Economic distress combined with long-term shifts to remote working could accelerate population movement away from big cities. Well before the current crisis, we’ve seen young professionals who live in coastal hubs like Los Angeles, Boston, New York and San Francisco move to populous but more affordable metros like Dallas, Houston, Nashville and Columbus. Within the costliest metros, there’s been steady movement to the suburbs and outskirts. More recently, we’ve started to witness people shift to smaller cities with populations of 500,000 or fewer residents. The pandemic is accelerating this demographic shift, say experts. |