By Clare Trapasso | Realtor.com® | Sep 24, 2020
The pandemic has transformed American lives in ways large and small. One of the more surprising side effects: The suburbs are suddenly the hot place to live. COVID-19 has helped transform spacious, single-family homes in those leafy, green oases into the most desirable real estate around—at the expense of the big cities. And this may be shaping up as a long-term shift away from the urban centers that have defined the nation for decades.
But many of those once-die-hard urbanites fleeing to the burbs would have likely left the city anyway. The coronavirus simply sped up their departures.
Last month, home shoppers spent more time looking online at properties in the suburbs than in cities, according to a recent realtor.com® report. Asking prices also rose faster in the suburbs as a lack of homes for sale coupled with a surge in demand for larger abodes with large backyards drove them right up. This shift in demand from urban to suburban areas was most pronounced in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.
