Our city was a pretty safe place in early spring.  Only one or two cases in a county of 100,000.  Which meant that 99.9 % of us would NOT be infected.  And then, at the end of July, that all began to change.  Suddenly, we became a hotspot, with a positivity rate of about 11%.  Everyone felt a little panicky—some more than others.  In our case, we simply continued isolating at home, and wearing our masks when doing errands. But some of our fellow citizens  took more drastic measures.  They sold the homes they had lived in for years and fled to other cities.  At the same time, people from worse hot spots like Vegas and LA are moving back home. They’re running away from Covid-19.

 What prompted these drastic moves?  Maybe the move-aways had thought about moving closer to their children for a long time, and this  gave them the extra incentive needed to sell out and move on.  If you’re extremely worried about  catching covid-19 and dying, you probably want to be around your children and grandchildren. . 

More puzzling is those that have come back home.  Let’s say they lived in New York or LA.  They thought they would be safer in Indiana.  So they packed up and bought a home here.  No sooner had they done that, than our cases began to skyrocket.   

Last night on tv, we saw a couple who had recently  moved to New Orleans from NYC.  They put their life savings into a new restaurant, which was now flooded out.  They might just as well stayed home. 

Meanwhile, the realtors are having a hey day.  Home values here have risen 8% in just one year.  And they’re selling fast.  Studies have shown that moving is one of life’s most stressful events.   When every thing settles down, will those who moved wished they hadn’t?