Remote workers spur housing boom in smaller US cities, drive up prices

Travis and Emily Elwood never imagined that they would call Billings, Montana, home.

Travis and Emily Elwood never imagined that they would call Billings, Montana, home. The couple moved here from Portland, Oregon, last year when the pandemic forced them to reevaluate their priorities. “I think humans just… are creatures of habit,” Travis Elwood told “Nightline.” “The pandemic coming in and forcing a change, versus one that you volunteer for, really just shook things up and everybody's day-to-day lives and just kind of opened their eyes. [The massive change] broke off those chains and shackles [that] kind of held them in place.” He and his wife are part of a great reshuffling taking place in the U.S. According to American real estate company Zillow, more than one in ten Americans have moved in the past year.