> Corporations arent buying housing in the vast midwest for this exact reason

Except they are buying lots of housing. Even in nothingsville-small-city Midwest, we're experiencing exploding housing prices, despite no real barriers to construction at all.

There was a basically "one-time burst" where prices rose to match the nearby cities as covid allowed people to escape, but prices are definitely plateauing if not cooling off, and once builders build through their backlog we will see some serious competition (I've noticed builders already offering "free upgrades" which is how they first do price cuts).