Where are the Future Prime Properties?
It’s hard to believe that over two years have passed since I started searching for the new prime properties of the future. It’s true! I was researching possible upcoming prime properties due to a deep interest I had in identifying climate change opportunities.
Yep! I said climate change OPPORTUNITIES and I meant it in a very specific way.
As more and more regions become inhospitable, the cost of insuring some of the current prime properties will likely be too expensive. That in turn will produce new regions that are suddenly more desirable and redefine what constitutes prime property.
Much of my research was gleaned from climate studies out of Purdue and University of Michigan. Why? Because I soon discovered that my current location in northeastern Indiana could possibly become a future climate refuge to a greater or lesser degree. Furthermore, the farther north I pushed, the more desirable property would become.
In fact, anything above the 45th parallel would most likely become the new prime properties of the future.
Lo and behold, much to my surprise, I found myself exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where more than one report that I’d read indicated that in the US this region, strategically placed above the 45th parallel, offered another outstanding benefit.
Twenty percent of the ENTIRE WORLD’S fresh water is located in the region.
Let me repeat that. Twenty percent of the ENTIRE WORLD’S fresh water is located in the Upper Peninsula. I was intrigued. So next, I began to explore the possibilities of purchasing land. I was doubly lucky because my current residence was a mere five hour drive to the region. How did I get to be so fortunate?
I shifted my research to land in the UP.
In 2020, I discovered a piece of property in Chippewa County that met my qualifications and fit into my budget. This was my first endeavor to buy raw land. It was at once exciting and a tad scary. However, barely six months after my initial purchase, I bought a second piece of property adjoining my first purchase. I often refer to my efforts to identify future prime locations as my COVID PROJECT since searching for and buying my first properties took place during the pandemic.
I wasn’t just “holed up” in self-imposed social isolation. I was busy doing what I love to do. Figuring things out!
People were intrigued with my strategies, my own family included. To my surprise, I was soon rewarded. The price of my initial purchase has more than doubled in a little over a year.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m still a novice at this business of buying land that could become the new prime property of the future. I may not even live long enough to see my speculations come to full fruition. However, I sense that as a retiree with limited resources, I got in at just the right time.
I suspect that one day when my granddaughter is grown and inherits the property that she’s going to find herself in a very nice position to either build a house where more and more people would like to live or sell the property for a hefty price. That’s the reason I bought it in the first, for my granddaughter and my two grown children.
There are still many unknowns.
But while we sit back and observe Mother Nature as she relentlessly delivers one climate catastrophe after another, clearly, things are heating up. More and more properties are truly becoming liabilities, too expensive to insure. More and more cities are living with infrastructures designed for a different climate model and thus hopelessly inadequate. And, more and more regions are beginning to view water as the new gold.
As a tree-hugging-71-year-old-hippie woman, I’ve surprised even myself.
From start to finish the COVID PROJECT was solely mine. I feel kind of smug overall. I don’t think there’s any way that I’ll lose either. Land is a precious commodity no matter how you look at it. And banks remain high on my list of predators when it comes to threatening my sense of security. I tell everyone now that I literally buried my money in the ground like any good prepper would do.
This wasn’t the first time that I’ve followed my intuition either and it paid off.
There was a time, however, when old women didn’t get much say about much of anything. My mom, grandma, and mother-in-law would have never considered such a project. They didn’t have any money of their own.
I’m pretty damn happy to say, however, that old women can and do have great ideas, personal interests beyond husbands and children, and amazing foresight.
I’m so happy that I was born in a time period when women can earn their own money and choose to invest it however they please. I went looking for the new prime properties of the future and even though some might scoff at my reasons for doing so, I was able to conduct business regardless. I think my research paid off, too.
I’m ready for my next project.
Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
