As the home prices go down, the probability that you'll be able to find decent healthcare, education, and basically any businesses that consistently stay open outside of 9-5 weekdays goes with them
Good schools are kinda all over the place. There are good and bad ones in cities and good and bad ones outside of cities.
Certainly less businesses open super late, that moreso depends on what you want out of things. For example, most of my friends play video games at home and meet up to go hiking, canoeing, etc, none of which require stores to be open very late.
For healthcare, yeah, you might need to drive slightly further for a specialist, but it rarely is an issue; and is certainly something you can look for. Though, for me at least, having the extra money to afford the specialist easily outweighs the longer drive when I need one. Not so great healthcare access at my income level if all of it is going to rent and none leftover for healthcare.
Anyway, point is, it's going to depend on the person and what you most desire. It is important to not dismiss alternatives off-hand when they can solve the largest monetary issue in your life.
Maybe that used to be the case but aside from absolute shitholes you'd never want to even drive through, prices are up everywhere. I gave up looking like 6 months ago. I don't have the luxury of working remotely either unfortunately
No, not anymore. I live 1.5Hr from the nearest actual city. About 10min away from a teeny tiny town with barely 200 population. Rent there is still 1.6k+ RV spots are 850/mo. Nothing is cheap