The world has inched a little closer to total annihilation. That's the assessment of the The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which regularly gauges how near civilization is to global catastrophe with something it calls the Doomsday Clock.
Based on factors like the proliferation of nuclear weapons, global political tensions, and unchecked climate change, scientists said the symbolic clock was poised at three minutes to "midnight," a.k.a. doomsday, in 2015 and 2016. That's considered a very high-risk state of affairs—much worse than 2010 (six minutes to midnight) or the end of the Cold War circa 1991 (17 minutes to midnight).
But scientists are even more worried in 2017. The newest Doomsday Clock was set at 2.5 minutes to midnight—the closest we've been to the apocalypse since the early 1980s—partly because of the "rise in strident nationalism worldwide," the group stated. In particular, scientists cited serious concern about the U.S. presidential election of Donald Trump, who has "made disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons and expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change."
In other words, the doomsday "preppers" you may have previously viewed as paranoid might just be onto something. With the idea that it may be high time to prepare for the worst, we've rounded up a selection of end-of-days bunkers on the market, potentially enabling you to survive annihilation and help carry on the torch for humanity. There are properties available at every price point, ranging from $25,000 up into the millions, and they run the gamut from basic survivalist co-op apartments to vast underground former military compounds left over from the Cold War. If you can't afford one of these luxurious bunkers, you might want to check out our list of best home security systems.
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South Dakota Underground Co-op, from $25,000
A former army base that was decommissioned in 1967, Vivos xPoint claims to be the largest survival community on earth. Right now, xPoint consists of 575 hardened concrete off-grid bunkers buried in quiet grasslands of South Dakota, near the Wyoming border. The facility may expand to as many as 5,000 bunkers, with features planned like a general store, hydroponic gardens, hot tub spa, shooting ranges, and even a community theater.
Bunkers are either 1,590 or 2,120 square feet, at a cost of $25,000 to lease for 99 years, plus $1,000 annually, and the cost is the same no matter how many residents wind up using the space. One reason the price is so low is because each space is a blank canvas: Each leaseholder is responsible for installing all services and amenities, including plumbing, electricity, air filtration, and exhaust.
Affordable Midwest Compound, $399,000
The main home is a modest 1,860-square-foot brick structure, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. But the property, roughly a two-hour drive southwest of St. Louis, consists of a whopping 160 secluded woodsy acres full of wild turkeys, deer, foxes, and squirrels, plus two ponds and multiple storage sheds. Most intriguing of all is the 30-by-60-foot underground concrete bunker, which is reinforced with metal I-beams and comes equipped with electricity, water, and two airshafts. It's described by the realtor as "practically impossible to find."
Texas Preppers Dream Home, $985,000
Above ground level, this 4,500 square-foot luxury house, located about 140 miles west of Dallas, has three bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, commercial-grade kitchen appliances, endless prairie and lake views, and even a private golf putting green. Below grade, there's a 1,000-square-foot structure with reinforced steel walls, bunks for 12, plus a kitchen, laundry facilities, a periscope so survivors can view whatever remains on the post-apocalypse surface, and two hidden escape hatches. The bunker comes equipped with an NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) filter system and a hydroponic plant-growing system. Six backup tanks of oxygen, as well as 10 years’ worth of emergency ready-to-eat meals, are included in the sale too.
Wyoming Survival Ranch, $1.19 Million
In addition to a newly built three-bedroom, two-bath ranch home, this 104-acre property in central Wyoming features a heated barn with an extra 800 square feet of living space on the top floor and a 400-square-foot bunker reinforced with tire bunches. The bunker, wedged into the side of a hill, isn't finished but is hooked up for electricity and water, and everything is powered with a pair of generators connected to an underground 2,000-gallon propane tank. While outfitting the bunker for comfortable living, you can take advantage of the property's fine farming and hunting possibilities. There are plenty of elk, deer, pheasants, and waterfowl on the tract, which comes with its own well water and equipment that will irrigate 65 acres of land.
Upstate New York Missile Silo, $3 Million
How would you like to call a missile base home? America built 107 missile bases around the country during the arms race in the 1960s, including the Atlas F Missile Silo located about 130 miles north of Albany. It was decommissioned after only four years and has sat dormant and neglected for decades, eventually selling for $160,000 in 1997 and again for $575,000 in 2015. Bear in mind that the "super hardened" facility, built for the equivalent of $100 million in today's dollars, was designed to withstand almost any bomb imaginable.
Today, the property would be of interest only to the most ambitious apocalyptic rehabbers. It consists of a launch control center surrounded by three-foot thick concrete, plus the main silo—measuring 180 feet in height and 52 feet in diameter, most of it underground—which the owner can repurposed as needed. Water has leaked into the property for years, but the latest listing states that it has been "cleaned and dewatered."
Kansas Subterra Castle, $3.2 Million
The former Atlas E Missile Site, located 25 miles west of Topeka, has been redubbed the Subterra Castle—a turn-key property ready for post-apocalyptic inhabitants with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The main residence boasts 5,500 square feet of below-ground living space, and another 3,500 square feet in a great room complete with a stage (you'll have to amuse yourself somehow when civilization is gone). The facility was built in 1961 at a cost over $3 million, or $26.5 million in today's dollars. It was purchased for only $48,000 in the early 1980s, and has since been renovated complete with solar panels, a diesel generator, and an 11,000-square- foot underground garage with a 47-ton drive-in door. Up on the surface, there's a separate 750-square-foot house, and the 34-acre property comes with a stocked pond, a chicken coop, and orchards where walnuts, apples, and pears grow.
Various Unfinished Bunkers, from $550,000
A selection of old communications bunkers and underground data centers are also out there on the market, including a few for sale (where else?) on eBay. They'll all require extensive TLC before they're inhabitable. One 8,000-square-foot communications structure in Kansas built in 1958, for example, is listed at $650,000, though it comes with only one bathroom and no bedrooms to speak of. Another doomsday bunker near Tucson, Arizona, consists of a three-story command structure that's 40 feet in diameter, surrounded by 12-inch-thick blast doors and buried under 10 feet of soil. The raw structure, described as "ready for sandblasting and paint" and shown in the photo with this slide, has a "Buy It Now" price of $550,000 on eBay.
