Informative read from CNN Business. People are fleeing the large cities for a number of reasons. They not only include the typical taxes, weather, cost of living etc. but also political environment and how many don’t feel safe any longer in large urban areas.
She said buyers coming to Idaho were looking to get away from changes in taxes, local ordinances or the curriculum taught in schools — and they were seeking more safety, she said.
“Their perception was that it wasn’t safe to walk their streets, that things had changed and they weren’t going back,” she said.
Rick Halstead, who also works in the aviation industry in Seattle, and his wife Julie also left Seattle for Idaho as a result of the pandemic, protests and what he described as a steady decline in their quality of life.
“The pendulum of the political environment really swung in the past 10 years,” Halstead said. “There were more and more protests, which would snarl traffic. Opioid problems. Homelessness. Crime. It was encroaching where we lived.”
Thanks to the pandemic forcing those who can work at home to do so, these people are choosing to have that home be located elsewhere. The trend isn’t expected to stop even when the pandemic has passed. Until these cities can once again provide an environment where people feel safe they’ll continue to lose residents.
Pot Full of Frogs 