Yeah there is something of an influx of refugees. They’re paying too much. A bunch of bottom-feeder developers think they can just buy houses and flip then immediately with no work or even cleaning it out. Housing prices were rock bottom when I bought mine in 2016. I paid $34,000 for a 1400 square foot home. I know some landlords that were despairing about the low real estate values back then.

And no, it’s “go back to your state” territory. Hundreds of NYers vacationing here during COVID to escape the lockdowns is the reason Graffiti Highway in Centralia was finally covered over. There’s been a massive influx of NY/NJ license plates since then

Some faithful mask-wearing city guy just got himself killed on an electric scooter in the last year or so. He zipped around like crazy in and out of traffic, I always saw him riding around with a surgical mask and groceries in hand and knew exactly what would happen with him driving so confidently around. Fortunately for everyone else it was a cop car who struck him. People aren’t looking for scooters around here.