For the past five years, Idaho has been the fastest growing state in the U.S. – possibly because of real estate marketing campaigns targeted at conservative homebuyers.
At least three real estate groups are appealing to conservatives and those who are part of the “American Redoubt” movement. Rural properties in Idaho and other states feature prominently, as well as bunkers and “defensible” real estate.
“In the days of old, men would lead, women would nurture, and children would thrive exploring the world around them,” says the narrator in an advertisement by Flee the City, a real estate consortium based in Sandpoint, Idaho. “Today, many are trapped in a cycle of mundane. Day in and day out, as the walls close in around them.”
Flee the City invites people who are financially qualified, ready to purchase a home in 90 to 120 days and have a “desire to live free anywhere in rural America,” to complete a 15 to 30-minute call about potentially buying real estate. It does not elaborate on what “financially qualified” means.
“Owning rural property anywhere in the United States gives you the freedom to be you. Break free of the confines of the sanctuary cities and choose abundance,” said the Flee the City website. “Build a garden, grow your own organic food, start a family, homeschool your children and teach them the ways of our founding fathers while building a legacy for your family for generations.”
With a client base “made up of folks from all walks of life,” Flee the City said the “common bond” of its customers is a “deep respect and reverence for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, ultimately providing for a common defense from tyranny.”
According to the Associated Press, Todd Savage’s Black Rifle Real Estate firm is one of four that are part of Flee the City. In an email exchange with the AP, he said business is booming, thanks to “insane” left wing politics.
Indeed, the Idaho real estate market grew 2.9 percent in 2021. Sandpoint – a four-season resort town along Lake Pend Oreille – had 7,300 residents in the 2010 census. By 2020, it grew 21 percent to 8,900.
Last year, the Montana Free Press also reported an email exchange with Savage.
Savage called himself a “strategic relocation consultant” who helps people interested in moving to the “American Redoubt,” according to the outlet. Survival Realty, another site that markets real estate to conservative buyers, said that James Wesley, Rawles launched the American Redoubt movement in 2011 to encourage people “who felt alienated by progressive agendas in other states to relocate to the inland Northwest.”
“I concur that Pastor Chuck Baldwin was right when he ‘voted with his feet’ and moved his family from Florida to Montana,” said Rawles in a 2011 post on his website SurvivalBlog.com.
Baldwin – a pastor and founder of the Liberty Fellowship – has been identified as an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“In recent rants, he’s raged against any form of gun control and warned darkly of an imminent and violent confrontation with government forces,” said the SPLC.
“People will brand me as a religious separatist. So be it. I am a separatist, but on religious lines, not racial ones,” said Rawles, according to the Montana Free Press. “I have made it abundantly clear throughout the course of my writings that I am an anti-racist. Christians of all races are welcome to be my neighbors.”
While Rawles was inspired by Baldwin, Savage was inspired by Rawles.
“In 2003, Savage experienced a fateful meeting,” with him, according to The Sandpoint Reader. Rawles encouraged Savage to move his family out of California.
In addition to Idaho, Californians are moving to Montana “in droves,” according to SFGate.
“We are eternally thankful to Mr. Rawles for his guidance and support making out move here,” Savage told the Reader.
Both the Flee the City and Survival Realty websites feature bunkers, safe rooms and other security features as selling points.
According to Flee the City, the group has partnered with Secure Life Homes for client access to an “architect that understands sustainable homes design with integrated ballistic and defensive capabilities.”
As of Tuesday, the Survival Realty site featured an Idaho home with a shooting range.
“As our society fragments further, the imperative to find a like-minded community becomes stronger. At SurvivalRealty.com, we have assembled resources to help with moving your family, work, or business to the American Redoubt,” said the site.
Conservative Move, another real estate group marketing to conservatives, also says on its site that it features properties in Idaho as well as Texas and other states.
In Sandpoint, Democrat Mayor Shelby Rognstad, is worried that real estate firms that serve only conservatives might make extremism rampant in Idaho.
“The division gets wider and wider,” said Lisa Navarre, a Sandpoint resident who moved there in the late 1970s from Cleveland, Ohio. “My concern is there are so many people who are not nice.”
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