How the pandemic changed the way we think about second homes:

Manhattan. Like many Americans, I was always drawn to the appeal of Manhattan: living in a studio apartment with 3 of my friends, going out on auditions, taking amazing classes, rubbing elbows with artists, waiting tables to pay my exorbitant rent…. It’s all so ROMANTIC.

To be fair, I’m an actor, so maybe most people don’t think this is romantic? But clearly, New York City has its appeal to people other than actors. The last time I checked, more than 8 million people are livin’ the dream in New York.

But I think Covid has changed the way that we see our primary homes. I know of NO ONE who wanted to live in a small apartment in New York during the pandemic. My friends were falling all over themselves to get out. When there’s a deadly pandemic, who wants to be sharing HVAC ducts with other people? When you can’t leave home, who wants to be stuck in a 300 square foot box?

No. The pandemic made everyone rethink the way that we live. It’s not necessarily a bad thing.

For the last 4 years, I’ve lived about an hour away from the Atlanta airport. My home is on a lake and has an acre of property. I have an orchard and a garden. Since the pandemic hit, I added rabbits and chickens. (Which is weird because I hate eggs and fell in love with my meat rabbits.)

My friends told me that I was a genius and that it was “luck” that I ended up out there for the pandemic. But it wasn’t luck. It was planning. I am a hurricane Katrina victim. I lost everything I owned in one day. I was then kept out of my city by armed guards who were “protecting us” from looters while human beings cooked in their attics, as their families were kept from rescuing them. Going through an experience like that can’t help but change you. Everyone deals with trauma in their own way. For me, it made me very motivated to have backup plans. I wanted to have a second home.

I like to live somewhere that has access to fresh water, that’s a bit off the beaten path, and has opportunities to grow food or hunt for food. (I’m not really a hunter, but if the zombie apocalypse starts, I am positive that I will change my position.) I do NOT want to be on top of other people.

Since the pandemic hit, real estate values in the suburbs have gone through the roof. Everyone wants to have a place with their own space. Remote work is the new norm and many of us want to work remotely from the beach, the mountains, or the farm. Is this the future? I believe it is.

Of course, the wealthy have caught on. Jimmy Fallon shoots his show in New York city, yet he has moved his family to the ‘burbs permanently. People with means will provide themselves with resources. An apartment in New York provides extraordinarily little in the way of resources.

I truly believe that, in the future, we will think of “first homes” as those which provide us with the things we need to survive: water, food, peace, and safety.

I think that the second homes will no longer be at the beach as a reprieve from the city, but rather, the city flat will become the second home. Those with the means will be living on their farms, or at the beach, or in the mountains.

Since hurricane Katrina, I have watched disaster after disaster play out pretty much the same way: with poor government response as people scrambled to survive. When Hurricane Maria hit, I watched many people seem shocked by the government response. I was not shocked. If I learned anything from Katrina, it’s this: if you are waiting on the government to help you, you may be waiting a very, very long time.

We must get more resourceful about our futures.

Climate change, natural disasters, and pandemics are not going away. The “new normal” isn’t going away. This is it.

While I love the idea of living in Manhattan, I’d never want that to be my primary residence at this point in my life.

Our primary homes should be those places that we fled to during the pandemic. We shouldn’t go back.

I remember watching the movie “Legends” with Will Smith. I thought: “why the hell is he holed up in the city? What a shitty place to be when there are zombies trying to eat him! Why didn’t he flee to the countryside?” But I guess that’s part of the plot, right? Living in the city is its own obstacle.

I don’t think that we need to create our own obstacles. If we are fortunate enough to own second homes, they should be in places that are a reprieve. We all need a “Plan B.” What’s yours?

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