I bought my home in a very small town, intentionally. That was in 2006, the economy tanked two years later, and I guess you know what that did to property values. Our small town decided to build a medical college less than a mile from my home ( only the second in Oregon), which prevented our property values from dropping very far. Nice, but now the town is growing by leaps and bounds. So much for living in a small town.....I still love it here.