New Castle dubbed a hotspot for those who now are able to work from home

With virtual employment opportunities on the rise due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many millennials expedited their home buying plans, with their eyes set on less-urban areas where single-family homes are cheap and offer more space.

Called “Zoom” towns — a play on the name of the popular video chat service — communities like the New Castle area with a lower cost of living gained popularity late last year for younger people looking to escape pricier cities in order to work from home. Remote working in conjunction with low interest rates and millennials reaching home-buying age caused the real estate boom.

“This work force is not looking for employment, but rather an area with affordable housing, proximity to a larger city and recreation options,” said Linda Holland, a sales associate for Howard Hanna in New Castle.

The New York Times highlighted New Castle in a December article as one of the most popular areas in the nation for people roughly between 21 to 40 as the age group accounted for a large sum of home purchase loans.

“The migration has already begun,” Holland said.

“Continuing our efforts in attracting this work force will help the area by increasing the population and income level, and giving visibility to the many business opportunities that will be needed to support them.”

Holland believes the designation is an opportunity for New Castle and Lawrence County to spotlight all of the existing benefits and resources available for remote workers.

“New Castle being dubbed a Zoom town is confirmation that exponential community and economic development is on the horizon,” said New Castle Mayor Chris Frye. “The consequences, decades ago, when industry left our area sparked massive decline in population and industry, now there is a new ‘virtual’ phenomenon happening that’s sparking a renaissance back to the northeast, specifically New Castle.”

Frye learned of the opportunity from Howard Hanna’s Sam Angelucci provide a high level overview of what’s happening in the housing market. 

 “I feel like I owe it to Sam and all local realtors to put this information to good use and not let it die,” Frye said. “Sam’s passion truly ignited our willingness to develop a marketing campaign Zoom Town USA.”

From October through December, 138 single-family homes were sold in the New Castle area, according to Movoto, a real estate technology company.

According to data from Ellie Mae, a mortgage software company, from the same time period, the average age of home buyers in New Castle were 29.7 years old and received an average loan amount of $152,931.