House Hunters Are Leaving the City, and Builders Can’t Keep Up

For years, people most wanted to live in places where it was the hardest to build. Now, with a rise in remote work, exurban areas look more appealing.

LATHROP, Calif. — They had a down payment. They were prequalified for a mortgage. They were willing to move almost an hour’s drive eastward. But the number that really mattered was “32.” If a saleswoman standing in a model unit plucked a bingo ball with that number from one of several buckets arrayed on a marble kitchen island, Jezreleen and Eric Namayan would get to pay $662,000 for a five-bedroom home in River Islands, a master planned community built around 13 man-made lakes in California’s Central Valley. If not, the home would go to one of the dozens of other prospective buyers who had lined up next to them on a Zoom webcast of the drawing. The Namayans would remain in a two-bedroom condominium with two teenagers while struggling to penetrate the white hot post-pandemic housing market. “When they started getting closer to our lot, I almost felt like I was outside looking at myself,” Mrs. Namayan said.