It's not just small cities in the west. My wife and I recently returned to Cincinnati where we grew up, trading a vanilla apartment in Southern California for a

It's not just small cities in the west. My wife and I recently returned to Cincinnati where we grew up, trading a vanilla apartment in Southern California for a very nice and much larger house. Since we came back here toward the end of summer 2020, house prices have increased considerably. Houses in this neighborhood are now selling within 24 hours at typically 5-15% over asking, which is not typical at all for Cincinnati. This area isn't as depressed as some areas of the so-called "rust belt" but it hasn't been a "hot" real estate market for some time. The demand is being driven largely by people moving here from much higher priced areas of the country. Lately investors have started entering the market here, plopping down cash for houses sight unseen at 10% over asking in "up and coming" neighborhoods. That's something this city has almost never seen except for maybe around downtown and the university. It's good for local homeowners to a point, but people are already talking about how this could ruin neighborhoods and drive up rents. My realtor joked with us that "we don't count" as carpetbaggers because we grew up here.