Migration to booming ‘Zoom towns’ sends home prices sky high

You can add a new term to your lexicon: “Zoom towns.” These are scenic places experiencing a surge of house hunters. Booming demand comes from workers freed by the pandemic to work from home long term.

One such place where the pandemic has super-charged an already hot real estate market is Bend, Oregon.

“I think ‘Zoom town’ very accurately captures the experience that we’re having right now,” said Brian Ladd, a principal broker with Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty in Bend.

“For anyone that had interest in moving to a town like ours, that plan was greatly accelerated because of COVID,” L...