The decline of Fort Morgan didn’t happen suddenly. There wasn’t a giant factory that closed or a natural disaster that devastated the small, farming town on the plains in the northeastern corridor of Colorado.

Instead, Fort Morgan’s story is a familiar one playing out across rural America: children moving away to find better jobs in the cities and big-box stores and online shopping leading to empty storefronts on Main Street. But this isn’t how the story ends for Fort Morgan, about an hour and 15 minutes northwest of Denver.

HGTV is turning its star power on Fort Morgan with the Season 2 premiere of “Home Town Takeover.” The show will feature its biggest name stars, including Ben and Erin Napier of “Home Town” and Dave and Jenny Marrs of “Fixer to Fabulous,” as they take on revitalization projects around town. The six-episode series is to premiere on Sunday.

The popular network has a strong track record of transforming struggling, down-on-their-luck, small towns and cities into popular tourist and real estate destinations. Several of these communities have credited the shows built around them for their turnarounds. Can HGTV and its talent re-create the magic in Fort Morgan—and perhaps inspire other struggling towns to invest in their own revitalizations?

“At the end of the day, millions of people are going to see this show,” Jenny Marrs tells Realtor.com®. “They’re going to be inspired either to go and visit Fort Morgan, which would be amazing and help the town as far as tourism, but also just be inspired to maybe do the same thing in their own town.”

Over the four months of filming for the show, the teams completed 18 projects. They included fixing up homes of local heroes, businesses such as the town’s bowling alley, and community spaces such as the downtown business district and a local park.

“Our town could use a jump-start,” says local artist Ann Iungerich. “The last 10 to 15 years, it’s gone through a slump. We could use a boost to get us back on track.”

Helping out on the projects were guest stars Jonathan Knight, star of HGTV’s “Farmhouse Fixer” and former vocalist for New Kids on the Block; rapper Lil Jon, who also has a show, “Lil Jon Wants To Do What?”; and Ty Pennington of “Rock the Block,” among others.

“These towns each have a special story,” says Jenny Marrs. She was most impressed by the people she met in Fort Morgan and how they rallied together to improve their community. “People stop, they say hello, they wave at you when you drive by, they know your name at the grocery stores. These sort of simple things can be really powerful.

“Families have lived in these small towns for generations. This is their family legacy and history,” she continues. “They shouldn’t have to move if we can help make the town viable again.”

The HGTV effect on real estate markets

The Texas city of Waco is perhaps the best example of the power of HGTV and its charismatic stars.

“Fixer Upper” premiered in 2013 and launched Chip and Joanna Gaines into the stratosphere. The couple built an empire off of that show, with a furniture line at Target, eight bestselling books between them, and even their own network, called Magnolia. But their greatest accomplishment might have been transforming the public image of Waco.

Before the popularity brought by the Gaineses, the city had been best known for a deadly standoff in 1993 between federal agents and a religious cult run by David Koresh. Now, tourists flock to the city to shop at the Gaineses’ stores and eat at their restaurant, Magnolia Table.

Average home prices in McLennan County, which includes Waco, surged almost 52.1% from 2015 to 2019, according to data previously provided by local real estate broker Camille Johnson. (“Fixer Upper” ran from 2013 to 2018 on HGTV. It was rebooted as “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home” on the Magnolia network in 2021.)

Before “Home Town” began filming in Laurel, MS, Mayor Johnny Magee flew out to Waco. He wanted to see the impact that “Fixer Upper” had on the struggling city.

“What we saw were tourists everywhere, and people were claiming that the same could happen in Laurel. We were doubtful,” says Magee. He didn’t realize how popular the show starring the Napiers would be when it premiered in January 2016.

Today, Laurel is booming. Its hotels and restaurants are full, home sales have risen as more people have moved here, and the town’s tax base has increased.

Home list prices surged in Laurel, shooting up 84.1% from July 2016 through July 2022, according to Realtor.com data. That’s compared with a 71.9% increase nationally and 60.8% in Mississippi over the same period.

“I am a native Laurelite who is amazed about what has happened since Ben and Erin Napier have begun the ‘Home Town’ show in Laurel. When the show began, downtown was like a ghost town,” says Magee. “What we have experienced has blown the minds of everyone who knew Laurel pre-‘Home Town.’”

Bentonville, AR, where “Fixer to Fabulous” is filmed, is a bit of an exception as it’s a city of more than 55,000 residents. It’s also the birthplace and headquarters of Walmart.

However, the Marrses have seen tourism tick up as a result of their show. There are now golf cart tours of the homes that have appeared on “Fixer to Fabulous.”

“It’s a powerful thing,” Dave Marrs says of the HGTV effect on Bentonville.

But there are a few downsides.

Home prices can rise as a result of being in the spotlight, say the Marrses. The number of properties for rent and sale is likely to drop even further as out-of-towners move in. That’s likely to make it harder for locals to find places. And those who grew up in the community might find themselves competing with deep-pocketed investors and retirees.

When home prices increase, property taxes can also rise. That was a substantial problem that homeowners in Waco experienced.

Fort Morgan’s already benefiting from ‘Home Town Takeover’

Since the news broke in July that the new season of “Home Town Takeover” would be filmed in Fort Morgan, commercial properties downtown have been selling quicker, says Brian Urdiales, a Fort Morgan councilman and Compass real estate broker.

“It isn’t typical to see three commercial properties on Main Street go onto the market and then close in a short time,” he says. “It would be great to see all the foot traffic and people on Main Street like when I grew up.”

Tourists have also begun to trickle in, says artist Iungerich, 61, a lifelong resident of the town. She submitted the town’s original application to be on the show when it launched just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. And she created an art installation that will be featured on the show: a 5-foot-tall bowling ball, a 9.5-foot-tall pin, and a crown, all placed in front of the local bowling alley.

The recent trickle of tourists is certainly something new for Fort Morgan, founded after an eponymously named military post opened in the mid-19th century along the South Platte River.

Today, the fort no longer remains and Fort Morgan is primarily a farming and ranching community of about 11,500 residents. There is a large Cargill beef processing plant, a mozzarella cheese processing facility, and a historic sugar factory.

The old railroad depot is boarded up, but folks can still catch an Amtrak train to Denver or into Nebraska. There are some restaurants, and the movie theater has recently been remodeled.

Fort Morgan has “the blue-collar jobs. They have the farming. They just didn’t have the draw to keep people there,” Dave Marrs tells Realtor.com. “So a lot of our focus was ‘Hey, you’re working here, stay here. Spend time here, spend money here so the town can develop even more.’”

Despite the town’s struggles, Fort Morgan’s real estate market has remained appealing to buyers priced out of more expensive parts of the state. During the pandemic, many Denver-area buyers came to Fort Morgan seeking more affordable properties, more space, and a more rural lifestyle. Homes sold briskly in a single weekend, often for over the asking price.

The real estate market has since come back down as higher mortgage interest rates are forcing many would-be buyers to the sidelines. Home list prices are mostly back to pre-pandemic levels, at a median of $330,550 in March, according to Realtor.com data.

Homes in Fort Morgan are still attracting buyers, especially as prices are about half of Denver’s median price tag of $663,000 and roughly $100,000 less than the national median of $424,500 in March.

“Our market’s always been pretty strong,” says Urdiales. He’s still seeing bidding wars, investors making all-cash offers, and first-time buyers jumping into the fray. “People are still buying.”

And the international exposure the town is about to receive is expected to be positive for the real estate market, especially as many viewers are working remotely and can live just about anywhere.

“It brings this aura of glamour to the small-town lifestyle,” says Jeff Engelstad, a real estate professor at the University of Denver. “You get on a million people’s radar, and you’re going to land a few of them.”

Home prices surge in Wetumpka after ‘Home Town Takeover’

Perhaps the best blueprint of what’s in store for Fort Morgan might be what happened in Wetumpka, AL. The small town was featured in the first season of “Home Town Takeover,” which premiered in May 2021.

As HGTV broadcast this small town into living rooms all over the world, the real estate market caught fire. Prices rose and homes flew off the market. Homes for rent or sale were scarce.

Home list prices in Wetumpka grew 42.3% from January 2021 through January 2023, according to Realtor.com data.

While some of that is due to the hot housing market during the pandemic, Wetumpka saw much larger run-ups in prices than the state or rest of the country. Over the same period, prices rose 26% in Alabama and 23.9% nationally.

The market has since slowed along with the rest of the nation, but some homes are still receiving multiple offers, says Wetumpka real estate broker Beverly Wright, of Re/Max Cornerstone Realty.

“It’s pretty crazy,” says Shellie Whitfield, executive director of the Wetumpka Area Chamber of Commerce. “We’re still building housing, and once the shovel’s in the ground, they’re sold.”

When she moved to Wetumpka in summer 2017, about 40% of the stores downtown were boarded up. Now, only two storefronts are empty and busloads of tourists visit the town’s new bookstore, ice cream parlor, pet store, and even a high-end olive oil and vinegar store.

“They sped us up about 15 years. It’s been really great,” says Whitfield.  “They just catapulted us just far beyond anything anyone could have imagined.”

Whitfield is confident the show will have a similar effect on Fort Morgan.

“They definitely will see some impact because there is such a strong following for the show,” says Whitfield.

The Marrses want viewers to be inspired to take action to turn their own towns around.

“I hope that people watch this show and say we can do that,” Jenny Marrs says. “It’s a spark that gets the fire started.”

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