Moving to the Land Down Under

“After weeks of scrolling, I found a handful of dream hideaways on the market whose sellers were willing to let me take a tour. There were two bunkers in Montana, one of which sleeps at least ninety; a prepper bunker in Missouri that features an inconspicuous entrance and a conspicuous arsenal of guns (not included in sale, but makes you think twice before criticizing the kitchen-countertop choice); a defunct missile-silo site in North Dakota; and a twenty-thousand-square-foot cave in Arkansas used by its previous owner to raise earthworms. (Favorite bit of real-estate marketing copy: ‘The worm room speaks for itself.’) Patricia Marx in The New Yorker: Real Estate Shopping for the Apocalypse. “Thirty-nine per cent of Americans believe that we’re living in end times, and the market for underground hideouts is heating up.”