Category: Retreat Locales

Preparedness While on Business Travel–What to Pack, by LP

If you’re like me, there are times when you have to leave almost all your preparedness stuff behind as you journey by air to strange, far-off places on behalf of your employer. No access to your well-stocked SUV. You are alone, and home is hundreds if not thousands of miles away. But disaster will not be consulting your personal travel itinerary before it strikes. How best should you prepare? Let’s first discuss the objective, as it determines the approach. For most of us, we leave family, friends, and a (more-or-less) well-stocked homestead behind. This means Your primary objective is to …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Isolation, Neighbors, Security and the Golden Rule This week we’ll look into some characteristics of retreat shopping that normally won’t become an issue until you have actually spent time “in theater” and have narrowed your search to several possible retreat properties to purchase. After taking the time to look at the properties available through SurvivalRealty.com and/or working with an experienced local agent in your selected retreat region, you should eventually work your list up to perhaps a half dozen prospective retreat properties that are on the market. . Then it is time to whittle that list down, by selecting the …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Urbanites on a Tight Budget

Jim: I just finished reading “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”, and it was great. It was very enjoyable and also worthwhile which is a rare combination in fictional literature these days. While considering my own situation I had some thoughts which might benefit other people or at least be food for thought. I am a college student and with that comes little expendable income and living in a relatively small space in a relatively large town. in short just about the worst situation possible from a preparedness standpoint. Like many readers I am not in a place where buying 40 …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Today we are featuring Northwest Arkansas. One of our readers Jaina B. highly recommended our newest SurvivalBlog Realtor, Jeff Allen. Congratulations Jeff! Some of his listings may soon be featured on SurvivalRealty.com. The following is a review of the area written by Mr. Allen: Welcome to Northwest Arkansas! The market in Northwest Arkansas is surviving the downturn very well. Land prices in rural areas are holding very steady on the very few sales that are taking place. The housing market has been overbuilt and we have 8-10 months of inventory to work through before things can look more “optimistic.” I …


New Zealand’s South Island Readies for “the Big One”, by SurvivalistSam

The whole South Island has been told to prepare for a massive earthquake in the near future. This is due to the Alpine Fault Line which is where the Australasian and Pacific plates meet on the West Coast of the South Island. The boundary between these two plates is locked and the pressure building up needs to be released. A release of such pressure would result in an earthquake about the size of a number 8 on the Mercalli Intensity scale. Such a earthquake would last for minutes, not seconds. Canterbury University Associate Professor Tim Davies was quoted at a …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

This week in our weekly review of Survival Real Estate, I’d like to mention that we are in need of your help. We need you, the SurvivalBlog supporter that lives in any retreat locale in the world, to refer us to your local agent that understands what survival real estate shoppers are looking for. We have North Idaho and Northwest Montana covered but we need to locate and contact trusted agents elsewhere in the US and world-wide, so they may be featured in the weekly reviews in SurvivalBlog, and on our spin-off site: SurvivalRealty.com. If you have a friend or …


The Demise of the US Dollar–The Handwriting is on the Wall

The major news outlets have finally started shouting about the collapsing value of the dollar and the bull market in precious metals. (Looking at the charts, $820 per ounce seems to be the new floor for spot gold.) Just as I predicted, it was a move by China that precipitated the latest drop in the dollar. Thanks, BTW, to the five readers that all sent that link. I should mention that several SurvivalBlog readers mentioned that article. Reader Mike the Blacksmith noted: “The remarks by Cheng on world currency status is the most important point in this article.” The currency …


Two Letters Re: Colville, Washington as a Retreat Locale

JWR: Important consideration on Colville. It is near a very large Indian Reservation (Colville Tribe) and while there is a considerable amount of private property within it’s boundary, you have no hunting rights there. The First People are friendly, but distrustful of outsiders and in a SHTF scenario, would likely view you and yours as fair game. Unless you are a tribal member, buy outside the reservation. I was near to closing a deal on a very nice property [inside the reservation] when another agent took me aside. – EAG Hello Jim, I have been reading your daily letters, comments …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Today we will be reviewing Colville, Washington as a possible retreat location. The city of Colville (population 5,000) is located about an hour and a half drive north of Spokane Washington (Pop. 200,000) and lies within Stevens County (Pop. 45,000). From many personal visits to the city and surrounding towns during my retreat search I can say that the Colville and surrounding area came a close second to our current locale of Northern Idaho. In 1811, the valley was explored by a man working for a fur trading company working the Columbia River. During the first year of operation nearly …


Letter Re: Advice on Resources for Canadian SurvivalBlog Readers?

Hello Jim, I am wondering if there is anyone here in Canada doing the great work that you are doing? I have just introduced my husband to the idea of getting prepared. I don’t know if I’ve seen one too many movies or if I have a premonition, but I would like to devise a plan sooner rather than later. I am also looking for a place to escape to, if we (probably) have to get out of our area (which is just on Lake Ontario ). We are thinking that we should go north. I live less than 30 …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Thanks to all of you for your patience as I dealt with some important family issues, several visiting SurvivalBlog real estate clients, and the opening of Idaho’s Deer and Elk season, all in the past two weeks. Sometimes there is no such thing as the slower-paced life at a higher altitude! Well the financial news these days just keeps getting darker and for those of you who are actively searching for your retreat, just press on, you’ll make it. As we get back into reviewing actual retreat locales (next week) it’s important to have a solid standard operating procedure (SOP). …


Are Your Neighbors Contrapreneurs?

The American newspapers are presently full of stories about declining suburban home values and the galloping foreclosure rates, mainly in the coastal markets. (The erstwhile “hot” real estate markets have turned bitter cold.) As more and more foreclosures get dumped onto an already over-saturated “buyers market”, there is a strong likelihood that prices will spiral downward. Anyone that bought a “spec” house is now trying to get rid of it, even if means taking a loss. The downward pressure on house prices is likely to continue for several years in the coastal areas, and in few inland markets like Phoenix …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Run and Hide, Walk and Talk I hear it all the time from clients, the magical question of “where can I buy a property that will allow me to hide-away from it all and not be noticed”. My answer is simple. If you want to really ‘hide’ from the powers that may or may not be, live in the biggest city you can find in a flat across from the nearest public transportation system, period. If you think that moving to a small town will give you that wanted anonymity, you’re wrong. In a small rural town and setting most …


Letter Re: Advice on Survival Retreats and Bug Out Vehicles

Hello, I have been reading your blog and I find it very useful in many ways. I have a couple of questions for you: 1) For a secure compound or retreat would a multi family area (with like-minded people of course) be something useful? And if so, how would you bring it to the attention of members that would be willing to invest in something like this? [JWR’s replies are in-line, in bold.] Yes, a multi-family retreat can be viable, but only if there are clearly delineated rights and responsibilities. These should spelled out formally–either contractually or covenantally–lest there be …


Letter Re: “ZIPSkinny”–A Tool for Gathering Intelligence on Potential Retreat Locales

Greetings Jim, Here is a link for gathering statistical intelligence on an area one may want to relocate to for a retreat or to use to plot an escape route. This site gives a quick thumbnail reference of demographics, economic and social indicators etc. for further research or to locate areas to avoid that you may not be familiar with. Plug in the ZIP code for the area of interest and you will get information on the area as well as adjacent area ZIP codes along with an additional tool to compare up to twenty other ZIP codes of your …