Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

I'd like to buy a house in the country somewhere in the US with nice weather. Where's the cheapest place I can do that?

I currently live in CA and I think the whole state is too expensive. I'm also thinking places like Montana are too cold for too much of the year.

I've heard that something like North Carolina or West Virginia might be good possibilities (?) Ideally I could buy a tiny cabin/house and a bit of land for $200k or less.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

I'm guessing somewhere about 45 minutes outside a major city in Texas qualifies.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Only hicks, racists, and hillbillies live in rural areas.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

I'm from the mountains of northern Georgia. Very beautiful, very temperate, and very cheap. My mom just bought TWO condos in Dalton (the "big city"!) for a total price of 180k, for some perspective. She also owns a really nice, new, big house on 15 acres of beautiful countryside that probably has a total property value of 350 - 400k. Which is pennies compared to CA.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Decatur County, Iowa
One of the poorest counties in the U.S. It's not much to look at because of the abundance of trailers and '89 camaros with no wheels, but it is cheap.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Move to rural Minnesota.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Move to rural Minnesota.

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you forgot about the "with nice weather" part

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

No consideration for a second or third world country?

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Move to rural Minnesota.

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you forgot about the "with nice weather" part

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The Iron Range should do just fine.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains.
Southern enough to get warm weather, but you still get the four seasons.
Dirt cheap.
Also geographically, the most stable part of the entire country.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Rural texas from what I've heard.

Housing prices per square foot at something like... ~40 on the high end?

Its gross.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

im from northern va, plan on moving down to nc in a few years.

VA, WV, and NC are all great choices for this if you look around. lots of variety of terrain, distance to cities, etc, and 200k would be plenty.

my gf's family did what you wanna do, in sw va, i think it was 100k (might've dished out 50k more for more surrounding land) for a nice sized house, 2 cabins, and 10 acres, bordering a stream/river. 30 minutes from their real house in roanoke. pretty sweet setup.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to buy a house in the country somewhere in the US with nice weather. Where's the cheapest place I can do that?

I currently live in CA and I think the whole state is too expensive. I'm also thinking places like Montana are too cold for too much of the year.

I've heard that something like North Carolina or West Virginia might be good possibilities (?) Ideally I could buy a tiny cabin/house and a bit of land for $200k or less.

[/ QUOTE ]

Rural Texas would be pretty nice, you can probably get something in the Hill Country in that price range, depending how far out in the boonies you go.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Forget the US. For 200k you can probably buy Somalia.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains.
Southern enough to get warm weather, but you still get the four seasons.
Dirt cheap.
Also geographically, the most stable part of the entire country.

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Oh yeah, I've always heard Arkansas is nice.

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I'm from the mountains of northern Georgia. Very beautiful, very temperate, and very cheap.


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That sounds good too.

I don't know that part of the country well, I'm a west coaster mainly, but to me that whole Arkansas-Georgia-Carolina mountain range is pretty similar, am I wrong? Also, I'm not a big fan of humidity or Republicans but I plan to just grow some food and do a lot of hiking, biking, and riding.

Nice outdoor/nature is a big big plus, mountains, rivers, etc.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Move to rural Minnesota.

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you forgot about the "with nice weather" part

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qft

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Move to rural Minnesota.

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Worst advice ever.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Rural Iowa is not nice weather in the winter. It gets pretty bad.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Forget the US. For 200k you can probably buy Somalia.

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Do you ever question why you have those little blips under your name?

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Only hicks, racists, and hillbillies live in rural areas.

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And this is bad because?

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

I really liked the Oxford, Mississippi area when I visited. Oxford itself is expensive, but the surrounding towns are dirt cheap. Good food, good blues, and hot college chicks. Everyone was really nice so making friends shouldn't be a problem.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Forget the US. For 200k you can probably buy Somalia.

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Do you ever question why you have those little blips under your name?

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Maybe b/c I dont take OOT as seriously as you do.

Former hall monitor?

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Southern Indiana, just north of Louisville, KY.

Big city features, best poker room in the midwest (Caesars), cheap housing (mine is 3650 sq feet house and 2 acres for $195K)

Can't beat it.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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No consideration for a second or third world country?

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you can buy this in the safest/nicest country in south america (Chile) for less than 30k (and retire a young man)
http://www.todomercado.com/tm/aviso/...2508749478.jpg

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Also, I'm not a big fan of Republicans

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Wow, this makes your request a lot tougher.

You want a place with pretty countryside, mountains, lakes, rivers...you want it to be in the south so it will be warm...you want it to be cheap...and you don't like Republicans.....even in more moderate southern states, out in the country where it's less expensive, you're still going to be largely engulfed by a sea of red. Look at a county by county presidential map from 2004. Maybe you'll find some rural county with lots of natural beauty that's sparsely populated, cheap, and warm, but whose residents are actually high-brow intellectual liberals.....but I really doubt it.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Southern Indiana, just north of Louisville, KY.

Big city features, best poker room in the midwest (Caesars), cheap housing (mine is 3650 sq feet house and 2 acres for $195K)

Can't beat it.

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Agreed on all counts. Though I'm not sure if rural living is the key to OP or simply keeping price down. I wouldn't consider it truly rural being so close to Louisville. I guess it depends how far north you're talking. Also, the weather there is really weird. Very humid in the summer, completely unpredictable day-to-day all year around.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

The stories I've heard of Louisville make it sound like there's a good deal of kill-whitey sentiment there. True or untrue?

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

I've heard that from outsiders as well. I suppose politically, or with regard to law enforcement I can see the argument. It's no Cincinnati. I never particularly noticed it in social terms, but I have never had anything else to compare it to either.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

I really think areas of colorado are developing nicely, and you can still get some super cheap places.

Just pick any small area north of denver on I-25. Loveland, for example (just outside of Ft. Collins) was dirt cheap - maybe $180k for a 2000+ sq ft house when I was there.

My friend just purchased a 2bed, 2bath condo there for $120k, and it's something like 1500sq ft.

Super close to skiing, 40min from Denver, and TONS of development in the area.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Forget the US. For 200k you can probably buy Somalia.

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Do you ever question why you have those little blips under your name?

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Maybe b/c I dont take OOT as seriously as you do.

Former hall monitor?

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For what it's worth, I thought your comment was funny as hell

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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The stories I've heard of Louisville make it sound like there's a good deal of kill-whitey sentiment there. True or untrue?

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Completely untrue. Who the hell has been telling you these stories? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Carbondale, Illinois man. The Shawnee forest is beautiful, and you have the whole college social scene. There are plenty of places to live for cheap and you can decide just how rural you want to be. You can live 10 minutes from Carbondale and feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. 200k buys a nice house with land in that area. Ah, I miss it.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Louisville has a little redneck thing going on, but not as much anymore. The Mayor is a pro-business democrat and the social scene pretty hip.

I would say come visit for a weekend. Don't forget about the Derby the first weekend of May. It's 2 weeks of total fun and the Queen is coming this year!

You have a terrific college sports following, you are no more than 6 hours drive for at least 7 major cities (Cincinnati, St. Louis, Nashville, Indianapolis, Chicago, Columbus, and Atlanta) taxes are low, the weather is pretty good (gets below 30 about 3 or 4 times a year) Spring and Fall are awesome.

We own a bakery in Jeffersonville, IN (5 min from downtown louisville). Stop by and I'll hook you up. cakestoday.com

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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I really think areas of colorado are developing nicely, and you can still get some super cheap places.

Just pick any small area north of denver on I-25.

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Hmm.. I find Denver to be a total [censored]-hole, but I like the rest of Colorado. Seems to me there's too much winter there. I like the skiing and I love the mountains in the summer time.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Carbondale, Illinois man. ... Ah, I miss it.

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Did you go to college there? Ex-GF of mine did and loved it, that's a pretty good choice.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Tuscon

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

I lived there for 2 years in college and also lived in Murphysboro (7 miles west) for about a year and a half. If you like hiking, camping, motorcycles, or pretty much anything outdoorsy you'd like it.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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The stories I've heard of Louisville make it sound like there's a good deal of kill-whitey sentiment there. True or untrue?

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Completely untrue. Who the hell has been telling you these stories? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

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A guy I know who used to be the assistant general manager of a big hotel there. He told me all kinds of tales about the the racism of the place, and how the blacks there were virtually untouchable because they were constantly filing lawsuits, etc. But the story most short and sweet about all that stuff that I can tell is that he said he walked onto the property on his first day at the job and some black lady who worked there sneered at him as he was walking through the lobby and barked out, "I'll be here longer than you will, cracka!" All he could come up with was, "Whhaaat?" And so she gave him a nasty stare and repeated what she just said word for word while staring him down. He hadn't been in the doors for more than half a minute by that time. The lady had no fear whatsoever of losing her job even for overt, aggressive racism, against her managers, yet!

He had more stories, including some higher level political ones he was involved in, but that's the one I can tell.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

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Also, I'm not a big fan of humidity or Republicans but I plan to just grow some food and do a lot of hiking, biking, and riding.

Nice outdoor/nature is a big big plus, mountains, rivers, etc.

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Consider Southern Oregon -- it sounds like you might like the Ashland area.

Re: Cheapest nice rural place to live in the US ?
 

Pretty good amount of Republicans there. Nature thereabouts is really great though.