Wealthy Folks are Colonizing Rural America, Wall St. Journal Page One

Posted by Catherine Stifter

January 29, 2008

An urban friend sent me a clipping of a recent Wall Street Journal article by Conor Dougherty. Rural America is the recreation and retirement destination for rich folks who bring cash, culture and controversy according to the story, which profiles McCall Idaho, could have been based in many of the foothill and mountain communities in California's Sierra Nevada where  "affluent retires and other high-income types have descended on these rural area, creating new demand for amenities".  It's an unfolding story tracing the shift of rural economies across the country from resource-extraction to an amenity-base, in part due to the gentrification of rural communities by wealthy, mobile, and tech-savvy urban and suburbanites from near and far. It's a tale of  resort and recreation development that has spawned massive second home construction in rural and remote areas of the country.  Rural residents are portrayed as either finding ways to adapt to the new service economy or trying to slow rampant growth and keep small towns affordable for locals. Some locals will take the opportunity to cash in; they've changed careers, sold the family farm and moved on.  "Millions of soon-to-retire baby boomers, say demographers, will propel this trend for years to come."

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