up much of what was on the market. The resulting shortage is driving up housing prices in many rural areas, Tremblay reports.
Building more housing may seem like the obvious solution, but many communities aren't prepared to do so in a way that preserves the environment and protects the rural beauty that lured transplants in the first place, according to Megan Lawson, a Montana-based researcher, statistician and economist with Headwaters Economics.
The new residents could be a big asset to rural communities' economies, but preparation is key, said Peter Nelson, a professor of Geography at Middlebury College in Vermont. "Communities that can develop strategies to plug those newcomers in and harness their energy in a productive direction will do much better than those communities that just passively receive them," Nelson told Tremblay.
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