I talked to a Realtor friend the other day and he told me that if there was one thing the pandemic taught a lot of companies in the cities, it was that there was no longer a need to maintain an expensive office or a company headquarters because people have proven they can still do their jobs from a distance. The workers did it because they had to during the plague and now with things loosening up, they want the long-distance working experience to continue. A lot of companies are agreeing to this. It remains to be seen how it will work out in the long run but so far, there are not that many problems and yes, it’s not for every business.
The reason this Realtor chimed in was it has increased demand for homes in this area. Think about it, if you had two homes and one was for work and one was for pleasure and you could consolidate to one, wouldn’t you? And especially if the one was on a lake or on property far removed from the madding crowd of the urban area. People who have retired and no longer have that work obligation have been escaping their big city homes for the woods, since time immemorial, so the desire has always been there.
What this will do for this area in demand for services like health care and schools, with the added population growth, remains to be seen. Will it just bring big city problems to the wilderness? Then, too, what will it do for the big cities that need the tax money from companies and their workers to operate. This will also have an impact. Should be interesting.
Mike Holst
Crosslake
The Trust Project
