Since the beginning of the pandemic, the price of housing has risen in some relatively cheap places in the U.S. and fallen in some expensive ones. These dynamics were already apparent before Covid-19, as superstar cities in the U.S. and abroad began to price themselves out of reach for many of the workers who kept them going. Then came a contagious disease that (1) temporarily shut down most of the things that make superstar cities attractive and (2) led employers to experiment with remote work on an unprecedented scale, making it easier to disconnect superstar-city jobs from superstar-city real estate prices.
Still, there’s this pesky thing that happens when the price of housing rises a lot in a place where it used to be cheap: The place stops being cheap. Consider Boise, Idaho, which saw the sharpest rent increases over the past year of the 519 U.S. cities for which the economists at Apartment List make monthly rent estimates. Four years ago, renting a two-bedroom apartment or house in Boise cost 25% less than the national average, and even early last year it cost 17% less. As of April, it cost 1% more.
