Two Years After Fleeing to the Suburbs, Homebuyers Have Flocked Back to Cities; Colorado Funeral Home Owners Accused of Mishandling Bodies Plead Guilty to Fraud Charges, and other C-Virus related stories

Two years after fleeing to the suburbs, homebuyers have flocked back to cities

NAR found that residents are returning to big cities and suburbs, a reversal of the trend driven by the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the housing market like no event since the 2008 financial crisis, but some of the trends induced by the pandemic are starting to reverse. That’s evident in the annual profile of home buyers and sellers from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which provides data on dozens of real estate trends.

When the pandemic began in the spring of 2020, wealthy residents of urban centers like New York City and San Francisco packed their bags for rural areas and small towns to escape strict lockdowns and find more space for things like home offices. This gave rise to the narrative that city dwellers wouldn’t return and urban centers were dying.

Turns out, they weren’t. Between 2017 and 2021, rural areas and small towns had remarkably consistent shares of the home purchase market at about 13% and 22%, respectively. But in 2022, the share of homes bought in rural areas (19%) and small towns (29%) jumped considerably.

These purchases came primarily at the expense of the suburbs, where the share of home purchases dropped from a consistent 50% level prior to the pandemic to 39% in 2022. Urban areas also took a hit, falling from 13% to 10%.

But in 2024, this trend has largely reversed. The share of home purchases in the suburbs has moved up to 45% while the 16% share in urban centers has actually moved ahead of where it was pre-pandemic.

Conversely, the share of purchases in rural areas (14%) and small towns (23%) have largely returned to their pre-pandemic levels. --->READ MORE HERE

Colorado funeral home owners accused of mishandling bodies plead guilty to fraud charges:

Jon and Carie Hallford, who owned Return to Nature Funeral Home, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, prosecutors said.

Colorado funeral home owners accused of failing to cremate or bury nearly 200 bodies and misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds pleaded guilty Thursday to federal fraud charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford, who owned Return to Nature Funeral Home, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado. As part of their plea agreements, prosecutors said the Hallfords also admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration of more than $880,000 in pandemic relief funds.

The Hallfords face up to 20 years in federal prison for the fraud charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The couple were initially indicted on 13 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which will be dismissed under their plea agreements.

The fraud charges followed hundreds of felonies that the Hallfords were already facing in Colorado state court, including abusing corpses, theft, money laundering, and forgery. They also face lawsuits from families that hired Return to Nature, which operated in Penrose, Colorado, and the Colorado Springs area.

Authorities began investigating the Hallfords in October 2023 after residents and businesses in the Penrose area reported a foul odor near the funeral home. After obtaining a search warrant, the FBI, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and local law enforcement discovered improperly stored human remains inside the building.

Further investigation revealed that about 190 bodies, which were in various states of decomposition, had been stored in the building, according to authorities.

"Some of the remains discovered had dates of death as far back as 2019," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release Thursday. "As part of their fraud scheme, the Hallfords misled customers of the funeral home into believing that the remains of their loved ones would be buried or cremated per their wishes and the terms of the parties’ contracts." --->READ MORE HERE

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