Rural U.S. counties have posted massive home price increases that have far outpaced those in urban centers, according to a new housing analysis from Realtor.com.
The trend comes after decades of young professionals flocked to large metro areas searching of well-paying jobs and lifestyle amenities.
According to the analysis, from November 2019 to November 2025, nonmetro counties, which are synonymous with rural locales, experienced a median listing price increase topping 70%, while in-metro counties saw home prices rise just over 30%.
Realtor.com said those numbers were calculated at the listing level across all the counties in the rural and metro categories over the last six years.
Outlying Areas in Midwest, South Were Top Performers
A closer look at the numbers, however, shows that some outlying areas—all concentrated in the budget-friendly Midwest and South—outperformed others by significant margins, Realtor.com said.
For example, Realtor.com said that Blackford County, Indiana’s fourth-smallest county with a population of under 12,000 people, now ranks first in nonmetro home price growth.
In November 2019, only months before the outbreak of COVID, the typical home in Blackford cost just under $56,000. Last month, the median asking price in the area was nearly $156,000. That’s a staggering 186% increase from six years ago, Realtor.com said.
Blackford County’s housing market remains highly affordable, with the listing price roughly one-third of the U.S. median of $415,000 in November, according to the latest monthly housing market trends report from Realtor.com.
Lauderdale County in southwestern Tennessee and bordering the Mississippi River, saw the second-largest gain in home prices at almost 160%, with the typical for-sale property there listed for $215,000 last month, up from just $83,000 in 2019.
Amanda Crist, a real estate agent at Ragan’s Five Rivers Realty & Auction Co. in Dickson, Tennessee, said the primary driver behind soaring homes prices in rural parts of the state is a massive influx of newcomers drawn by Tennessee’s lack of a state income tax and strong job market.
During Pandemic Years, Rural Areas Had in Influx of Transplants
“While some new residents have moved to large cities including Nashville, many others have moved to the surrounding more rural counties either because of more affordable prices, more square footage, less traffic, more land, or some mixture of these reasons, depending on each specific buyer’s needs,” she told Realtor.com.
A recent working paper from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies recently explained that during the pandemic years, rural areas saw an inflow of transplants from larger, often more costly metros as the rise of remote work allowed them to shop for homes further afield.
“As a result, net domestic migration—an important driver of housing demand—turned positive in nonmetro counties for the first time in at least a decade,” the paper’s authors, Senior Research Sssociate Alexander Hermann and Research Analyst Peyton Whitney, wrote.
According to the study, during the three years ahead of the pandemic, rural locations saw a net loss of nearly 78,000 residents, but between 2021 and 2023, that trend made a sharp turnaround, with 540,000 people relocating to rural communities.
A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that rural workers made less than 85% of urban workers’ earnings in August 2025, which was almost the same as in August 2019.
“Small town living is an appealing proposition to city dwellers, many of whom are choosing to leave big cities in favor of these nonmetro counties to buy a home if they have the flexibility to do so, which drives up prices in rural counties at the expense of those already there who may no longer be able to afford a home,” says Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner. “Often these rural counties have a less robust rental market, so options for people living there are getting thin.”
Most Rural Counties Have Few Nonprimary Residences
None of the top-ranked rural counties have more than 5% of loans tied to nonprimary residences. The shows that vacation homes are uncommon in these off-the-beaten-path areas with little name recognition, Realtor.com noted.
The Joint Center for Housing Studies’ paper found that rural counties with high shares of vacation and second homes saw housing prices jump nearly 48% from 2020 to 2023 compared with other areas. The Realtor.com analysis showed that even rural counties not catering to tourists have experienced tremendous home appreciation.
“While some of this out-of-metro growth can be explained by vacation destination counties like Valley County, where the median listing price grew 121.3% from $399,900 to $884,950, more of the growth comes from truly rural counties with low median prices like these ones,” Berner said.
The post Home Prices Surge in Rural Counties, Outpace Top Urban Areas first appeared on The MortgagePoint.
