IMO you have this backwards. It's much easier to get a mortgage to buy property in sleepy suburbs, so people can and do buy houses there to live in them, then have to commute to work.

It's almost impossible for most people working in soulful / desirable / economic powerhouse locations to get a mortgage on a property there, so you see lots of wealthy investors take up the properties there and rent-seek to make themselves even richer.

That's before we even mention the children factor.