Youngstown, the "most affordable place" quoted has decent weather (not California, but not a frigid tundra by any means), is close to major transportation hubs (40ish minute drive to 2 international airports), one of the most beautiful metro park systems in the country (google Lantermans Mill), pretty decent schools in the suburbs, and a burgeoning "hipster-crafts" scene.
It's exactly the kind of place I'd expect to start capturing some attention: in some ways the pandemic may be the best thing that ever happened to that region, because it forces a kind of reckoning around "what things are really _valuable_ in a remote- first world?". CA/SF are great.. but for a lot of people having a great quality of life _and_ having the financial security to pass more on to others or pay for things other than a house that costs 15x as much is a more fulfilling choice.
The Youngstown of 20 years ago: Struggling to deal with a newly disaffected working class, the new realities of a rising crime rate and the glimmer of its former "center of industry for the nation" self. Guess what? That's everywhere else now, too. Those problems didn't go away in Youngstown, but that region has had 40 years to deal with it and adjust and become resilient. Youngstown was a "preview" of what the rest of the US would become: Even down to its own version of Jim Traficant as president.
Is it better than it was? Comparably, it certainly is. Objectively? I think it's gotten better, too. It's not SF and it never will be, but you get a lot of time and space for your money there, comparitively.
I'm keeping my eye on the housing market around the area a little further out into the country.
It's exactly the kind of place I'd expect to start capturing some attention: in some ways the pandemic may be the best thing that ever happened to that region, because it forces a kind of reckoning around "what things are really _valuable_ in a remote- first world?". CA/SF are great.. but for a lot of people having a great quality of life _and_ having the financial security to pass more on to others or pay for things other than a house that costs 15x as much is a more fulfilling choice.