If I was mayor of a small town I would be rolling out fiber like there is no tomorrow and zoning everything to allow for detached units like these [0].
Interests rates are at their lowest and the rise in property value should more than pay for it.
You also have to be in reasonable distance to an airport, Trader Joes/Costco/REI/restaurants/breweries/etc other stores the higher income crowds like, and outdoor activities. Bend happened to have all of these.
Although Bend's internet offerings are extremely sad, and I'm surprised the political power of the tech crowd hasn't forced municipal fiber to be a thing yet.
For me a bike shop and brewery would be the 'minimum viable amenities'. Even Lakeview has a bike shop. Baker City has both - and the beer is supposed to be pretty good: http://www.barleybrownsbeer.com/ .
I think some people are more comfortable with less of that stuff. I could get by without Costco and REI.
For some people their house and land aren't a crop to raise and sell, maybe they like their hidden gem for what it already is. See the lamentations on Austin's growing pains in this thread.
no idea why but that page is essentially unreadable here on both firefox 83.0 and chrome. I do use ublock origin and 68k lines in /etc/hosts to block stuff, but still ...
