Fed-up residents fleeing dystopian California are buying homes in safer states with open rural spaces that come with underground doomsday-style bunkers stockpiled with weapons and ammo for security.
Relocation consultant and former US Marine Todd Savage told the California Post 80 per cent of his clients are from the Golden State as they seek to escape “high taxes, high crime, low freedom and blue-haired liberals.”
The 55-year-old said: “They are tired of it, so they are voting with their feet. My clients want to raise children in a city where people don’t get kidnapped and murdered, with drugs and all kinds of lawlessness. They say let’s go somewhere where we’re treated as a citizen and not a subject.
“They want to take back control of their lives. Folks on the left are tired of it as well which is very surprising. People just want to be free.”
He cited a recent “well to do” newly married California couple; online business owners seeking a safer place to live and raise a family who purchased 20 acres with chickens, goats and cows in Idaho.
A “nice home” in northern Idaho and northwest Montana on ten to 20 acres can cost from $750,000 to $1.25 million, says Savage — a steep discount compared to eye-popping property prices in California.
One of his companies, Strategic Relocation, offers customers “disruptive real estate in dangerous times.”
He added: “My clients move out of the city for a safe place to live. They’ll build an off grid house with a bunker, guns and ammo on a sustainable farmstead.”
While his client base would previously skew towards people “ready to retire and move from a blue state to a red state,” today 70 per cent are aged in their 30s to 50s.
The previously most quoted reason why residents fled California used to be the stratospheric taxes, says Savage – but “rampant” crime is now the biggest turn off.
“And they can’t defend themselves in California,” said Savage, who also runs Survival Realty. “You can’t necessarily carry a gun everywhere you need to. It’s not a stand your ground state.
“If you get into a self-defense scenario and unfortunately have to shoot your attacker, they want to prosecute the victim. It’s insane.”
Father-of-five Savage decamped from the Bay Area to Idaho in 2006 and cited such locations as Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry in the northern part of the Gem State as desirable.
He described the area as “like Lake Tahoe without the liberals.”
He continued: “We’ve got two giant lakes. We have a world-class ski mountain. And we have freedom. I live in a county where I can build a house without a building permit.
“Everybody gets along. People respect each other up here.”
Demand for a remote lifestyle has also increased since the Iran war started in February. “Clients no longer trust any part of the government any more,” Savage said.
“They want that freedom that we used to have back in the 40s and 50s. They really just want to raise their families how they see fit and live a good life and you really can’t do that any more in California. It’s a nanny state.”
Another benefit of the homestead lifestyle is that clients can grow their own food “because of what’s happening to the food supply.”
Savage’s strongest criticism was aimed at the state where he previously lived and its sprawling largest city.
“They spent $24 billion on the homeless crisis in the last few years in California and it’s not worked,” he said. “You could build a city and give everyone a tiny house for that amount.”
And of the City of Angels he proclaimed: “I can’t take my kids and walk in downtown L.A. without worrying about getting murdered or kidnapped or shot.”
