Urban flight: A short‐term phenomenon or long‐term trend?

Abstract

We investigate whether the urban flight from more to less dense locations identified by previous housing studies for the early COVID period is a temporary, pandemic‐induced phenomenon, or long‐term trend. We focus on the period of 2017–2022, 14,961 single‐family home transactions from Southwestern Ontario, and three housing market metrics. Our results for sales price in the early pandemic periods are in line with previous studies. However, our results for sales price in the last pandemic phase (2022), marketing time, and visit activity suggest that the urban flight was a temporary phenomenon characteristic of the early COVID phases.