That's right. I'm one of them (except they're way too polite to string anyone up). I live in an awesome area on the East Coast, have traveled to every corner of this country and many others and there aren't many better little towns than Decorah. Good peeps; beautiful valley, great downtown. It's pricing some people out now that would like to stay but they move to nearby Cresco or something.
There's a lot of truth here. I live in the Cresco/Decorah area, and i could easily get $20-30K more for my home than when I bought it in 2012, based on recent sales. The recent "discovery" of the Decorah area by the outside world is seeing rising home sales all over the area (Calmar and Waukon are seeing the trickle as well). I have a buddy looking at houses in Cresco, and they have mostly been moving within a week or two of hitting the market.
I have a friend selling a house in Osage, and they will probably get $5,000 less for it than they would in Cresco. And Osage and Cresco have no discernible differences, beyond Cresco being 15-20 minutes from Decorah, and Osage being at least a half hour from anywhere, and "anywhere" from Osage is Mason City or Austin, MN (which are both larger than Decorah but lack the outdoor recreation and college town influence).