Personally, I would love to see an American “back to the land” movement with the American Dream being a rural house and a nice garden. Internet connections allow people to work for just about any company in any state, while the worker enjoys a bucolic lifestyle in Arkansas, or Maine, or wherever.
I think big cities are an obsolete concept in the 21st century. And I’m not sure suburbs with McMansions make too much sense either.
But I’m not sure how many Americans really want to live in the middle of nowhere. I like it just fine, but I don’t think it’s a common sentiment.
Cities must be absolutely safe to make sense—zero tolerance even for petty crime.
That is their only hope—and it is hard to envision a future where that happens.
As people get older, they tend to need more medical services. So, they want to be able to go to the doctor within a half hour drive.
They also may not want to maintain a larger property. They may be physically limited. I will be 60 in a couple weeks. I spent yesterday afternoon cutting up a maple tree. It took me about 4 hours by myself. I am not sure I will be able to do that in another ten years. I have 12 acres and live on th edge of suburbia in south central NH. My house is 50 years old. So, it may become more than I can maintain in a few years.
This is generally true of the USA demographic. On average we are getting older. Our kids are not having as many kids as we did. We didn't have as many as out parents. Demographically, the USA is not in as bad of shape as South Korea, Japan, Italy or China. This is because immigrants WANT to come here and we allow it both legally and illegally.
So, the real estate that is going to be most desirable in the USA may be CONDOS. Either free standing or apartments with an elevator. I know the developments that sell the best here in NH are the 50 and over 2-3 bedroom free standing condos. Most are one floor. No stairs to climb. small yard where someone else does the mowing, clear snow and cleans the leaves out of the gutters in the fall.
Do you really want the vermin from NYC, Detroit, Chicago, etc., moving into your rural communities and bringing their progressive politics with them? Let them stay in their decaying worker paradises and go down with the ship.
One of the issues is that you face circumstances in rural areas that don’t exist in dense populations area including slow internet if you can get it at all because they still use copper lines and a lack of cell service.
Fire insurance can be unavailable due to the distance to a fire dept. So don’t count on getting a mortgage if you can’t buy property straight out.
But wait! There’s more!
Have you considered some places have off the scale meth use with the attendant theft?