New Yorkers allegedly lose their minds!

More strange but true tales of New Yorkers doing the unthinkable — leaving New York for the Midwest — this time courtesy of Michael Tortorello at The New York Times:

"In the fall of 2007, Will Hopkins and Mary K. Baumann made what many New Yorkers would consider a puzzling real estate decision. Maybe a crazy one. Having sold their Chelsea office, the veteran graphic designers traded a 2,000-square-foot apartment in one of the grandest buildings on the Upper West Side, with 13-foot ceilings and a 100-foot-long courtyard view, for a pair of unfinished basement condominiums. Oh yes, and the stabilized rent on the apartment was $2,000 a month. And the condominiums are in Minneapolis."