I don't know if this means anything or not but I have noticed that I am getting a lot of inquiries about buying and selling y2k retreat property from very upscale people on my website (http://www.y2ksurvive.com). Last fall my site traffic was mostly those of more modest means but this has changed recently.

Upscale people generally have more sources of accurate inside information than the rest of us. Do they know something we don't know? Anyone have any light to shine on this?

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), February 23, 1999

Answers

Could you define elite a little more. In what price range in real estate are they looking? Do they own large businesses? Are the y2k professionals like programmers or engineers?

-- Tomcat (tomcat@tampabay.rr.com), February 23, 1999.

Just a thought, but they could be buying them as an investment, to sell them off later in the year if the price of rural property skyrockets.

-- (someone@somewhere.com), February 23, 1999.

Tomcat: I already know that the programmers are planning to fade away next fall because a number of them have told me so in e-mails to my website. They know it's all going down hard and the smart ones have prepared a rural hideout. My reference was to people who are involved with property that sells for $250,000 and up. For example, today I put up an ad for someone who is selling an underground luxury home built in a decommissioned Atlas missile silo. The price is $2,300,000.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), February 23, 1999.

I live in a fairly rural area and I saw my real estate agent the other day. She said she sold $4 million in property last year and she is on the same track and will exceed that. I asked her who she was selling property to, and she said people who have lots of extra cash that they made from the stock market and who have large equity in their home and paying cash for property here. She's also getting lots of people wanting Y2K property and second home buyers.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 23, 1999.

Cody we live in a smaller town between Kansas City and Oklahoma. We recent;y purchased acreage with two ponds five miles out of town. Our real estate agent told me after we closed on the property that she had received inquires from Kansas City and also Oklahoma. She wished that she had a dozen more listings like it.

-- Ed (ed@lizardranch.com), February 23, 1999.

Ed,do you need an extra hand, or two on that acreage? Got my own stuff.

-- sam (we're@theend.com), February 24, 1999.