Undoubtedly. Food prices have been ticking up over the past year or so. Now things like steel (and lumber obviously) are going to the moon.
Rough go ahead for many
Some good investment opportunities in cities like that if you know what you are doing...which I don’t. Lol. I wouldn’t live there just due to the humidity, never mind crime etc.
At some point (maybe in many years) those areas will also undergo gentrification and become desirable again. A number of smaller cities that no one was interesting in 10 years ago are really booming (Indianapolis, Nashville etc).
I wish people would build in my podunk town... maybe there would be a big enough tax base that they could fix the roads... turns out that 80% of the land in my town is owned by the state (DCR and watershed) so a lot of building won't be happening.
I would also love a wind turbine in my backyard if I could plug into it...lol
I still think there is a market for smaller, more affordable starter homes, but right now, it makes more sense to be building the bigger ones for reasons you mentioned.
For my area (North Central Mass) - 1000' asl
Overall Seasonal Snowfall: B
82.25" A foot or so above normal. Can't complain about the number. Just how we got it. To lose Jan and March sucked
Snow vs. Rain: A-
Same as Garth.. It rained very little except on Dec 25.
Staying power/ (number of days) of the pack: B
Wiped out at Christmas, then a lack of snow until late Jan. But decent after that.
Local winter enjoyment: B+
Skiing was good but not great. Lack of snow in Jan and March limited some of the activites I wanted to do
Temperature: D
Two years in a row of temps that almost never dipped below zero. Lame... overall above normal temps... I guess it was good for my heating bill
Snow Storms/ events (quality/ quantity): B
A good October event that didn't ruin my snowfall! lol A couple of good events including a large December one and a big one in Feb. April was good as well with an 8.5" event
Overall Grade: B