Rural Missouri towns hit by 'crazy' spikes in housing prices, hurting longtime residents

[Sherman A1]

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked high housing prices all across the country in places long insulated from them. Remote, rural towns where real estate prices remained low for decades are now seeing unprecedented price spikes, which are compounding problems for the rural poor.

For years the run-up in housing prices skipped vast stretches of so-called flyover country. Then came a run-up in home prices in places like Boise, Idaho, where they shot up nearly 50%. Now the pandemic has spread that price pressure all the way to places like Osceola, Missouri, a town of about 900 an hour outside the outskirts of Kansas City.

Osceola is smaller than it was a century ago, and home prices remained in the basement for decades. That, however, was before the pandemic hit. Now prices are up sharply, with some homes selling for more than 30% above what they were valued at as recently as this spring. And much of the buying power and interest in the Osceola real estate market is coming from far away.

On a recent morning, Stewart Kiefer Realtors on the square in Osceola was crowded with Californians. Two couples and a widower, all related and all looking to make a move from the high desert between Palm Springs and Los Angeles to rural Missouri.


https://news.stlpublicradio.org/economy-business/2021-12-02/rural-missouri-towns-hit-by-crazy-spikes-in-housing-prices-hurting-longtime-residents?

[mahina]

1. Well sit tight because communities are running out of water.

Among others things.

Now might be a good time to persuade your local govt to put some kind of rent control in.

We are being flooded with remote tech workers who make way more money than anybody here does. They have caused housing prices to just skyrocket in the last couple years. It’s crazy. Used to be able to get a one bedroom apartment for under 1000 and now it’s 2400+ if you are lucky. Sucks so much fir young folks starting their lives.

[Demobrat]

3. This is why people don't want kids

They know they can’t create a home for them.

[Demovictory9]

2. Turn mo blue

[dalton99a]

5. Sounds like they want to be with white people

Craig Yoder, who was there with his two sisters and their husbands, said they wield substantial buying power here.

"We have three good incomes and three properties that we can sell in California," Yoder said. "I own my house outright. So it's pure profit and the prices have gone crazy."

Yoder, who like his sisters is approaching retirement age, said that California had become too expensive and, for them, too liberal. His brother-in-law, Robert Velasquez, said they’re joining an exodus out of the Golden State.

“Arizona, Nevada, but everybody right now that's leaving California is influxing those nearby states that are more conservative, even as far east as Texas,” Velasquez said. “So we're thinking, okay, we're getting a little bit further out.”

[LiberatedUSA]

8. Rural Mo likes its guns as well.

Most won’t vote for a politician who will vote to ban semi-automatic guns or a for a sheriff willing to enforce such a ban.

[dalton99a]

4. Same thing is happening in Tennessee

It is really hurting local renters and low-income people

[lapfog_1]

6. 155K for this place

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/625-Walnut-St-Osceola-MO-64776/236137854_zpid/

or $700 a month payment.

Hmmm... I can work from anywhere... so... my silicon valley rent is $2300 / month for a studio.

[xmas74]

13. And you'd be 50 minutes or so from me.

We usually go down there in the fall to the Cheese Store and a nearby corn maze.

[SWBTATTReg]

7. I would suggest to those seeking to move to MO is to talk to fellow california residents who have

moved to MO already (I know of several)...sure the rest estate differences between Calif. and MO are major and one can live quite well in MO compared to Calif., but there are major differences between the two states.

[Demobrat]

9. Snow

I have lived in Ca for my entire adult life but I was born and raised in Chicago. There’s a reason they always show pics taken in summer. People don’t realize how isolating a good blizzard can be, or how much hard work it can be to deal with.

Those people in their sixties from the Ca desert have no idea what they’re getting into.

[SWBTATTReg]

10. You got it! Also, Ice can be a pretty major issue to deal w/ too, I've had my full share of major

ICE storms (6 inches one time) that pretty well shut down SW Missouri down totally (they don't even have snow plows I think (just kidding)).

And ICE, both minor and major can be big issues too. You're right, the Lake Effect snows off the Great Lakes can be 'lots of fun' I can imagine (and the wind from what I've heard too). I've heard of literally feet/yards of snow. Wow.

Good for you (I hope it's planned) that you live in Calif., away from the snows/wind/ice...I still live in MO, but the major snows don't seem to hit as much as in prior years but the little icing on the roads still does hit sometimes but I just stay at home/don't go out/etc. and it'll hopefully melt off / go away pretty quickly, but sometimes it doesn't go away so quickly.

[xmas74]

14. Snows aren't as they used to be

But I'm worried about Gary Lezak's prediction for Dec 12.

[SWBTATTReg]

18. I tried finding this forecast online, no luck. What was Gary L predicting on 12/12/21?

Thanks!

[xmas74]

21. Upwards of 23 inches.

https://www.kshb.com/weather/weather-blog-a-winter-storm-is-showing-up-for-next-weekend

[SWBTATTReg]

22. Whoa!! Wow!! I'll talk to my other half and mention that they might want to take off 12/12/21,

give or take a day or so off around then. Wow, this looks nasty!

Thanks so much for the forecast, hopefully it won't be as bad as the forecast mentions, especially across MO, the ice around STLMO doesn't bode well at all!

Be safe out there!!

[xmas74]

23. I'm about an hour SE of KC

So I'll be stuck in the middle.

I'm stocking up on Heet and ice melt this weekend. Thank goodness I work from home or Monday could be a nasty commute.

[Thtwudbeme]

15. are you referring to the ice storm in '91?

Pure t hell, it was.

I never want to see that shit again.

[SWBTATTReg]

17. YES. And it was literally 100% ice too.

I think it took us 3 weeks to really kind of dig out finally...

[Thtwudbeme]

19. I lived in Ozark, and worked for Cox Paramedics

I have tried describing that storm to people that have never lived there- (I am from, and live in NC now)- and they don't believe me.

The paramedics I worked with (I was a paramedic- but I didn't do this) wore golf shoes so they could get across people's lawns.

I remember the night it started- I was at a movie at the mall in Springfield, and when my then boyfriend and I came out it was raining ice pellets. We were in his '85 Ford F-150 that had 4WD- and that's how we got home. It was still soft and crunchy that night. But, if you remember the temps dropped, and it did not go above freezing again for weeks.

[Johnny2X2X]

11. Remote work is changing everything

Have a buddy who just sold his Condo in Chicago for $750K, he's a developer for cloud based applications of some sort, kind of a gig worker already. He's moving to rural Michigan where he bought 20 acres and is building a home, and he'll have plenty left over after he builds a 3,000 sq foot house.

I live in a city and work remotely, with some tweaks I could be fully remote permanently and live where ever I want.

And those small towns are going to see property values skyrocket, which means higher taxes for people even if they own their homes outright.

[Demobrat]

12. I wonder if housing prices in tech hubs

like Silicon Valley and Seattle will come down at all as highly paid people leave for greener, and cheaper, pastures.

[inthewind21]

16. No

No they will not.

[MineralMan]

20. I grew up in California. Right now, there are a hella lot of people

there who are conservatives and Trumpers who want to leave that state. There are some in my own family. Those are probably the types who are looking at properties like those in Missouri. Many of them will be middle-aged or older. Most own homes in California. For some of them, they're seeing their home equity, which has shot up dramatically, as early retirement potential.

So, you sell your modest home in CA for as much as $1 million, and that's not a stretch, really, there. You find a place somewhere in red country where you can buy a replacement home for a quarter of that or even less. The rest is yours to live on, along with whatever other assets you have available to you.

At some point, if you're fed up with California living, you sell and move and live off your equity profit. I have a relative there who is thinking about just that. His house there is paid for. He bought it 30 years ago for under $200,000. It would sell for $1 million or so. He's almost at retirement age. Imagine how attractive an early retirement, funded by the sale of that house would be, especially if you dislike or even hate the politics in California, as he does.

So, demand for homes in Missouri goes up. But, the homes are still so much less expensive than the ones in California that it doesn't really matter.