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Some young professionals want a back-up plan in case of climate catastrophe.
- Millennials are investing in real estate in rural places such as parts of Vermont, Oregon, and New York's Catskill Mountains, the New York Times reported.
- These young professionals are buying up land as a backup plan in case a climate change disaster devastates their urban homes.
- They're building self-sufficient homes and counting on their properties tripling in value when others follow in their footsteps and move northward.
Some city-dwelling millennials are investing in property in rural locations for an ominous reason: In case their urban homes are ravaged by climate change-related disasters.
They're buying up land in places like Vermont, Oregon, and New York's Catskill Mountains, in hopes of having a refuge if (or rather when, in their view) the coastal cities where they live are overwhelmed by rising sea levels and extreme, destructive weather as a result of climate change, the New York Times reported.
These young professionals are building homes to be self-sufficient and sustainable, and some are betting that the land they buy now will grow astronomically in value in the future.
Mark Dalski, a 33-year-old who lives in Greenwich, Connecticut and is an owner of a company that builds green roofs in nearby New York City, told the Times he bought four acres of land in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. He's building a small home there that will have its own well, power lines, septic system, and a vegetable garden.
If his home city of Greenwich is ever rendered uninhabitable, "I'll have a safe space," Dalski told the Times.
Read more: This 15-story underground doomsday shelter for the 1% has luxury homes, guns, and armored trucks
Buying real estate in remote areas as a backup plan in case of an apocalyptic catastrophe isn't a new idea, but it seems to be becoming more mainstream. Silicon Valley's ultra-wealthy have been buying up underground doomsday bunkers in New Zealand that cost up to $8 million, Business Insider previously reported. Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel bought a $4.8 million home there in 2011 and recently had a panic room installed.
And a group in Kansas is building an elaborate doomsday shelter - complete with a gym, indoor dog park, and climbing wall - that will cost $20 million to build and could support a dozen families.
Dalski is confident that his land in the Catskills could make him money in the future when everyone else follows in his footsteps.
If "I can pick up a few acres, it is going to triple in value," Dalski told the Times. "In 100 years' time, it will be worth something. People are going to have to move north at some point."