As U.S. Cities Crumble, Demand For Rural And Suburban Properties Is Soaring

June 8, 2020 by Michael Snyder


Have the events of 2020 caused you to consider moving somewhere else? If so, you are definitely not alone. The COVID-19 pandemic, a historic economic downturn and extremely violent riots in major cities all across America are fueling a sudden surge in interest in rural and suburban properties. This represents a major shift, because prior to 2020 we had seen a tremendous boom in real estate prices in large cities such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle. Now a lot of those buyers have become very motivated sellers, but there just isn’t a lot of demand for tremendously overpriced homes in core urban areas that are currently being torn to pieces by rioters.


Meanwhile, prices for rural and suburban homes are being pushed up as an increasing number of Americans seek to get away from the major cities.

At first, it was the coronavirus pandemic that was the primary reason why so many people wanted to move. According to Redfin, page views for homes in rural communities and small towns were way, way up in March as the virus began to spread aggressively in the United States…

A report from Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN) highlights this trend, showing that by late March, the seven-day average change in page views of homes in rural and small towns was up 115% and 88%, respectively.

Of course now the worst civil unrest in decades has been added to the equation, and this has caused even more city dwellers to consider a change in residence. In fact, one poll found that approximately 40 percent of all city dwellers “are considering leaving”…

A recent Harris Poll found that more than 3 in 10 people in America say the pandemic makes them want to live in a rural area. And, 1 in 4 now want to live in a suburb exterior to a major city. In a separate Harris Poll, it was found that nearly 40% of city dwellers are considering leaving the city due to the pandemic.

Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to move. In an economic environment where more than 42 million Americans have already lost their jobs, many people will be doing all that they can to cling to the jobs that they still have.

But for those with the liberty to live wherever they want, this is an opportunity to make a dramatic change.

At this point, even urban real estate markets that were once red hot like San Francisco appear to be cooling off in a major way…

Amid the depths of a global pandemic and financial downturn, the demand for real estate is unexpectedly rocketing in wealthy regions outside San Francisco, reports Bloomberg. Agents say that demand is soaring in affluent areas around the Bay Area such as Napa, Marin and further afield in Carmel, as people who have the means look to get away from the city. Meanwhile, the market in San Francisco and Alameda County is still well below where it was last year.

Elsewhere, Lake Tahoe has also seen a surge in real estate interest. The prospect of living out of the city on an alpine lake while maintaining a career is appealing for a new generation of young buyers, as many tech companies have signaled that remote work may be the new norm for a long time.

During the good times, our big cities had a lot to offer.

But now, many city dwellers have become completely convinced that their communities are simply no longer safe places to live.

Just look at what is happening in Chicago. The last day in May was “the deadliest day” that the city had seen “since at least 1961″…

The city of Chicago notched a grim milestone last weekend, as 18 people were murdered on Sunday, May 31 alone, marking the deadliest day in the city since at least 1961.

The University of Chicago Crime Lab’s numbers do not go back further than 1961, so it’s impossible to say how long it’s been — if ever — since so many people were murdered in the city one 24-hour stretch.

We have come to expect a very high level of violence in Chicago, but one local expert says that the number of murders on that particular Sunday was “beyond anything that we’ve ever seen before”…

“We’ve never seen anything like it, at all,” the crime lab’s senior research director, Max Kapustin, told the newspaper. “I don’t even know how to put it into context. It’s beyond anything that we’ve ever seen before.”

Chicago’s next most violent day was Aug. 4, 1991, when 13 murders were recorded.

At one time, America’s beautiful shining cities were the envy of the entire planet.

But now thousands of retail outlets have been boarded up, homelessness is absolutely exploding, and it looks like there will be much more rioting, looting and violence in the months ahead.

I have been writing about the plight of our major cities for many years, and even though I have been relentlessly warning that this was coming, it doesn’t make it any less sad.

I have really been feeling so sad lately. Things didn’t have to turn out this way for America, but our choices have consequences, and we have been making really bad choices for decades.

Ultimately, I am quite glad that I was able to get away from the big cities when I did, and countless other Americans have made the exact same choice.

Now we are potentially facing a mass exodus from the major cities in the months ahead, and that will likely drive real estate prices in the most desirable small towns and rural communities through the roof.

Those that are wealthy will be able to afford such prices, but many others may find themselves completely priced out of the market and unable to relocate.

Pandemic Leads To Urban Exodus As Families Turn To Self-Reliance And Off-The-Grid Living

Chris Dorsey


Survival consultant Josh Enyart says America is witnessing a massive self-reliance movement. Courtesy of Josh Enyart

For Los Angeles-based television executive Stephanie Steele and her husband Peter, and millions of Americans like them, orders to shelter in place became a cue to flee. In their case, to Bigfork Montana, population 4,270. As densely populated cities across the country felt the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis and became ghost towns, many people decided that societal escape was a better option than mere social distancing.

“We loaded up my parents (both cancer survivors), a college-aged nephew and the dog,” says Stephanie, “and drove two straight days to get to Bigfork. My husband and I planned on staying a few days before returning to Los Angeles. It’s now been 10 weeks. We asked ourselves, what are we rushing back for?”

What started as a temporary fix for many has grown into a movement that’s showing signs of becoming a tectonic shift in how and where Americans live. Businesses, too, are learning from the forced quarantine experiment of 2020 as they recalibrate the way forward in the wake of COVID-19.

According to a new Harris Poll, nearly one-third of Americans are considering moving to less densely populated areas in the wake of the pandemic. The survey sampled more than 2,000 American adults from April 25-27 and found that nearly half of urbanites had browsed on-line for homes, condos or apartments to rent or buy away from metropolitan areas. Historically low interest rates also have helped spur the desire to relocate.

“I think what we’re seeing is a massive self-reliance movement,” says Josh Enyart, a veteran survival specialist and consultant. “The denser a population, the more people there are to potentially participate in social unrest. People instinctively know that the safest bet is to get away from those highly populated viral hot zones, which is why you’re seeing so many folks escape to small towns and rural America.”

For the Steele family, the sparsely populated countryside of Montana was the perfect place to weather the pandemic. “I love taking daily walks up here,” says Stephanie, “looking at Flathead Lake and the snowcapped Glacier Mountains. And sunset is around 9:30pm every night and twilight has a certain glow that’s more magical than I’ve ever experienced.”

With better broadband connectivity and the ability to tele-commute from almost anywhere, businesses across the country are reconsidering the need for centralized and expensive downtown office buildings. Moreover, many workers and companies are realizing that employees are often more productive away from office settings so the idea of working from home—wherever that may be—has become a virtual national water cooler debate.

For others like Tim and Amber Bradshaw who moved from the outskirts of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to a small farm in rural Tennessee, the choice to live off-the-grid was about peace of mind. “There’s a confidence that comes from knowing that you don’t have to rely on anyone else for basic necessities,” says Amber. “The Pandemic has been a wake-up call for our entire society. You don’t want to be dependent on others for your essential survival needs, and the feeling of panic that hit Americans as they walked into empty grocery stores has changed them.”

“The basics of survival are shelter (warmth), water, food and personal security,” says Enyart. “If you can provide that for your family you can endure most calamities. And many people fear that this isn’t the last pandemic we’ll see in our lifetimes, so they want to be ready for the next one—especially if it’s worse than COVID-19.”

The off-the-grid movement began well before the pandemic but the virus along with recent riots across American cities have accelerated what’s being called the impromptu migration of 2020. Google “moving off grid” and 192 million entries pop up. For many, like Daniel & April Phelan, leaving Atlanta where they lived for a decade was about living a self-sufficient lifestyle. The couple and their newborn live on a 260-acre north Georgia farm with a well, solar power, numerous fruit trees and berry patches as well as chickens and cows, far away from what they see as chaos in urban centers. The area has abundant game as well and since Daniel grew up hunting in Georgia he has the skills to harvest the land’s natural bounty. “We have a freezer full of venison, the healthiest meat you can eat,” says April.

“We lived less than a mile from where the recent riots took place,” she says, “so when we see what’s happening around the country and talk to our friends hunkered down in cities, it’s an affirmation of the choice we made to be self-sufficient on the farm. Fear is gripping the nation and is the big motivator encouraging people to get out.”

While moving to the country might mean giving up nice restaurants, better healthcare and entertainment options, it also comes with a reduced cost of living, less crime and a lower stress lifestyle. What started as a temporary quarantine for some now has people realizing the virtues of rural living, something many are considering as a long-term life change.

“The fresh, expansive air and the lesser restrictions in Montana have been very appealing,” says Stephanie, “and while I miss my friends I don’t miss the traffic or the crowded parking lots.” For millions of others, the work-at-home trend is here to stay and has grown rapidly because of the pandemic.

In his work, The Coming Age of Dispersion, author Joel Kotkin suggests, “One possible consequence [of the pandemic] is an acceleration of the end of the megacity era….Much of this has been driven by high housing prices and growing social disorder in our cities.”

“During a crisis, people’s actions are often unpredictable,” says Enyart. “If you want to see what a mob is capable of just take a look at what’s happened in Venezuela where the society has basically collapsed. Americans think we’re insulated from those kinds of problems but current events show us otherwise.”

For a growing number of American urbanites, they’re not sticking around to find out what’s coming next.

Wealthy Fleeing to Mountain Resorts as Cities Burn
Demand exploding for luxury properties in Aspen, Park City


By Zero Hedge Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Demand for luxury properties in Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, is “through the roof,” explained Mauricio Umansky, CEO of real estate firm The Agency, who recently spoke with Fox Business.

Umansky said the pandemic had accelerated the trend of wealthy vacationers staying year-round in rural, resort communities.

“A lot of traveling to Europe this year is probably nonexistent … And so I think a lot of Americans are looking where to enjoy the summer,” he said.

As we’ve previously noted, “there’s a mad rush” of wealthy folks leaving big cities due to the virus pandemic, economic crash, and social unrest. It was noted by Sotheby’s relators that people in the San Francisco Bay Area are fleeing the city for rural communities, such as Marin County, Napa wine country, and south to Monterey’s Carmel Valley.

Some rich people have also fled to their luxury doomsday bunkers — but it seems, for the mainstream household with a couple million dollars in the bank, they’re fleeing to rural communities, no matter if it’s the outskirts of the Bay area, or as we now find out now, Aspen and Park City.

According to the Park City Board of Realtors, the market was hot during 1Q20 as it outpaced last year, despite a pandemic and economic crash. The number of homes sold rose by 11%, and the median sale price was up 5% YoY. The median sale price is about $2 million, which means the area is an exclusive retreat for the rich as they attempt to isolate themselves from the implosion of American cities.

In Aspen, median sales prices increased 6.7% to $6.4 million for single-family homes compared to 2019, according to Aspen Board of Realtors. Supply was tight in the first half of 2020 as the number of days home set on the market was reduced by 30%.

Umansky said people from New York City are fleeing to Aspen, while Park City is seeing folks from Los Angeles or San Francisco. All of these cities have witnessed strict lockdowns, high unemployment, crashed services economies, and now social unrest — that makes city life unbearable to raise a family.

“People have realized that you can work from home,” he said. “And the big question has become: where do you want to sequester with your family if this ever happens again? And so I think people are looking for space and looking for areas where there’s a lot less density.”

The collapse of American cities is set to spark a massive revival of rural communities in the early 2020s. A combination of social unrest, economic crash, and virus pandemic could result in a plunge of real estate in major metros, with slow recovery time as the crisis as the socio-economic crisis worsens.

The trend is your trend — smart money is dumping real estate in major cities — they’re getting the hell out of dodge as radical leftist attempt to defund or disband police departments across the country and turn metros into a world of chaos.

Dang Doc you trying for new neighbors? LOL

I've lived in a few cities...

long enough to know you couldn't pay me to live in one now.

I do NOT like cities either. Unfortunately the city is moving out on me. Too old to run and hide also.

The Tri-cities area is the same way. Places that used to be farm land miles from town are nothing but urban sprawl and McMansions every five feet. If I ever move again it will be up on top of that "big hill" you can see from my house.

Right Now There Is A “Mad Rush” To Get Out Of The Cities

As one lone individual, there isn’t much that you can do to stop what is coming, but at least you can try to get to somewhere safe before everything falls apart


By Michael Snyder | End Of The American Dream Monday, June 22, 2020



So many wealthy people are rushing to move away from the big cities that it is creating a bit of a “real estate boom” in many suburban areas, small towns and rural communities.

Fear of COVID-19, a collapsing economy and the tremendous urban violence that we have witnessed in recent weeks have combined to create a frenzy of activity.

Last week, my wife and I heard from a friend in New York City that is all of a sudden desperate to move to another state, and I certainly can’t blame him for wanting to relocate.

If I was in his shoes, I would be wanting to move too.

But at this point so many people are all thinking the same thing that the demand for housing in certain areas threatens to greatly exceed the supply. In fact, one real estate agent in the San Francisco area is describing it as “a mad rush to get out of the city”…

“There’s a mad rush to get out of the city,” said Ginger Martin, a real estate agent with Sotheby’s who concentrates on high-end properties in the San Francisco Bay Area. “What I’m really doing well with right now is anything that’s turnkey.”

Unfortunately, mortgage lending standards have really tightened up over the past few months, and so this is limiting the number of people that are able to successfully relocate.

Mostly, in this environment it is just “wealthy folks” that are able to move away from San Francisco and purchase a new home somewhere else…

Relocation, at the moment, is only by wealthy folks, who still have the financial mobility to move as the real economy implodes and paralyzes the bottom 90% of Americans. Even with a good credit score, lenders are not preapproving folks like they once were. Many people over the years flooded into San Francisco as the economy boomed, and tech flourished. Now with an economic downturn, social unrest, and pandemic — the city is becoming too dangerous to raise a family.

Over on the east coast, violence is one of the primary motivating factors that is causing people to suddenly pick up and move.

By now, virtually everyone has seen stunning footage of the rioting and looting that took place in the heart of New York City, and it certainly wouldn’t take much to spark more episodes of widespread violence.

At the same time, overall crime rates in NYC have been absolutely skyrocketing, and this is helping to fuel an exodus to “rural communities in New York and New Jersey”…

During May, overall crime declined compared to the same period last year. But the New York City Police Department (NYPD) said murders in the city increase by 79%, shootings jumped by 64%, and burglaries rose 34%.

The surge in violent crime is expected to supercharge a trend of New Yorkers fleeing the metro for rural communities in New York and New Jersey.

In the middle of the country, the city of Chicago is experiencing even more violence than New York City is.

In fact, dozens of people were just shot over Father’s Day weekend…

Nine people have been killed, including four under the age of 18, and 47 more were injured in shootings across Chicago on Father’s Day weekend, police said.

Two teenage boys, a 3-year-old, and a 13-year-old girl are among those who were killed, officials told ABC7 in Chicago.

And just a few weeks ago, we witnessed the most violent day ever recorded in the Windy City…

While Chicago was roiled by another day of protests and looting in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, 18 people were killed Sunday, May 31, making it the single most violent day in Chicago in six decades, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The lab’s data doesn’t go back further than 1961.

If the problems that we are facing were just very temporary in nature, most people would probably be willing to ride them out.

Unfortunately, it appears that things aren’t going to be getting significantly better any time soon.

Now that the lockdowns have ended, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is starting to surge once again. On Friday, we witnessed more than 30,000 newly confirmed cases in the U.S. for the first time in many weeks, and it was actually the worst day so far for newly confirmed cases for the globe as a whole.

In other words, the coronavirus pandemic is getting worse. Whether you want to call it “the first wave” or “the second wave”, the truth is that cases are surging and that could have very serious implications for the months ahead.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy continues to deteriorate very rapidly. Nearly 46 million Americans have now filed new claims for unemployment benefits since this pandemic first began, more than 100,000 businesses have permanently shut their doors, and U.S. consumers have skipped payments on more than 100 million loans. It is an economic meltdown of unprecedented size and scope, and many more monthsof extreme economic pain lie ahead of us.

On top of everything else, we are in an election year, and even a very small spark could set off more rioting, looting and violence.

At this point, tensions are so high in this country that a recent survey found that 34 percent of all Americans believe that there could be a “civil war” within the next five years…

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 34% of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States will experience a second civil war sometime in the next five years, but that includes only nine percent (9%) who say it’s Very Likely.

I have never seen our nation so deeply divided in my entire lifetime, and that makes me incredibly sad.

At a time when we should be coming together like never before, we are allowing strife, discord, anger and hatred to divide us even more deeply.

A house that is divided will surely fall, and the future of America looks extremely bleak if we continue down this path.

As one lone individual, there isn’t much that you can do to stop what is coming, but at least you can try to get to somewhere safe before everything falls apart.

But if you are going to move, you will need to do it quickly, because as I have discussed in this article there are lots of other people thinking the exact same thing.

It doesn't sound like Michael Snyder is a militiaman. It reads like he wants to run like a coward. Those sorry city cowards need to arm themselves and take their cities back. They need to get right with Lord Jesus and have no fear of death, go back to work, and take their chances with Covid-19 before they starve to death from total economic collapse. Are we still militiamen ready to fight to maintain freedom here or did we get too old?

Here is a good Tom Petty song for them
Mudcrutch Scare Easy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K28Lmt8wOyI

What Texas Resistance said. There is something to be said for "voting with your feet," but really, they voted these idiots in. They should do the right thing and vote them out. And if they still won't go, well...

Onward and upward,
airforce

Snyder doesn't live in the city. He's in the redoubt area. So, he's not running for the hills. He bugged out long ago.

Personally, I agree with Snyder. IMO anyone who continues to live in the city deserves whatever they get. Let the trash have the cities. The cities have always been nothing but shitholes and no one or nothing is ever going to change that. You can never have freedom or become self sufficient living in a town.

Americans leave large cities for suburban areas and rural towns

By Kristin Tate, — 07/05/20

A combination of the coronavirus pandemic, economic uncertainty, and social unrest is prompting waves of Americans to move from large cities and permanently relocate to more sparsely populated areas. The trend has been accelerated by technology and shifting attitudes that make it easier than ever to work remotely. Residents of all ages and incomes are moving in record numbers to suburban areas and small towns.

A perfect storm of factors makes the decision to leave major cities like New York very obvious. The dense nature of urban living and the lack of proper local government planning led to the coronavirus spreading five times faster in New York than the rest of the country. The city that never sleeps now resembles a ghost town in many areas after thousands of its wealthy and middle-class residents fled early in the pandemic.

Many are moving to small towns north of the five boroughs. Four upstate counties have seen an incredible surge in real estate demand, while the rest of the New York market is cratering. In Ulster County, the number of homes now under contract nearly doubles the 2016 figures. It saw steady sales in March and April while the overall New York market fell by nearly 30 percent. Some people are staying at their vacation homes, but the data suggest there are many permanent moves in the works.

An estimated quarter of a million New York residents will move upstate for good, while another 2 million could permanently move out of the state. More than 16,000 New York residents have already relocated to suburban Connecticut. The preliminary figures show New York is also losing citizens to rural New England and Florida in significant numbers. Similar trends are happening in other large urban areas. There is a political element within the domestic migration at play across the nation, but what is more telling is the level of movement to suburban areas and rural towns.

Over 40 percent of urbanites have browsed online for real estate, more than twice the level of people who live in the country. Redfin reports that more than a quarter of searches on its website are by urbanites in Seattle, San Francisco, and the District of Columbia searching for homes across less populated places. While real estate sales are down in San Francisco, where prices are falling by more than 50 percent, demand in its suburbs has been soaring, where prices are rising by almost 10 percent.

There has been a sharp uptick in interest in moving out to Montana, with the majority of new inquiries coming from California. Real estate sales in Montana are 10 percent higher than at this time last year. Rural Colorado, Oregon, and Maine have seen similar upticks in property sales. Vermont is going through a renaissance in real estate, with an agent there remarking that “people are buying houses without even seeing them.”

Some of the biggest changes are less obvious, yet even the hidden trends support the idea that cities are emptying out. In March and April, over 2 million young people moved back in with their parents or grandparents. If the allure of cities declines further due to the risk of disease, a sputtering economy, and a future of telework, the flight to suburban and rural safety will continue well after a coronavirus vaccine hits the market.

Social unrest and urban crime rate spikes also raise the possibility of a sharp increase of exits from large cities. A breakdown in order, especially if police are defunded, could further downsize cities rebuilt with law and order approaches. Urban trends of the last 50 years are being reversed. Instead of smaller towns and rural areas facing the steep declines, large metropolitan areas may soon be the places bleeding citizens.

The moves and the circumstances that precipitated them will likely cause profound changes in the places receiving the most coronavirus refugees. It is still too early to forecast the political impacts of these demographic trends, but they could be significant. Floods of former urbanites could bring more taxes, restrictions, and regulations to these areas.

On the other hand, an influx of money could reinvigorate former industrial towns. A curious question is whether the waves of new residents will see these smaller areas as their real homes or as places of convenience that need to be reshaped in the image of the cities they fled from.

Gov. Cuomo is begging wealthy New Yorkers to come back to the city. I have a feeling the answer is going to be a big, fat NO.



Read the whole thing at the link.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Then Cuomo needs to tell the Mayor of NYC to quit painting Black Lives Matter on the road in front of their houses and start arresting the protestors in his out of control city!

If you want wealthy people to come back, threatening them with a wealth tax is probably not the right way to do it.

Onward and upward,
airforce

The Great Conservative Migration And What It Means For The Future

Brandon Smith
September 25th, 2020
Alt-Market

The signs really began to become visible at the end of January 2020; there was an exodus of people brewing, and it was galvanizing fears on both sides of the political spectrum. The pandemic situation is cited by the mainstream media as the primary cause, but in reality, the migration had started at least 3 years earlier.

Americans were leaving certain states and cities behind by the tens of thousands, and these places were predominantly leftist in their policies and population. California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, etc.; all of these progressive states were bleeding residents since 2017, the pandemic just accelerated the situation.

There are a number of reasons given for the dramatic shift in population, but two specific reasons stand above the rest: Economy and political ideals. The pandemic itself is only a minor motivator. Consider the fact that residents of California left the state in droves for Texas over the summer DESPITE the problem of COVID infection spikes in major metropolitan areas of the Lone Star State. People didn’t care, they just wanted to get the hell out of California as quickly as possible.

Again, the main reason given by former Californians was politics. They are conservatives or moderates that felt isolated or trapped in a far-left cesspool and they realized their future life prospects depended on them transplanting to a more free and less bureaucratic place.

The fear among conservatives was that the pandemic would smoke leftists out of their hives and that they would spread to more conservative areas and “take over”. This does not seem to be the case. In fact, it appears that most leftists are stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that their states are dying and are actively defending state policies on the web. Check out the angry and delusional comments from California progressives on this opinion article in Arizona telling them to leave their failed policies behind if they move to the state.

These people are suffering from some serious saltiness, and the fact that they are still trying to claim that states like California are economically stable shows how truly delusional they are. Conservative states have nothing to worry about – The lefties are too dumb to relocate. They’re going to sit within the rotting corpses of the states they killed and pretend it smells like roses. This is what they do; when they are wrong or when they have failed they double and triple down. It’s their defining characteristic.

In my state of Montana real estate purchases have surged over the past year. Recent data on school enrollment numbers are up 15% – 20% in cities like Missoula. This includes new students in public schools as well as those registered for homeschooling, and it’s a massive spike for the region. The majority of new students are recent transplants from other states. I have spoken with hundreds of these people personally and ALL of them said they were moving to Montana because they were conservative, many of them were preppers and many of them wanted to be around other conservatives in the event that the world continues on its current downward spiral.

They do sometimes mention the coronavirus situation, but they generally are not worried about the virus itself. Rather, they are concerned about the virus RESPONSE. Meaning, they want to retain their freedoms, they do not like the draconian restrictions put in place in their former states and they are trying to escape the business lockdowns that are killing local economies.

Some states like California have responded as leftists typically do, by seeking to punish people for walking away from the collective. This includes a new Wealth Tax law in the works that would require people with high incomes such as business owners leaving California to continue to pay taxes to the state for 10 years, even though they no longer live there. In other words, successful business owners who leave California will have to pay taxes to two separate state governments at the same time.

California Assemblyman Rob Bonta, one of the people supporting the Wealth Tax proposal, asserts that the pandemic is the cause of California’s economic troubles including a huge surge in the homeless population. However, the spike in poverty and homelessness was escalating well before the coronavirus ever appeared. It was the hard-left policies of the state government that caused this mess; they can’t blame everything on COVID, though conmen like Bonta will certainly try.

The fact that leftist states are poised to institute punishments or disincentives for leaving (which is unconstitutional, by the way), shows just how bad the migration has become for them. Frankly, these state governments need to be taught a lesson, and one of the only lessons they understand is the loss of tax revenues.

It should not be surprising at all that conservatives are rushing for the exits, these places are on fire and progressive legislators are throwing Molotov cocktails for good measure. I’m only surprised by the speed and scale of the migration, the whole thing is happening so fast it makes your head spin.

My point is, the migration is very real. No one can deny anymore that it is happening. But what does it mean for the future of America?

As I have noted in previous articles, in my view the BEST case scenario we can possibly hope for as conservatives is a balkanization of the US-based on ideals and principles. According to the economic data and social upheaval I am seeing, I think there is little chance we can save the whole country in the short term. Instead, conservatives organizing together regionally is the best bet in stopping widespread unconstitutional changes to our laws and usurpation of our culture.

In rural areas in particular we enjoy far more freedom and the majority of people have no interest in abiding by lockdown restrictions. We ignore them. A friend of mine recently had family visit from California and they were astonished at how ‘normal’ daily life was in Montana. They said just being able to go to a restaurant and eat there or walk into a store without being forced to wear a mask was a strange feeling as if they were visiting a foreign nation.

This is saddening to me. The coronavirus is certainly not worth this loss of liberty.

I suspect that the conservative migration will lead to some interesting side-effects. First and foremost there will be continued attempts to stop it. Eventually, states like California will try to implement measures beyond tax punishment. They may even try to exploit the pandemic as a rationale for locking down state borders in the name of “protecting citizen health”. I would not be surprised if hard-left states actively try to physically stop residents from moving away.

As the economy continues to decline and stagflation strikes, likely very hard in 2021 regardless of who is in the White House (you can thank the Federal Reserve for that), price increases will eventually prevent Americans from being able to relocate anyway. But, for the next six months at least I think the migration will continue to grow.

The congregation of conservatives today is perhaps the first time in a long time that we have sought to build a unified front for preserving the American way of life, free from big government, free from bureaucracy, and free from socialist subversion. Without the migration, we have zero chance of achieving this, but there are some who will argue against it.

I have noticed that certain conservatives and moderates are claiming that by leaving places like California or New York the movement is “abandoning the fight” and exposing those regions to complete takeover. News Flash for these folks: You already lost those states. You lost that fight. They have been taken over. And, if you understand strategy in the slightest, you will wrap your heads around the need for a strategic withdrawal so that you can live to fight more winnable battles another day.

This mentality reminds me of the people that were arguing that conservatives should not start their own social media platforms “because the real fight is on Twitter and Facebook”. This is naive thinking. Those platforms are OWNED by the extreme left, and there is no one on these websites that will be convinced by your arguments no matter how reasonable or factual. It’s time to build alternatives that are freer and stop wasting our energies on lemmings that cannot be saved.

What I find most fascinating about the current migration is that it’s bringing together conservatives and moderates or “classical liberals” that have been alienated by modern social justice movements. In my opinion, most moderate liberals are actually conservatives or libertarians and they’re just not ready to admit it yet, but I’m glad to see these people working together.

The fight that is coming will require us to ally with people that do not necessarily share ALL our views, and that’s okay. The goal is to get to the truth, and to use what works best, and to maintain a set of shared cultural principles that value freedom. Americans aren’t relocating anymore out of convenience or economic incentives – it’s actually rather inconvenient and expensive to relocate these days. They aren’t moving due to climate or job availability or wages. They are moving because they have a shared desire to be free. It’s really that simple.

And, the sooner free peoples band together, the safer we will be from the statists and tyrants of the world. If that means the US is broken apart for a time in the process, then so be it. It’s better than having the entire country fall because rational people were isolated from each other.

Why are so many Americans suddenly relocating, buying guns and storing up huge quantities of food?

By Michael Snyder Friday, October 16, 2020

In 2020, we have been watching hundreds of thousands of Americans relocate, gun sales have shattered all previous levels, and people are purchasing and storing huge stockpiles of food.

We have seen the American people get deeply concerned about the future before, but we have never seen anything quite like this. It is definitely a major life decision to pack up everything you own and move to another part of the country, but that is precisely what countless Americans have been doing in recent months. WABC wanted to know precisely how many people have been doing this in New York City, and the information that they were able to get from the United States Postal Service really surprised them…

7 On Your Side Investigates requested from the United States Postal Service how many families requested a change of address and moved to zip codes outside of New York City, and the numbers are big.

In fact, those numbers show that over 246,000 New Yorkers “have filed a change of address request” just since the month of March…

Overall since March, more than 246,000 people have filed a change of address request. That’s an almost 100% increase compared to the same time period in 2019.

Of course people have been moving away from other major cities in very large numbers as well, and this has created a tremendous glut of empty apartments that need to be filled.

Because there is now so much supply and so little demand, apartment rental prices have been plummeting, and this has especially been the case in the San Francisco area…
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San Francisco saw the prices fall the furthest in September, according to data from Realtor.com, with costs for a one-bedroom unit falling by 24.2%.

Two other cities in California – San Mateo and Santa Clara – experienced the second and third largest drop in average one-bedroom rent prices, followed by Suffolk, Mass., and Manhattan.

Meanwhile, demand for housing in desirable rural and suburban areas has been skyrocketing.

For example, we are being told that there is a “stunning real estate boom” going on in Maine right now…

Maine has seen a stunning real estate boom as buyers from New York City, Boston and Washington DC flee for quieter pastures amid the pandemic, causing home values to surge 17 percent, supply to hit a historic low and properties to fly off the market in a matter of 11 days.

If I was looking to relocate to the Northeast, Maine would definitely be one of the places that I would consider. It is quite beautiful, crime is generally not a major problem, and the population density is very low.

According to one real estate agent, people have been calling and asking her to “get me any house in Maine”, and she is doing her best to fulfill those requests.

Meanwhile, Americans have been feverishly buying guns as well.

In fact, the number of background checks that have been conducted this year has already broken the all-time record that was set last year…

The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) – a widely accepted proxy – shows a 41% increase in activity during the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period in 2019, which was a record year. With 28.8 million background checks through the end of September, this year’s surge has already surpassed last year’s all-time high of 28.4 million.

While other industries have been deeply struggling in 2020, the gun industry is having a banner year, and many expect that to continue in 2021.

In a previous article, I discussed the fact that millions of Americans are also focused on storing up food right now. In fact, one recent survey discovered that more than 50 percent of Americans “already have or plan to stockpile food and other essentials”…

Slightly more than half of Americans in a recent poll from Sports and Leisure Research Group say they already have or plan to stockpile food and other essentials. The chief reason: fears of a resurgent pandemic, which could lead to disruptions such as new restrictions on businesses. On Oct. 2, the number of COVID-19 cases in the USA was its highest in almost two months.

At this point, so many Americans are stockpiling food that it has actually caused a very serious shortage of Mason jars…

COVID-19 has caused shortages in coins, lumber and even aluminum cans. Now, add Mason jars to the list.

According to one small business owner, a twelve pack of jars will now often sell for “as much as $70”…

“Some of them are as much as $70 for one 12 twelve pack of jars and they should be between $10 and $12 but nothing less than $20 dollars for a box of jars. So we can’t sell them at that, you know you just can’t make money doing that,” said Robin Hannon, owner of Timmy Crack Corn.

So why are so many Americans going to such extremes all of a sudden?

Well, there is no easy answer.

Of course many are concerned about the upcoming election, but that will come and go.

Others are worried that the next wave of the coronavirus pandemic could be even worse than what we have already experienced, but by now it has become clear that this isn’t the sort of pandemic that is going to kill millions of us.

Some people that I talk to believe that our economic problems and the civil unrest in our major cities will get worse, and I agree with that assessment.

But is that really a reason to pack up everything and head for the hills?

Ultimately, I think that many Americans understand that everything that we have been through so far is just the leading edge of something much larger.

Whether you want to call it “the big meltdown”, “the collapse of society” or “the perfect storm”, the truth is that the party is ending.

Every day we get more evidence that our society is unraveling right in front of our eyes, and I work very hard to document that evidence for my readers.

We are heading into times that are going to be absolutely catastrophic for our nation, and on a gut level a lot of people out there know that this is true.

So we should certainly not blame anyone that wants to move to the middle of nowhere, buy guns and stockpile lots of food.

In the end, the truth is that it is probably what just about all of us should be doing.

Here in Tulsa, I'm seeing a whole lot of auto license plates from New York and California. Maybe they're just on vacation, but I doubt it.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Way more than normal NY plates here also. Talked to a couple of dealer friends at the gun show yesterday and they both said they were selling all they can get their hands on. The trouble they are having is getting product to sell. One normally buys about 15 million a year in ammo alone and he can only get boxes of ammo where he normally gets PALLET loads!

Many Americans are now planning to “bug out” ahead of Election Day as authorities brace for chaos in the streets

October 18, 2020 by Michael Snyder


Will you be safe where you currently are if the election results cause chaos to erupt in the streets of our major cities? A lot of Americans are becoming deeply concerned about their personal safety as we approach November 3rd, because they can see what is coming. It is going to take a lot of extra time to count all of the votes because tens of millions of Americans are voting by mail this time around, and both sides have recruited armies of lawyers and are prepared to contest the results of the election to the bitter end. No matter who ends up being declared the winner when it is all over, there will be millions upon millions of very angry voters out there that are likely to feel as though the election was stolen from them, and that is a recipe for widespread societal unrest. I truly wish that we could go back and do things differently so that we would not be facing this sort of scenario, but it is too late for that now. More than 27 million Americans have already voted, and more are voting every day. Any attempts to fix the process will have to wait for future elections, and without a doubt it definitely needs to be fixed.

It is still difficult for me to believe that I am actually writing about the possibility of violence after a U.S. presidential election, but this is where we are at as a society.

In fact, there is violence in the streets right now.

This should break all of our hearts, because violence is not going to solve anything.

Unfortunately, an increasing number of people are not listening to voices of reason, and we are seeing anger and frustration rise to levels that we have never seen before.

At this point, most Americans are expecting the worst. To be more specific, one recent survey found that 55 percent of all registered voters expect a rise in violence following the election…

In the YouGov survey, about 55 percent of registered voters said they thought violence would increase in the U.S. following the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Just under 11 percent of respondents said they didn’t expect a rise in violence to occur after the election, while 33 percent of voters were unsure.

Even more alarming, a different survey found that more than 40 percent of Republicans and more than 40 percent of Democrats believe that violence would be at least “a little” justified if their party ends up losing…

In September, 44 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of Democrats said there would be at least “a little” justification for violence if the other party’s nominee wins the election.

I truly wish that those numbers were not real, but they are.

As Election Day draws near, many Americans have decided that “bugging out” is the best thing to do. For example, one 31-year-old New York resident is going to be staying with her parents on Election day because she believes “the city will be on fire” if Trump wins…

Flatiron resident Andrea, 31, also decided to pack up before Nov. 3. “I went to my parents in New Jersey for about two weeks when the BLM protests got bad and the looting started. So I definitely want to get out of here the week of the election,” said the public-relations specialist, a Republican who asked that her last name not be used. “I’m thinking if Trump wins, it’s going to be a disaster — the city will be on fire. People are going to go nuts.”

And 42-year-old Ooana Trien is planning to spend Election Day out of the city because she is concerned that “protesters will try and burn down Trump Tower”…

The Trump supporter, who is mailing in her ballot, plans to open up her doors to others looking to escape. “I told my friends that whoever wanted to get out of the city was welcome here. One friend who lives in Washington Heights is going to vote in the morning [on Nov. 3] and come straight up to the beach,” she said. “My mother thinks that whether [Trump] wins or loses, protesters will try and burn down Trump Tower.”

Law enforcement authorities all over the nation are also deeply concerned about the potential for violence.

For example, in New Jersey officials have warned that we could potentially see “civil unrest resulting in riots, violent acts, and fatalities”…

“Election result delays and recounts could result in protests and attempts to occupy election offices,” officials with the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness warned in a threat assessment issued in late September.

“Incidents of civil unrest resulting in riots, violent acts, and fatalities will converge with election uncertainty, producing confrontations between protesters and counter-demonstrators challenging election outcomes,” it noted.

Yes, you read that correctly.

They actually used the word “fatalities”.

In New York, residents were rattled by a leaked NYPD memo that warned of violent protests from October 25th through the early portion of 2021…

New Yorkers are on edge after a leaked NYPD memo, obtained by The Post, revealed this week that police are preparing for protests to begin as early as Oct. 25 and grow in intensity through next year. The department decreed officers should “be prepared for deployment,” adding: “This November 3rd will be one of the most highly contested presidential elections in the modern era. There is also a strong likelihood that the winner of the presidential election may not be decided for several weeks.”

In Arizona, the information security officer for Maricopa County is encouraging people to have law enforcement authorities on speed dial just in case something happens…

“Make sure that you’re reaching out to your law enforcement and say, on and around Election Day, what is our plan?” he said. “Do you have an emergency contact list? Do you have your police department, your sheriff, whoever, on speed dial ready to get them to respond to any kind of threat?”

Election Day is now just a little over two weeks away, and emotions are running really high.

Most Democrats fully expect Joe Biden to win, and many of them are still anticipating a landslide.

Of course most Republicans believe that the national polls are completely wrong again and that President Trump will ultimately emerge victorious.

In the end, one side will be proven wrong and the disappointment that they will feel will be very, very bitter.

We all remember the rioting that we witnessed earlier this year, and many believe that what is ahead could be far, far worse.

In 2020, gun sales have soared to levels that we have never seen before, and many Americans find themselves purchasing guns for the very first time. One of those first time buyers is a 44-year-old single mother named Andreyah Garland…

Andreyah Garland, a 44-year-old single mother of three daughters, bought a shotgun in May for protection in the quaint middle-class town of Fishkill, New York. She joined a new and fast-growing local gun club to learn how to shoot.

According to Reuters, a “potentially contested election that many fear could spark violence” played a role in her decision to purchase a firearm…

Like legions of other first-time buyers who are contributing to record sales for the U.S. gun industry this year, Garland’s decision to take up arms is driven in part by disturbing news about the coronavirus pandemic, social unrest over police killings of Black people and a potentially contested election that many fear could spark violence.

“With everything going on around us,” she said, “you see a need.”

If you could go back 50 years ago and tell Americans what conditions would be like in 2020, most of them would not believe you.

Our society is literally melting down right in front of our eyes, and I don’t think that anyone is going to be able to stop it from happening.

Of course this election will come and go, but the social instability that we are witnessing will remain, and at this point everyone should be able to see that America is heading into a very dark future.

Bug out? They need to prepare and organize to fight the leftists not run like punks. I say bring it on all you sorry damn leftists terrorists. Patriots only run to out flank leftist terrorists. One full mag of 5.56 can stop a riot.

The leftist democraps have a stranglehold on big city politics. You will never get them out.

Factor in the rampant crime, gangs, congestion, extremely high taxes, extremely high mortages / rent, draconian regulations on everything you do and the fact that you can't be self sufficient; who in their right mind would want to live in any metro area. I've spent time and lived in several large cities. Now, I wouldn't live there if you if you paid me a fortune. I don't blame folks for getting out. Let the idiots have it and good riddance.

I think it's hilarious when New York mayor deBlasio and Gov. Cuomo promise to raise taxes on the wealthy - and in the next sentence, begs them to come back. R-I-G-H-T.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Gunmaker Kimber is joining the exodus. Founded in Yonkers in 1979, it's moving to Alabama.

Onward and upward,
airforce

When the first civil war was fought, one of the deficits of the Confederacy was the ability to manufacture weapons. Having to depend on overseas sources left us at a severe disadvantage. The last 10 years have seen an exodus of firearm and firearm accessory manufacturers packing up and heading south. This article from 2014 was just the beginning. I hope more move out of the oppressive liberal enclaves to more liberty minded states.

RURAL FOLK: BEWARE THE MASS URBAN EXODUS

Posted by Matt Bracken | Oct 31, 2020 |

I would encourage all American Partisan readers to study the two Daily Mail articles linked below very carefully. The millions who are fleeing Paris, and the millions who are preparing to flee London, do not all have standing invitations from rural cousins to come out and stay a while. They have no plan other than “get to the country, then figure something out.” This tweet from the Daily Mail article gives you one idea of an evacuation plan: “Take over a mansion.”

Now, in the American context, it might not be new and more draconian Covid-19 lockdowns that spurs a rash of mass exoduses from our major cities, it might be civil disorder, looting, riots and widespread arson. In any event, rural folks had better start thinking about ways to stop a flood of angry, frightened, hungry and dehydrated city dwellers who might be arriving in their zip-code on short notice.

I’m reminded of a Hurricane Katrina story that was once well known on Arfcom. A fellow in northern Louisiana had told a few prepper friends that they could park their RVs on his small farm. So far so good, but friends told friends, the address was passed around, and soon every square foot of the tract was covered in RVs and tents. It wasn’t long before a power shift occurred, and a “committee” of RV-dwelling perfect strangers marched to the house to demand access to the facilities. The owner of the land was no longer calling the shots, simply by weight of numbers.

Have a plan to keep this from happening in your AO, even if it means temporarily blocking bridges or other choke points.

Escape from Paris: City is gridlocked as tens of thousands flee, stations are packed, violent protests break out and shelves are stripped ahead of month-long lockdown that BANS travel

Thousands of Parisians caused massive traffic jams as they tried to flee the French capital for the country
Huge numbers of locals attempted a mass exodus in a bid to avoid the start of the second national lockdown
Many were enjoying their final night of freedom in France ahead of new lockdown restrictions from Friday
Draconian measures will see people needing documents to show their reasonable excuse for leaving home
Europe has seen rising infections, with France recording 47,637 new infections in 24 hours and 235 deaths

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...Paris-ahead-new-month-long-lockdown.html

Brits plot their escape to the countryside: Fears mass exodus from Paris will be repeated in London as Boris prepares to announce second lockdown

Cabinet source told Mail the return to lockdown will be announced next week
Social media users have claimed they will flee London under the restrictions
Parisians jammed roads out of the city as France went into lockdown on Friday

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...away-rural-areas-second-UK-lockdown.html

No need to block bridges or roads just confront them with a 12 gauge shotgun while you have sniper over watch off to both sides of you with scoped battle rifles and ask who wants to die first if they don't leave right now.

We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities
We will all feel the pain, and the suffering will be off the charts

By Michael Snyder | Economic Collapse Monday, March 01, 2021

Americans fled the big cities “in droves” in 2020, and one recent survey discovered that even more Americans are planning to move in 2021.

The corporate media is attempting to frame this mass exodus as a temporary phenomenon, but there is nothing temporary about it.

Millions upon millions of people can see that our society is literally melting down all around us, and they want to get somewhere safe while they still can.

In recent weeks, I have written articles about the specific problems that we are witnessing in Chicago and San Francisco, but the truth is that virtually all of our major cities are coming apart at the seams, and this is motivating more people than ever to seek greener pastures.

With so many Americans looking to move, this has pushed up home prices in desirable suburban and rural areas to insane heights.

In fact, in some parts of the country it is difficult to find a decent home for sale at all. In Bozeman, Montana one man has actually resorted to walking around with a cardboard sign asking for someone to sell him a house…

“I’m just asking for someone to sell us a home. My sign says please sell me a home,” said Sean Hawksford, a Bozeman resident.

You may have seen Hawksford strolling down Main Street with a cardboard sign, asking for leads on a house for sale.

This is not a homeless man that we are talking about.

Sean Hawksford is a family man that owns a successful business, and he has been approved for a mortgage.

He just can’t find a house to buy.

According to Hawksford, he has made 18 offers over the past 6 months, but none of them have been accepted…

“It’s been about 6 months, we’ve made I think 18 offers now on different properties and haven’t had one accepted yet,” said Hawksford.

“It’s been a little bit tough with them, and all of my first-time homebuyers to be honest with you,” said Jeff Bent, the Hawksfords’ realtor in Bozeman.

I warned that this would happen.

I warned that when things started to get crazy many Americans wouldn’t be able to move because there would be a crushing amount of demand for available housing as hordes of Americans suddenly sought to relocate. NBC News has used the term “droves” to describe the mass exodus that we witnessed last year…

Americans fled big cities in droves to escape the coronavirus pandemic — and many of them are staying, permanently or indefinitely. But escape means something different depending on whom you ask.

We have never seen anything like this before in U.S. history. According to the Pew Research Center, about one-fifth of all Americans either moved or know someone who moved in 2020…

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center while the pandemic was in full swing in June 2020 found that approximately a fifth of Americans moved or know someone who moved as a result of COVID-19. The reasons they gave for people moving were extremely varied — ranging from being called into active military duty to college housing being closed down to, of course, sudden financial constraints.

The corporate media keeps trying to blame COVID for the mass migration, but now the COVID pandemic is fading and Americans are still moving in large numbers.

In fact, one recent survey actually found that “20% more people are planning to move in 2021 than moved in 2020”.

If I was currently living in a major city on the east or west coast, I would be highly motivated to move too.

For example, just check out what is happening in Los Angeles…

Los Angeles, the state’s largest city and arguably the most populous now in the United States, has become a byword for violent crime and especially the stronghold of the enormous, ultraviolent and rapidly growing MS 13 organization, routinely mislabeled as a mere “gang” in media reports. MS 13 has up to 50,000 members worldwide of whom at least 10,000, officially, and probably twice as many according to the private assessments of many police officers are in LA.

Jeremiah Babe recently went into the wealthy areas of downtown Los Angeles, and the footage that he captured was mind blowing.

L.A. has never looked like this, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

Of course many would argue that San Francisco is in even worse shape…

San Francisco – America’s “anything goes” city – is in even worse shape. Its most famous, historically popular and beautiful stylish locations are now swamped with aggressive, unsanitary street people who openly urinate and defecate in the streets. Public services, long superb, are now appalling.

For much more on the tragedy that is playing out in that once beautiful city, please see my previous article entitled “The Reason Why A Lot Of People Are Leaving San Francisco Might Surprise You”.

Of course it isn’t just individuals that are moving. In recent months we have seen large numbers of businesses choose to relocate. At one point, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made headlines all over the globe when even he decided that it was time to leave California for good…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has left California and is now a resident of Texas.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Musk said that the move made sense, amid plans underway for a new Tesla factory in the Austin area.

I certainly can’t blame him.

What rational person would choose California over Texas at this point?

On the east coast, hordes of businesses have left New York as well. If you can believe it, even the New York Stock Exchange is thinking of leaving…

The head of the world’s largest financial market, Stacey Cunningham, floated the idea of leaving New York in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal to avoid taxes.

When people think of Florida, they often picture restaurants and shopping, the kind of business you do on vacation. But more and more, people are choosing to move down to the sunshine state because there’s no income tax, and the cost of living is low.

Perhaps they will need to rename it “the Florida Stock Exchange” if they actually pull the trigger on such a move.

Sadly, when things get really bad in this nation, no part of the country will be fully immune.

We will all feel the pain, and the suffering will be off the charts.

But if you do feel motivated to relocate, I would do it as soon as possible, because later this year global events will start accelerating at a very rapid pace.

Ever get the feeling Trump was building that wall in the wrong place?

Onward and upward,
airforce

You werent supposed to publish that brother. It was a secret. You know let the new neighbors get settled before you go asking to borrow stuff!!! LOLOLOL