I asked a friend who still lives in Springfield this same question the other day. It seems like traffic is SIGNIFICANTLY worse than when I lived there. She said yes it's got a lot worse just in the last few years.

I find it weird that this area isn't posting larger growth numbers because here (I'm in Joplin) there are numerous massive subdivisions, probably 2,000+ homes planned or under construction and everywhere I look new one-off homes are going up on random parcels of land. I have never seen this much construction not even close. I'm guessing is the same in the Springfield area if not more so.

A realtor friend of mine said the market is red hot and the majority of buyers are coming from high price markets - specifically Colorado and California. There are also a lot of regional buyers that are looking to relocate to the ozarks - these are often retiring boomers. RE investors have also be a huge problem as far as tying up inventory and driving up prices - don't know if that's been the case here but I know in the KC suburbs investors have accounted for a significant percentage of home sales.

A friend if mine was trying to downsize but stay in the area and sold his house (for double what he originally paid). Then he couldn't find a new house. He had casually browsed and saw a lot of listings so he wasn't real worried until he started trying to actually make offers and realized that every mid range home was getting ~8 cash offers usually above asking price.

So yes a lot of people are moving here. It's not like Boise or Austin but SW MO is attracting it's share of transplants.