Why Remote Workers Are Packing Up and Pointing Their GPS at McCallsburg

The Laptop Is the New Tractor

Something funny is happening on the edge of Story County. Houses that sat quiet for years are getting new roofs. Unfamiliar cars are parked in driveways. And if you wander into the right spot on a Tuesday afternoon, you might catch someone on a Zoom call from what used to be a sleepy spare bedroom.

McCallsburg is getting discovered — not by tourists passing through, but by remote workers and digital entrepreneurs who've done the math and decided that small-town Iowa beats a studio apartment in Denver or Austin by just about every measure that actually matters.

And the numbers back it up. Housing costs in McCallsburg run a fraction of what you'd pay in any mid-size metro. Internet infrastructure in the area has improved significantly over the past few years, with fiber options available to most residents. And then there's the stuff that doesn't show up in a spreadsheet — the quiet, the space, the fact that your neighbors actually know your name.

Meet the New Neighbors

Take Mara Hendricks, a UX designer who moved here from Minneapolis eighteen months ago with her husband and a rescue dog named Biscuit. She'd been working remotely since 2020 and realized one afternoon, staring at a $2,200 monthly rent bill for 700 square feet, that something had to give.

"I literally opened a map of Iowa and started looking at towns within a reasonable drive of Des Moines," she says, laughing. "McCallsburg came up, and I started digging. I drove out on a Saturday just to look around, and by the time I got back on the highway I was already texting our landlord about breaking our lease."

Mara and her husband now own a three-bedroom house with a proper home office, a yard, and a garden that she'll be the first to admit she's still figuring out. Her commute to the Des Moines office she occasionally visits is about an hour. Her monthly housing costs dropped by more than half.

Then there's Terrence Obi, a freelance software developer who relocated from Chicago two years ago. He chose McCallsburg for a reason that surprises people when he tells them: community accountability.

"In a city, you can be invisible," he says. "That sounds freeing, but when you work alone all day, invisible gets lonely fast. Here, I know the people at the post office. I know the folks at the grain elevator. Someone checks on you. That's worth something."

The Infrastructure That Made It Possible

None of this works without reliable internet, and McCallsburg has quietly made strides on that front. Connectivity that once lagged behind larger towns has improved, thanks in part to rural broadband investment at the state and federal level. For most remote workers, the connection is more than adequate for video calls, cloud-based work, and the occasional large file upload.

Local leaders have taken notice. While McCallsburg isn't running a formal "remote worker relocation" program the way some flashier towns have tried, the community has been welcoming in the ways that matter most — practical ones.

New residents report that getting set up was surprisingly smooth. Building permits move efficiently. Local contractors are available and reasonably priced. And the informal welcome-to-town experience — someone dropping off a pie, a neighbor offering to show you around — hasn't been scripted or staged. It just happens.

What It's Adding to the Mix

The economic ripple effects are starting to show. A few new faces spending money at local businesses adds up in a town this size. Mara's household alone represents grocery runs, hardware store visits, and the occasional meal out that didn't exist in McCallsburg's economy before she arrived.

But it's more than dollars. The new arrivals are bringing skills and connections that are weaving into the community in unexpected ways. Terrence has already volunteered to help the local school district think through some tech infrastructure questions. Mara has connected with a few local crafters and is helping them think about how to sell their work online.

"I didn't move here to change anything," Mara is quick to say. "I moved here because I liked what was already here. I just want to be useful while I'm at it."

That attitude — respectful, participatory, not assuming the town needs fixing — seems to be the common thread among the remote workers who've landed here and stuck around.

Staying McCallsburg While Growing

Not everyone in town is uncritical of the changes. A few longtime residents have noted, with some wariness, that growth can have unintended consequences. Housing prices, while still modest, have ticked upward in recent years. And there's always the question of whether newcomers will truly invest in the community or treat it like a lifestyle backdrop.

Those are fair concerns, and they're worth watching. But so far, the arrivals seem to understand the assignment. They're joining churches, signing up for school events, showing up at the volunteer fair. They're not here to turn McCallsburg into something else. They're here because it's already something worth being part of.

That might be the most important thing the remote work revolution has revealed about small towns like this one: the features that cities dismissed as limitations — the slow pace, the small scale, the rootedness — turned out to be the selling points all along.

McCallsburg didn't have to compete with Austin or Denver. It just had to be itself. Turns out that's plenty.