Second homes changing nature of rural areas

Conor Dougherty wrote an interesting story for the Wall Street Journal’s RealEstateJournal.com last week. In it, Dougherty covered a new trend: Second-home buyers are drastically changing the nature of large slices of rural America.

You can read the story here. The main thrust is that as affluent retirees and other wealthy buyers purchase second homes on remote areas, they bring with them demand for interior-design studios, spas and organic supermarkets. These shops are now popping up in these areas. It’s a dramatic change. According to the Journal’s story, some residents of these areas consider this trend the most significant change to their areas since the interstate highways first came through.

Of course, such change has its good and bad sides. On the positive side, the new shops are a nice amenity for the residents of these rural areas. On the negative, the influx of wealthy second-home buyers can drive up property values so high that longtime residents of an area can no longer afford to live there.

On the whole, then, I’d say that negative outweighs the positives — at least for those longtime residents.