There’s a mad dash going on in real estate: companies bailing on their massive corporate office buildings, families relocating from big cities to suburbs and safer small towns. And as Ross Boissoneau writes in this week’s Northern Express, sister publication of The Ticker, northern Michigan appears to be one of the places many are choosing, with realtors across the north reporting that demand from out-of-towners has never been higher.

“I think some people from out of the area, large metropolitan areas, decided ‘I don’t want to get caught there again,’” says Pat O’Brien of Pat O’Brien Associates in Boyne City.

Ginny Fey of Real Estate One in Traverse City concurs. “I got calls from New York, Chicago, even Grand Rapids. They wanted to go to a safer place,” she says. For some, it meant purchasing a second home. Others were making their second home their primary residence, while many were just intent on moving, whether it meant working from home or not working at all. “People are retiring earlier than they planned because they want to get out of the city,” says Fey.

Whether Manistee or Harbor Springs, Traverse City or Boyne City, the lure of “Up North” has long attracted those interested in a more laid-back lifestyle. And with technology enabling instant communication and virtual work, people can easily live outside major metropolitan areas. Read more about the trend in this week’s Northern Express, available to read online or at newsstand locations in 14 counties across northern Michigan.