This week: Western North Carolina, and Part 2 of our introduction to New
Zealand.
The first section was written by Ron Thompson, a real estate agent in Burnsville,
North Carolina, in response to our request for some background on Yancey
County, North Carolina.
Western North Carolina and Yancey County are unique in many ways:
We have a principally conservative population of self sufficient souls that
live here year round.
1. Our location enjoys the benefits of 2,500 to 6,000 foot elevations. Among
them are spectacular mountain scenery, abundant water supplies from rivers
and streams, fertile river valleys, and moderate climate (It rarely
exceeds 80 or goes below 0).
2. We have an influx of summer residents and tourists providing an excellent
source of income for those wise enough to capitalize on them (crafts, home
grown vegetables, honey, firewood, etc).
3. We have limited “big city” luxuries such as shopping malls.
But, they are within reasonable driving distances. (Asheville is 37 miles [from
Burnsville].)
4. We do have grocery stores, a movie theater and a Summer Playhouse and a
fine public golf course.
5. We are comfortably out of reach of the more populated areas of North Carolina
south and east of us such as Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh/Durham and Chapel
Hill, yet close enough for a weekend visit should you need a reality check
as to why you left the big city.
6. We do not have burdensome zoning.
Market conditions in our area have seen moderate price reductions due to the
overall real estate market conditions. It should be noted that our prices are
normally lower than other areas of the Southeast. Raw land starts as low as
$10,000 an acre and increases based on features such as water frontage, amount
of flat tillable land, etc. Prices are not as low as they used to be and all
price trends are upward despite the recent price dip.
Self Sufficiency or Semi-Self-Sufficiency is possible here for a number of
reasons. Among them are:
1. The locals are of Scotch /Irish heritage and maintain the customs of growing
their own produce, repairing their own possessions and bartering for goods
they need (weekend side-of-the-road Flea Markets and Produce Stands abound).
2. We have an abundance of natural resources:
Clear mountain water for drinking.
Streams for water power.
Abundant sun for gardens and solar power.
Mountain breezes for wind power.
Fertile soil for growing your own produce. (This was once a major apple producing
area.)
Bear, Deer, Rabbits, Squirrel, Grouse and Turkey can be harvested.
Tactical Considerations:
During the American Civil War, General Sherman said of the mountains of Western
North Carolina “Only a fool would lead an army into those mountains”.
The heavily wooded mountains, the many caves, old woods roads and unmarked trails
and coves (you may call them small valleys), offer concealment and protection.
The local residents of our area are by and large, a private people. Friendly,
if their friendship is cultivated, they tend to stick together in small church
community groups. You will be welcomed in their church and community but your
privacy will be respected. They don’t care for trespassers and they generally
don’t trespass. Chasing a bear in season may be an exception.
We are at least four hours or more away from the major population areas of the
South such as Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Greensboro, North
Carolina; and Raleigh, North Carolina. With interstate gridlock during an emergency,
it is
unlikely
that
anyone
seeking
haven here would be able to reach us on one tank of gas.
We have many properties that will provide an ideal location for survival-minded
people. These vary from small one family parcels to sizeable pieces that will
provide suitable conditions for a group of like minded families.
We will be pleased to be your search agent for property in the mountains of Western
North Carolina.
Ron or Julia Thompson
June Jerome Realty
P.O. Box 221
Burnsville, NC 28714 Ph: 828-682-4900
New Zealand (Part 2)
A special thanks to those of you who wrote in concerning Part 1 of New Zealand.
Obviously, there is a lot more to choosing this locale as a retreat area then
meets the eye and I appreciate the feedback.
To recap the cons of
immigrating to New Zealand: It is going to be a hard sell at best as the requirements
to become a citizen are very
strict. (The U.S. should
take some lessons from New Zealand), as they should be, that’s most likely
one of the main reasons the country has such a low crime rate, they screen
their
immigrants
and are very selective on who they let in. Mostly, you’ll need to bring
a ‘value’ with you, be it a business or a lot of money, preferably both, near as I can tell.
Self-defense is frowned upon, at least with a firearm. I spoke with a local
realtor there who stated that you may only use the same force that an attacker
uses to
stop an attack. Meaning, if the perp has
a knife you cannot use a gun, you must use a similar level of force. Whether
this is true or not I don’t
know but it sounds about right given the information that Craig D. posted on
the blog
this week. Importation of your great firearms collection will be almost impossible
if it consists of anything in the black rifle arena. A big no-no in my book.
The overall picture now becomes clear, New Zealand firearms laws are a twisted
mix of U.S. / British and U.N. scripts. This is a country where you can own
a suppressed
semi-auto AR-15 but you can never shoot it except at a certified range, never
use it for self defense, never travel with it except in a secure box and unloaded
(to the range only) and you must store it in a government approved ‘bunker
safe’ in
your home. I guess Craig D. was right, the great Nanny State is alive and well
in New Zealand. The good news is you’ll probably never need your guns
there if they keep a tight lid on the immigration flow.
Okay, rant over. Let’s try and see what positive things New Zealand
has to offer.
New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere and the air masses from the southern
hemisphere and the northern hemispheres don’t mix. That is a huge advantage
in the event of a nuclear exchange. Nearly all of the envisioned targets are
in the northern hemisphere.
It has a very low crime rate. Many of the other touted offshore retreat locales--particularly
in Central and South America have high crime rates, and in some locales like
Honduras, ex-pats are specifically targeted for
home invasion robberies. The drug gangs have discovered that is where the good
stuff is: The Gringo's house. So, by comparison, the low crime
rate
in
New
Zealand is a big plus.
New Zealand is an English speaking country, so there is no language barrier.
It also means that ex-pats blend in fairly well and can be more readily assimilated
into the culture. Even then it would take at least a full generation to be
considered a "local" but at least there isn't the
same inherent distrust that is prevalent isn many nations that speak other
languages.
Overall, after feedback from several readers I must say that New Zealand get’s
a 65 out of 100 as far as a retreat locale. The saving graces that brought
the
score up substantially, were the low crime rate, the variety of terrain/micro-climates
between the islands, the immigration laws (allowing only productive folks to
come)
and the
remote location of the country from the rest of the world.
We are looking for suggestions for next weeks update so if you have a favorite
locale or region please e-mail us and
suggest one CONUS area
and one International area and we’ll get to work on it for next Friday! - T.S.
