Rural Revival and Remote Work

The New Frontier for Real Estate Investment

The landscape of work and living in the post-COVID era is undergoing a seismic shift. Remote work has untethered thousands of workers from city offices, sparking a migration toward rural and small-town communities. High-speed internet expansion and the availability of quality housing are transforming once-sleepy areas into vibrant hubs of activity. This white paper explores how these trends – coupled with innovations like modular homes – are driving a “rural revival” and creating new frontiers for real estate investment. We present data on remote work adoption, examples of rejuvenated rural communities, the role of digital infrastructure, and how modular construction solutions (exemplified by BIOS Homes) are poised to meet the surge in housing demand. Finally, we offer a perspective on opportunities emerging in New England’s rural counties, as seen by Connecticut Real Estate Brokerage LLC.

The Rise of Remote Work and Shifting Migration Patterns

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote work to unprecedented levels. In the early months of the pandemic, nearly 60% of U.S. employees were working remotely at least part-time, according to Gallup, and over two-thirds wanted to continue doing so en.wikipedia.org. While those numbers have since moderated, hybrid and remote arrangements remain common; by 2023, about 41% of workers were either fully remote or in a hybrid role, maintaining far higher levels of telework than before 2020 smartasset.com. Pre-pandemic, only around 10% or fewer worked remotely full-time en.wikipedia.org, highlighting the dramatic change in work culture.

Freed from daily commutes, many workers have been empowered to relocate away from expensive urban centers. This has profoundly influenced migration patterns in the United States. For the first time in decades, rural areas are seeing population gains from net migration. U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows that the rural (non-metro) population grew about 0.25% from July 2020 to June 2022, reversing a decade of overall rural population loss ers.usda.gov. Crucially, this uptick is attributed to net in-migration (more people moving in than out) as remote work enabled urban dwellers to move to rural locales. Rural net migration, which was negative throughout 2010–2016 and near zero from 2017–2020, jumped to +0.47% in 2020–21, marking a major shift. In contrast, urban counties saw their net migration turn slightly negative during the same period as people left cities.

Multiple studies confirm this trend of dispersion. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2022–2023, far-flung exurban communities (on the outer edge of metro areas) were among the nation’s fastest-growing places census.govcensus.gov. High housing costs in core cities, combined with greater remote work opportunities, have pushed some people to live 30, 40, even 60+ miles from urban centers in search of affordable homes and space. As Census demographer Luke Rogers observed, with many able to work from home now, people are “more willing to live farther away from their place of employment than they would have in the past”. Supporting this shift in preferences, a Gallup survey in late 2020 found that almost half of U.S. adults (48%) would prefer to live in a small town or rural area, a notable rise in interest compared to prior years weforum.org.

In summary, remote work has untethered a significant segment of the workforce from city centers. This freedom is driving a new pattern of migration: urban-to-rural relocation on a scale not seen in recent memory. The next sections will examine how this influx of remote workers is revitalizing rural communities and what challenges and opportunities it brings for housing and investment.

Rural Communities Reborn: Remote Workers Revitalizing Small Towns

As telecommuters fan out across the country, many rural towns are experiencing a renaissance. Communities that previously saw young talent drain to big cities are now welcoming an influx of professionals bringing income and demand for local services. These “Zoom towns” – a play on the boomtown concept named after the Zoom videoconferencing tool – have emerged as hotspots for remote workers drawn by natural beauty, lower cost of living, and a higher quality of life en.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org.

One clear pattern is the growth of rural recreation hubs. Remote workers have flocked to locales offering outdoor amenities – ski resorts, mountain towns, scenic lake communities – to combine work with leisure planetizen.com. For example, Stowe, Vermont (a picturesque ski town) and several Colorado mountain towns saw surges in new residents during the pandemic as people sought refuge in nature while working from home. An analysis by The Daily Yonder found that in rural counties with recreation-focused economies (skiing, hiking, boating, etc.), an average of 12% of the local workforce is now working remotely, compared to only 6% in rural counties reliant on manufacturing or mining. In some high-amenity counties, over a quarter of workers are remote – a striking figure that underscores the appeal of these areas. Western states and New England lead in this trend, having the highest percentages of rural remote workers in the nation.

Beyond recreation destinations, even struggling rural areas are looking to remote work as a lifeline. Consider Harlan County in Eastern Kentucky – a rural Appalachian coal region that lost two-thirds of its population since its mid-20th-century peak broadbandbreakfast.com. Today, local leaders see remote work and digital businesses as key to diversifying the economy and stabilizing population loss. A recent study estimated that improved broadband connectivity in Harlan County could attract or retain over 1,000 residents and generate $70 million in economic benefits over 15 years. In other words, digital infrastructure and remote job opportunities could spark a rural resurgence even in places hit hard by past economic shifts.

Many small cities and towns have proactively courted remote workers with incentive programs. For instance, the Northwest Arkansas “Life Works Here” initiative (backed by the Walton family) offered $10,000 and a free mountain bike to entice professionals to relocate to the Ozarks region. In late 2020, it drew 30,000+ applicants from all 50 states and 115 countries eager to move to towns like Fayetteville, AR bbc.com. Successful applicants not only brought their jobs and salaries, but also invigorated local cycling clubs, co-working spaces, and social networks. Likewise, the well-known Tulsa Remote program in Oklahoma has attracted hundreds of remote workers with $10,000 grants and community support, contributing to a revival of Tulsa’s downtown scene floowitalent.com. And it’s not just the U.S.: rural regions globally are adopting similar tactics. Ireland, for example, launched a policy in 2021 to bring people to its countryside, including relocation grants, tax incentives, and the creation of 400 remote-working hubs in rural towns (by repurposing old town halls, theaters, and other buildings) weforum.orgweforum.org. In southern Italy, villages like Santo Stefano di Sessanio (population 115) have offered up to €8,000 per year for three years, plus housing and startup grants, to attract newcomers and counter depopulation. Even Japan is paying families to leave crowded Tokyo – offering ¥1 million (~$7,500) per child to those who move to rural areas – aiming to relocate 10,000 people by 2027.

The early results of these movements are promising. Rural communities report new businesses and cultural energy alongside the population gains. Traverse City, Michigan, for instance, has seen growth in tech startups fueled by newcomers who moved in while working remotely, according to the Upjohn Institute upjohn.org. However, this influx is not without its challenges – chief among them: housing.

Housing Challenges and Solutions in the New Rural Boom

An ironic consequence of the rural revival is that many small communities now face big-city-style housing crunches. For years, rural areas experienced little residential development; some even had excess housing from population decline. Suddenly, with demand rising, supply is strained. As higher-income remote workers bid up home prices in quaint towns, long-time residents can be squeezed. A report on rural housing trends noted that during the pandemic, as people traded city life for small-town living (often keeping their big-city salaries), “rural communities [struggled] to keep up with housing demand, pushing prices higher.” planetizen.com In short, the influx has intensified affordability pressures in many places that were previously affordable.

For example, real estate agents in Maine, Montana, and Vermont have described frantic markets in 2021–2022 with cash buyers from out-of-state snapping up properties sight-unseen, driving double-digit percentage price jumps. In response, communities are seeking ways to expand housing stock quickly. Some towns have converted empty commercial buildings into lofts or multifamily units, or encouraged homeowners to create accessory apartments, to provide more options for newcomers and locals alike. These stopgaps help, but often traditional stick-built construction is too slow and costly to meet the sudden surge in demand.

This is where modular housing offers a scalable, cost-effective solution. Modular construction involves manufacturing home sections in a factory and then transporting and assembling them on-site. Because much of the work is done in parallel (while site prep happens, the house is built in the factory) and in a controlled environment, it dramatically cuts down construction timelines. According to industry analyses, a modular home can shorten a building schedule from over a year to just a matter of weeks, if using a proven design and efficient setup camoinassociates.com. This speed-to-completion is crucial for rural areas that need housing now to accommodate growth. It also significantly reduces carrying costs and interest expenses for builders or developers, since the project is finished faster.

Not only is it faster – it can be cheaper. A 2024 Urban Institute report highlighted modular construction as a “long-promised alternative” that could reduce both building costs and construction time for new homes urban.org. As labor shortages and high material costs plague the conventional building industry (with on-site construction costs up 32% from 2019 to 2022 urban.org), modular approaches become even more attractive. Factories can achieve economies of scale and avoid weather delays, making the per-unit cost more predictable and often lower. Quality is also high – factory-built modules must meet the same building codes as site-built homes, and often they exceed standards due to precise manufacturing and inspection processes. Modern modular homes can be indistinguishable from traditional houses in appearance, yet offer better energy efficiency and less waste in construction.

For rural communities facing housing shortages, modular housing provides a way to rapidly add supply – from single-family homes to entire developments – without being limited by the small local construction workforce. Factories anywhere in the country can produce the modules and ship them to the site, where local crews assemble them. This scalability means that if a town suddenly needs hundreds of units to accommodate growth, modular builders can ramp up production far quicker than site-builders. We are already seeing states and developers turn to modular and manufactured homes as a solution in rural areas where “prevailing wages are insufficient for stick-built construction”, as one economic development publication noted camoinassociates.com. By embracing modular builds, rural towns can avoid the fate of becoming victim to their own success (i.e., pricing out residents or turning into exclusive enclaves) and instead grow sustainably by adding housing in step with demand.

Bridging the Gap with Modular Innovation: The BIOS Homes Approach

Meeting the rural housing challenge will require partnerships between the public and private sectors and innovative business models. BIOS Homes is one example of a company positioning itself at the nexus of these trends – leveraging modular construction to deliver fast, affordable, and high-quality housing solutions for governments, developers, and individuals alike. BIOS Homes operates a first-of-its-kind global modular home brokerage, connecting clients to a network of over 750 modular and panelized home factories worldwide bioshomes.com. This expansive network means BIOS can source the right design and production capacity for virtually any project – from a single-family homestead to an entire new neighborhood – and do so with speed and cost-efficiency. As the company describes it, their process offers a “curated experience that delivers faster construction times, better pricing, and superior quality.” bioshomes.com

The BIOS model streamlines what can be a daunting process. Rather than a rural town council or a small developer having to identify and vet modular manufacturers on their own, BIOS acts as a knowledgeable broker and project manager. They match the client’s vision, budget, and timeline with the optimal factory and building solution, tapping into their pre-vetted network. By advocating for the client’s interests (instead of selling a single factory’s product line), they ensure competitive pricing and quality control across options bioshomes.com. This is particularly valuable for government agencies or community development organizations that want to launch workforce housing programs or affordable housing in rural areas – BIOS can handle the heavy lifting of coordination and execution.

In addition to speed and cost savings, BIOS Homes emphasizes sustainability and innovation. Their approach integrates eco-friendly materials (including patent-pending uses of hemp for insulation and building components) and even robotics and AI in the construction process bioshomes.com. The result is homes that are not only produced faster, but are healthier and more energy-efficient for residents. These qualities align well with the ethos of many rural migrants who are seeking a greener, healthier lifestyle. For example, BIOS’s use of advanced insulation and solar-ready designs can be a selling point in off-grid or environmentally conscious rural developments.

BIOS Homes is also establishing a local footprint in New England, with a flagship factory and construction division set to open in Connecticut bioshomes.com. This presence allows BIOS to directly serve the New England and Tri-State area’s rural markets, providing on-the-ground support and demonstrating their commitment to regional development. By combining global reach with local action, BIOS Homes can help ensure that the rural revival is supported by a solid foundation of housing infrastructure. Whether it’s a town planning a new modular home community for incoming remote workers, a developer looking to infill a small town neighborhood, or an individual landowner wanting a custom prefab home on their property, BIOS offers an end-to-end solution – from land acquisition and permitting support, through factory matchmaking, to on-site assembly and finish. This comprehensive service model means faster delivery of move-in-ready homes where they’re needed, at a price often lower than traditional construction. In short, BIOS Homes is bridging the gap between the rising demand for rural housing and the logistical challenges of delivering quality homes quickly and affordably.

Regional Spotlight: New England’s Rural Revival and Opportunities

Nowhere is the convergence of these trends more evident than in New England’s rural counties. New England boasts expansive natural beauty – from the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire to the quiet forests of northwestern Connecticut and western Massachusetts – all within a few hours’ drive of major cities like New York or Boston. During the pandemic, many city dwellers in the Northeast set their sights on these areas for relocation, a trend that has persisted. Vermont became emblematic of this rural migration, reportedly leading the nation with about 3% population growth in 2020–2021 largely due to in-migration, and recording the highest share of rural remote workers (15%) in 2023 of any state planetizen.com【55†】. Maine and New Hampshire also saw significant influxes. This has created exciting opportunities for real estate investment – and companies like Connecticut Real Estate Brokerage LLC have taken notice.

Steve Schappert, founder of Connecticut Real Estate Brokerage LLC (based in Litchfield County, CT), observed that the pandemic “accelerated” the trend of city folks migrating to open spaces, making rural areas “more desirable” than ever connecticutrealestate.online. After four decades in Connecticut’s property market, Schappert notes that homebuyers are increasingly drawn not just to suburban convenience but to truly pastoral settings with conserved nature connecticutrealestate.online. In Litchfield County – a region of rolling hills and farmland about 2 hours from Manhattan – demand for country homes and even vacant land jumped as remote workers realized they could live amidst nature and still keep their city jobs. What was once a niche (“weekenders” buying second homes) has become a mainstream movement of primary residence buyers. The brokerage reports increased inquiries for homes with dedicated office spaces, good internet connectivity, and acreage for privacy, reflecting a new blend of lifestyle and work considerations.

Connecticut Real Estate Brokerage LLC sees significant investment potential in New England’s rural and semi-rural counties. Properties that were undervalued due to limited local job opportunities now have newfound appeal (and rising values) thanks to remote work. For investors, this opens up strategies such as: acquiring and renovating farmhouses for resale or rent to remote professionals; assembling parcels for new eco-friendly modular home developments targeting telecommuters; or revitalizing small downtown buildings into mixed-use co-working and living spaces. The region also benefits from supportive policies – for example, the state of Vermont has offered grants of up to $7,500 to remote workers moving in weforum.org, and similar incentives exist or are proposed in other states to encourage relocation to rural areas. These programs effectively reduce risk for investors by ensuring a steady stream of interested relocators.

Furthermore, digital infrastructure improvements are rapidly coming to New England’s countryside. Massive federal investments in broadband (such as the 2021 Infrastructure Act) and state-led initiatives are funding fiber optic build-out in remote towns from Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom to the hilltowns of western Massachusetts and Connecticut’s Quiet Corner. With high-speed internet becoming ubiquitous, one of the last barriers to rural economic growth is falling away. A clear testament to the importance of connectivity: surveys find 66% of Americans would consider moving to a rural area if they could be assured of remote work being an option broadbandbreakfast.com. New England’s counties – many of which rank high in education and quality-of-life metrics – are poised to capture this interest. As broadband gaps close, these areas could see a renaissance of population and entrepreneurship. In fact, a study cited earlier noted that rural counties with high broadband adoption have 213% higher business growth rates than those with poor connectivity broadbandbreakfast.com. This bodes very well for places like Litchfield County, where improving internet service and an influx of talent can create a virtuous cycle of growth.

Connecticut Real Estate Brokerage LLC, partnering with BIOS Homes, aims to capitalize on and contribute to this momentum. By leveraging BIOS’s modular building solutions, the brokerage can help clients – be they individual buyers, builders, or municipalities – develop properties quickly to meet the swell of demand. In practical terms, this might involve identifying suitable land for a cluster of modular homes near a charming village center, or assisting a homeowner in replacing an old house with a new, energy-efficient modular build to sell into the hot market. The brokerage’s deep local knowledge combined with BIOS’s construction prowess provides a powerful platform for executing such projects. The goal is not only to make wise investments but to do so in a way that strengthens communities – adding housing stock that fits the rural character and is attainable for both newcomers and locals.

From northern Vermont to rural Connecticut, the story is similar: remote work has opened the door for a rural revival in New England. Those with vision – and the right partners – stand to benefit from this new frontier of real estate investment. Connecticut Real Estate Brokerage LLC’s outlook is that New England’s small towns will continue to flourish as remote work becomes entrenched, and that strategic investments in housing (especially using modern modular methods) and infrastructure now will pay dividends for decades to come.

Conclusion

The convergence of remote work, digital connectivity, and modular construction innovation is redefining the geography of opportunity. Rural and small-town areas, long overshadowed by big cities, are emerging as the new frontier for living and investment. The data is clear: large numbers of people are choosing “zoom towns” and country landscapes over urban jungles, bringing growth to places that had been in decline ers.usda.gov  broadbandbreakfast.com. This influx revitalizes local economies but also presses the urgent need for more housing and robust infrastructure. Fortunately, we have the tools to meet these needs. High-speed broadband and remote work hubs can knit even the most remote hamlets into the global economy, unlocking job opportunities and innovation broadbandbreakfast.com  weforum.org. And modular construction provides a means to rapidly supply quality homes without the traditional bottlenecks of on-site building camoinassociates.com  urban.org.

In this white paper, we highlighted how communities from Appalachia to Arkansas – and from Ireland to Italy – are harnessing these trends to reverse rural decline. The experiences so far show that with careful planning, the rural revival can bring prosperity that is broadly shared, uplifting both new arrivals and long-time residents. Key to this balance is ensuring housing affordability and availability, which is why modular solutions and forward-thinking developers are so critical. Companies like BIOS Homes, in cooperation with real estate professionals like Connecticut Real Estate Brokerage LLC, are paving the way by combining global technology with local expertise to deliver homes that meet the moment.

For investors and policymakers, the takeaway is to embrace this shift. What was once seen as “flyover country” may be the site of the next housing boom and entrepreneurial renaissance – provided we supply the infrastructure and housing to support it. By investing in rural broadband, incentivizing remote work programs, and deploying fast-build housing strategies, we can create a win-win: vibrant new communities for remote workers and a wealth of real estate opportunities in regions that welcome growth. The new frontier of real estate investment is here, and it lies along country roads and small-town Main Streets, powered by fiber optic cables and built with modular cranes. The rural revival is no longer a distant idea – it is unfolding now, and those prepared to capitalize on it will help shape a more balanced and connected future for all.

Sources:

• Cromartie, J. (2024). Net Migration Spurs Renewed Growth in Rural Areas of the United States. USDA Economic Research Service ers.usda.gov.

• Spell, L., & Perry, M. (2024). More People Moved Farther Away From City Centers Since COVID-19. U.S. Census Bureau census.govcensus.gov.

• Planetizen News. Housing Scarcity in Rural America (D. Ionescu, 2022)planetizen.com.

• McLaren, C. (2025). New Data: Rural Remote Workers Concentrate in Recreation Hubs. The Daily Yonder/Planetizen planetizen.complanetizen.com.

• Kauffman, C. (2025). Closing the Digital Divide Can Power a Rural Resurgence. Broadband Breakfast broadbandbreakfast.com.

• World Economic Forum. These countries are paying people to move to the countryside (Masterson & Shine, 2022) weforum.org.

• Upjohn Institute. Remote Work’s Quiet Impact on Rural Communities (H. Gibson, 2023) upjohn.org.

• Camoin Associates. Are Manufactured, Panelized, and Modular Homes an Affordable Housing Solution? (R. O’Brien, 2024) camoinassociates.com.

• Goodman, L., & Pruitt, M. (2024). Encouraging Modular Construction Could Help Address the Housing Shortage. Urban Institute urban.org.

• Connecticut Magazine/ABC News. Comments by Steve Schappert, Connecticut Real Estate Brokerage LLC (2021) connecticutrealestate.online.