I do not know nearly nothing about USA real estate market however in most part of Europe the number of people think cities as a workplace or an interim location

I do not know nearly nothing about USA real estate market however in most part of Europe the number of people think cities as a workplace or an interim location for students, young workers or people who can't afford anything better is skyrocketing, in few EU countries there is already a reasonably developed "distributed economy" but in others (like Germany, Italy, Spain) there isn't so many choose small towns because being distributed means also have far less services and "urban comfort" nearby. I suspect that this situation start to be common in any western/developed world. Perhaps the USA are a bit late since their cities are generally "newer" than EU so they are probably "less compressed"/with a lower mean density that allow more green spaces and generally a little bit better mean life quality (something like you do not need 10' to go from A to B + 20' to find a park place around B or it does not take 40' for 15Km trip in peek hours).