Desirability is highly subjective.

I live in the Syracuse, NY MSA which has a pretty low ratio (3.4) and enjoy living here - Mild summers, actual winters (3 ski resorts close by), easy driving distance to the Adirondacks & Catskills, no traffic, all my friends are within an hour or so drive, $270k 2500sqft house on 3 acres 20 minutes from work.

From other threads on housing costs, I see tons of comments from Redditors that "can't live" in areas outside NYC, Boston, DC, Seattle, SF, LA, etc. because they value urban living the most.

To each their own, but my point is, different people value different things.