BLOOMBERG • July 19, 2023
Thanks to growing wealth in the Sun Belt and the increasingly oppressive hot summers of the South, it’s going to get more attractive for southern residents to trek up north to escape the heat. In 2022, more out-of-state homebuyers in Maine came from Florida than from New York, and more came from Texas than Connecticut. There’s an opportunity here to transform some of the communities near lakes or the northern Atlantic Ocean to revolve even more around tourism, catering to southerners who may or may not be familiar with places like Maine. Not all locals will welcome this trend and the increased costs, home values and congestion it will entail, but wealthy southerners looking to beat the heat are going to figure out some way of doing so. ~ Conor Sen