Cities seeing erosion in the housing market while areas outside of cities are seeing a boom. The reason, people in cities are selling homes that have a much higher selling price and moving where they can pay cash for a home and have money in the bank.
In other words, they are cashing out of city life in favor of homes in the burbs and beyond.
Northwestern NJ was seeing a serious decline for many years, but now is experiencing a very temporary uptick due to the virus. The long-term problems remain, but for anyone temporarily working remotely it is a much better alternative to NYC. On top of that, it is part of the conservative section of NJ (semi-rural); no BLM, or even real cities, out there.
Many are selling their places in the NY City is because they were trapped in 700 square foot apartment for now almost 10 months and feel vulnerable - I know quite a few that have moved out.
Housing prices in my area of Western NC are up 35% from this time last year.
This is like mass migration out of the NYC blast zone after 911. House prices in lower Jersey and PA (Pocanos) skyrocketed.