this is "nightline." >> tonight, real estate boom. from montana to new jersey. >> it's crazy. it's absolutely crazy. >> how the pandemic has us all craving wide open spaces. >> broke off those chains and shackles that kind of held them in place. >> but are soaring home prices leaving some buyers locked out? plus, america strong. >> travel nurses are heroes. you rise to the occasion when it matters most. >> heading into the hot zones, leaving family behind. >> can i travel too? >> you get to come and visit. >> the brave women who answer the call. >> i don't believe that we could get through this at all without them. and stepping out in style. the celebrities and fashionistas

are back at tonight's met gala in new york. >> "nightline" will be right back. (vo) for over 50 years purina cat chow has been helping cats feel at home. with trusted nutrition, no wonder it's the number one dry cat food in america. come home to cat chow. does your plug-in fade too fast? try febreze fade defy plug. it has built-in technology to digitally control how much scent is released to smell first day fresh for 50 days. la la la la la. [female narrator] a message fo ♪ ♪ ♪ [female narrator] a message fo ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪

thanks for joining us. anyone who's been in the market for a hope recently knows it's fierce out there. bidding wars and cash buyers in places you'd never expect.

what's sparking the housing rush? we take you inside some of the hottest boom towns. here's abc's janai norman. >> reporter: travis and emily elwood never imagined that they would call billings, montana home. >> we're not going that way. >> reporter: the couple moved here from portland, oregon last year when the pandemic forced them to reevaluate their priorities. >> really just shook things up in everybod's day-to-day lives and just kind of opened their eyes, broke off those chains and shackles that kind of held them in place. >> reporter: they're part of a great reshuffling taking place in this country. according to zillow, more than 1 in 10 americans have moved in the past year. >> as a result of the pandemic a lot of workers have been untethered from their offices and so that means they can broaden their search horizons for real estate. they're looking for good value further away from those downtown cores. and that's led to home price increases and fast-selling real estate in suburbs and secondary

markets. >> reporter: the couple have long talked about leaving portland for a more affordable city. >> rent for like a small apartment is quite astronomical. you're looking $1700 to $1900 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. >> reporter: when emily began working remotely, giving them financial security, they decided it was time to take the plunge. >> we never in portland would have been able to afford a house there, at least nothing like we have now. we're making pretty good money but we just realized we were never going to be able to buy there. >> reporter: billings had almost everything they were looking for. >> we wanted something that provided us new or different opportunity than we originally had. >> reporter: the montana city is number one on the "wall street journal" realtor.com emerging housing markets index. what did you think when you heard that? were you surprised? >> i think people are kind of waking up to what many of us here have known. >> reporter: bill cole is the mayor of billings.

>> covid reminded us that life is not all about jobs and money, it's about relationships, quality of life, and being part of a community. and billings has those intangibles. >> reporter: rounding out the emerging markets index list, coeur d'alene, idaho and fort wayne, indiana showing that smaller, more affordable cities are becoming some of the more popular places to live in the country. >> looking at a lot of different data indicators on things like amenities and quality of life like low commute times, things like decent wages and low unemployment rate. that makes these areas well-rounded places where you'd actually want to live. and if you invest in real estate in these markets, you can expect a good return. >> our mortgage here is actually less than what we were paying in rent in portland. >> reporter: they traded in their two-bedroom apartment for this four-bedroom house with a back yard for their two dogs. and travis found a local job

almost immediately. billings has a population of less than 200,000 people, but its unemployment rate hovers around 3%, lower than the national average. >> there's a lot of great things that billings has going for it. it's just beginning to be discovered. >> reporter: husband and wife realtors megan and jason woods sold the elwoods their house. >> living in billings and living in south central montana is all about being close to the mountains and having the access to the river and the desert and some of the other nice outdoor activities. >> reporter: like many mid-size cities, billings is experiencing a pandemic real estate boom. >> pre-pandemic in 2019 there was about 3 1/2 months' worth of inventory sitting on the market. today we have about three weeks' worth of inventory. >> houses are moving very quickly here. so you have three, four, five days to get an offer in and get an offer accepted. >> reporter: while still less expensive than many cities,

prices are going up. the average single-family home price in billings and the surrounding area was 376,248 bucks in june, up almost 28% from a year earlier. and it seems new homes can't be built quickly enough to keep up with the demand. almost all the homes in this subdivision, which range from $350,000 to $700,000, are already sold. >> we've got these barn doors here which lead into the laundry room and mud room. >> in this particular kitchen has quartz countertop over the island. >> master bedroom in its own wing of the house. large room. nice high vaulted ceiling. >> reporter: with remote work freeing many people from their daily xhurkts families looking to stretch their dollar and their square footage are buying up the suburbs too. how do you even sum up what the market is like right now?

>> janai, it's crazy. it's absolutely crazy. >> so here's the second bedroom. >> reporter: pat davis has been selling real estate in the new jersey suburbs of new york city for nearly 30 years. >> you've got skylights here. >> in the midst of the pandemic are you getting a lot of families who had been in the city paying a whole lot of money for not a whole lot of space coming out here and they're helping fuel this market? >> absolutely. we have a lot of young people coming in with children that are looking for these types of homes, starter homes, you know, three bedrooms looking to entertain their families and have them come out. >> so welcome. you have a beautiful living room, hardwood flooring. what i love is the windows. you have these large windows let in a lot of the natural light. wood-burning fireplace. >> reporter: davis just listed this house in montclair, new jersey for $639,000. the town of montclair has become a magnet for families who want

to live in the suburbs but still have easy access to new york city. with its direct trains, highly rated schools, and quaint downtown areas it is much of what home buyers are willing to pay top dollar for. >> have a little breakfast nook. this is what everybody loves. white cabinets. granite counters. stainless steel appliances. >> so it works. >> absolutely. what we're seeing is a lot of families with young children, 2 and younger. >> yeah. >> you're talking my language. >> starter home. great starter home. but it could also be beyond, right? so starter home plus. formal dining room. and again, the beautiful accents. >> reporter: pat says the house went into contract for more than the asking price after just 13 days on the market. >> we did weekend open houses, saturday, sunday. we had over 50 people come through. >> reporter: but not everyone can afford this. the boom has locked out many

first-time buyers across the country who are losing their dream homes to all cash above-ask offers. >> we quickly became outbid and did not end up getting the house. >> we kept seeing houses on the market that would be gone within -- some of them literally 24 hours. >> it's really disheartening. >> it's really tough to compete in a market like this if you're a first-time home buyer and you don't have the down payment money if you're using one of the products that's available for people that are first-time home buyers that don't have a lot of down payment money. they're just not able to compete in this marketplace. >> reporter: in billings, montana the elwoods had to pay over asking price to close the dal on their house. >> we ended up having to put, you know, about 30,000 more above the asking price. and even with that we were one of ten offers that came in. >> reporter: but for emily and travis their new life in billings makes it all worth it. >> i'd do it 100 times over.

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tonight we begin our network-wide month-long series profiling the heroes and sheroes who are america strong. we've been following two traveling nurses for more than a year. dakoya billy and bridget harrigan to see what sacrifice and bravery look like day in and

day out. >> i've worked most days every week i've been here. it's exhausting. there are no more beds in the rest of the hospital. so there's not really anywhere for patients to move. in short, it's definitely worse here than it was last time. >> six months ago when we last talked i really thought things were going in a different direction. >> normal temperature. please proceed. >> i did not for a second think i would be here again right now. >> let me see your skills. >> my faith keeps me grounded. >> go, go, go! >> my family keeps me grounded. >> hi. how are you? >> travel nurses are heroes. you rise to the occasion when it matters most. and that's what we are. that's what travel nurses are. that's what we do.

>> can i travel too? >> you get to come and visit. >> when i'm leaving out again it's always when will you be back? when should we expect you kind of thing. >> see you later. >> you can tell by how tight the hugs are. >> love you. >> for traveling nurses i don't get a chance to be with my family. i don't get a chance to hug my kids or to kiss my husband every day of the week. and so it's a challenge and it's a sacrifice that not everybody's willing to make. it's just that i've been chosen to make it. my name is dakoyia billie. i am a travel nurse. >> i'm bridget harrigan. i'm 28 years old. and i am a travel nurse.

you miss out on family things, birthdays. i've missed christmas before. they're definitely sacrifices. >> new york's first case of coronavirus affected a 39-year-old health care worker who had just -- >> world health organization now declaring a global pandemic. >> i knew i had to go. there was no question about it. they assigned me to elmhurst hospital in queens, new york. the epicenter of the epicenter. >> doctors on the front lines warning hospitals are increasingly overwhelmed. >> my first assignment was here in new york. it was scary. you think about the lives lost and, you know, the families that were hurting. you think about your own family. i have jalen. i have elijah. and then i have carrington. he's the oldest of the twins. and then kinsly's the youngest

and she's the only girl. i figured okay, this is serious, it's not going anywhere, i still need to help provide for my family. the twins were about three months old. i was pumping because they were premature. my husband, he told me as long as i have milk then i am good to go. >> when we explained it to the children, we just basically said that mom has a work assignment, she'll be gone for a little bit but she'll be back. ♪ >> this is my home for the next month or so. it's got everything i really need. >> i was only supposed to be there for four weeks. and then i ended up extending because it was continuing to get worse. >> not too bad, the mask marks

today. >> i was about two weeks into my assignment. i started to feel badly. >> i have a fever now, 100.7. definitely convinced that i have covid because what else could it be? [ coughing ] there we go. i got it. [ alarm clock beeping ] >> rise and shine. today is day 12 of 20 something. i lost count. and i'm tired. but you push on another day to help those in need.

>> every time she returns home i do find myself having a sigh of relief inside, knowing that she's safe. >> getting to spend that quality time with my family definitely makes it harder to leave. >> six months ago when we last talked i took an assignment in guam, which was amazing. and i was there until the end of may. came back home to texas. and then the pandemic revved up again for the next surge. and now i'm in the woodlands, texas. it is insane here. what i've seen is that every single patient aside from one that's come through the icu in

the last four to five weeks has been unvaccinated. >> i'm actually kind of renewed in my sense of being a nurse. i'm feeling again what i used to always feel about being in the right place and doing the right thing. >> sun's out. it's beautiful out. it's time to get ready. >> the cdc says that you're to isolate for ten days. >> we see on average about 350 patients a day. >> let's confirm your name and date of birth, please. >> six months ago patients were rushing in to get tested because of the unknown. now patients are rushing in to get tested because it's a necessity. >> the babies were crawling.

they are now full-on running, climbing. y. >> resilienc i mor for travel nurses. it's worth it. it's absolutely worth it to be a travel nurse. >> i've been absolutely amazed by the people i've met. all of these other nurses are my heroes. i don't believe that we could get through this at all without them. >> our thanks to the brave nurses. up next, the celebs, the costumes, and the fans, they're all back at the super bowl of fashion, new york's met gala.

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plus an expert team looking ahead 24/7 to help prevent threats. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. comcast business powering possibilities. for the first time since the pandemic the met gala is back, with its swag and all that bling. the star-studded event attracting some of the biggest celebrities and their unique outfits.

serena williams saying her daughter approved of her body suit and feathered cape ensemble. jennifer hudson wowing onlookers with a stunning red dress. and billie eilish wearing an oscar de la renta dress she says was inspired by her favorite barbie doll. and that's "nightline" for tonight. you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america.