Welcome, prop.text readers!

In issue 29 we cover the benefits cities have seen attracting digital nomads, where you can buy a house for $29,000 and a snapshot of market data.

publicly.traded → Tulsa sees bounce from digital nomads
beyond.the.curve → Market snapshot
todays.sponsor → Boxabl

Cities Luring Digital Nomads See a Bounce

A few years back, several cities decided to offer ​​incentives to lure remote workers. Tulsa Remote, which started in November of 2018, pays selected workers $10,000 to move there and stay for at least a year. Choose Topeka (Kansas) offers up to $15,000 for home purchases or $10,000 for renters who move there and work remotely. 

The idea was that these digital nomads and budding entrepreneurs would start businesses and other tech workers would follow. Some 3,500 applicants passed the screening process and have settled in Tulsa.

The question is: Do these programs of cash incentives and support services actually have an impact? Do a few thousand digital nomads make that big a difference in a city of about 412,000 people?

The evidence is in and it seems these programs are a good investment, at least in Tulsa. Each dollar spent luring remote workers to Tulsa delivers $4 benefit to current residents, Tim Bartik, a senior economist at the Upjohn Institute, found in a new report.

These days, dozens of communities have incentives to lure remote workers, including: 

• Ascend WV (West Virginia) includes a $12,000 cash payment to workers who move to specific communities, such as Morgantown, Greenbrier Valley, the Eastern Panhandle, and Greater Elkins. When local incentives are counted, the total for newcomers can hit $20,000. 

• Remote Shoals, in Northern Alabama, offers up to $10,000 to remote workers.

• Natchez, Mississippi, has the Shift South program, which pays $6,000 for relocation expenses, including a $2,500 reimbursement for moving costs and a $300 monthly stipend for the first year.

• Purdue University’s program in West Lafayette, Indiana, provides a $5,000 relocation stipend and benefits worth about $10,000, including Purdue Library access, campus meals, coworking space discounts, a bus pass, and business memberships.

These programs (MakeMyMove offers a more complete list) may also be a driver of housing demand, if we dare to use Tulsa as an example. Home prices there have risen 50 percent since 2019, from $170,000 to $255,000 according to Tulsa County. It may be a stretch to attribute this market rise to some 3,500 digital nomads, since Tulsa price increases are in line with the rise of home values across the US in the same six-year period.

But while other cities across the South are seeing price moderation, and even declines, Tulsa is still going strong. The median home sold price in Tulsa was $241,526 in May 2025, up 5% from last year, according to Rocket mortgage. The city’s affordability, strong leadership and efforts to drive innovation and economic opportunity through the Tulsa Innovation Labs are helpful.

Topeka, though its GoTopeka initiative, is also working to ​​lure entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses by offering a robust support system in addition to its Choose Topeka program. It is trying to build an ecosystem of incubators, accelerators, and other opportunities to bring in new residents. 

The larger lesson is that it’s a big country with plenty of good ideas out there, and investors are urged to do their due diligence when considering where to put their money. Tertiary cities lacking the glamour or name recognition of the usual list of “hottest markets” offer some of the best opportunities. (Hello Toledo! which proptext featured in a recent newsletter.)

The question of investing in real estate vs. equities came up at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting last month in Omaha, and Warren Buffett had this response: “There’s just so much more opportunity, at least in the United States, that presents itself in the security market than in real estate.”

Who are we to second-guess the Oracle of Omaha? Certainly we would not try to dissuade anybody from putting money into a low-cost index fund, but we do think every truly diversified portfolio includes some real estate holdings, which provide tax advantages and a way to build wealth over the long term.

We even did our own deep dive of the return on investment (ROI) on everything some time ago and real estate more than held its own. We are talking very deep dive here, like tracking returns from 1870 onward. It’s worth a read.

After you finish, check out proptext’s list of the top 10 markets for 2025, where we see a lot of opportunities.

Real estate crowdfunding, or fractional ownership, allows anybody to invest a small amount to buy a piece of a piece of property, without the management hassles. This business is booming. Research Nester said the global real estate crowdfunding market was valued at $16.24 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $22.1 billion this year. By 2037, it is predicted to be $2 trillion. 

Forget floods, fires and hurricanes. Cotality, the real estate data firm, said one of the most expensive insurance threats is severe convective storms, which are moving north. Severe hail storms have hit hard in the Midwest states where Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2013) buyers are looking for affordable houses. Nebraska and Kansas are above their 20-year hailstorm average. Iowa is close behind. Property insurance rates are expected to rise, offsetting the cheaper home prices.

The shift to the buyers’ market, in case you were wondering, is real. There were nearly 500,000 more sellers than buyers in April, according to a new report by Redfin, the highest figure since the company began tracking it in 2013. The coolest markets are in Florida and other cities across the South, while markets in the Northeast were still strong. With weak demand, prices are expected to fall. (Finally!)

Government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could go public soon and be listed on a stock exchange, President Donald Trump said, but added that their federal guarantees would remain in place. Fannie and Freddie provide stability and liquidity to the US mortgage market by purchasing loans and packaging them into securities. These "conforming" mortgages ensure a ready supply of loans for homebuyers, and keep rates lower. 

Just Because

A.M. Hickman says Americans could live on $432 a month if they are willing to adopt a lifestyle more akin to their ancestors and move to the northern reaches of New York State, Massena to be exact. And has picked out a $29,000 house for sale, which probably can be had for $20,000, though he points out there are similar homes available in about a dozen other states. Hickman details how to adopt this way of life in a 2,500-word post on his substack. “With a little work here and there, a big garden, a fishing pole, and some venison in the freezer — there’s never been a better time to try to ‘make it’ in America and live the older version of the American Dream,” he writes. While you’re at it, Hickman advises you to spend a lot less time on your social media profile.

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Director, Strategic Planning & Operations, Metropolis, New York, NY

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