111–120 of 582 posts
College towns. Pick some states, and go visit towns with colleges in them. They'll have restaurants and groceries, and those faculty kids have to go to school somewhere. Internet should be passable, too. They won't be the cheapest small town option, but houses should come in well below a million bucks. The one town you mention, Lancaster, PA, is a model of the type.
My method sure hasn't worked very well... or has it? I was looking for cheap warehouse space to start a business in, and did a nation-wide search for the largest, cheapest building in the entire continental US. I found one that seemed too good to be true. a 220,000 sqft metal warehouse and office complex on 17 acres. I thought the price was a typo at $375k.The agent assured me that the price was correct, and I flew o…
Clearly something is very wrong with the local government and population.
Without a symphony/opera, theater, decent concert venue, and some art museums, life is going to get real boring, real fast. I did a stint in a cheap culture wasteland through covid. It may be economically cheaper but the toll it takes on your soul is real.
This is very personal, lots of people go their entire lives without going to those venues and aren't bored. You can ride a dirt/mtb bike in the desert or hike in the mountains, surf in the ocean, etc.
I just moved to Ocean Springs, MS from Los Gatos, CA. We have been looking for about a year, this is the place that checked the most boxes for us. Most places we were looking at either had terrible schools (Alaska, apart from like 3 magnet schools) or were very remote (Islesboro, ME) Very happy I got out of CA before PG&E killed my family (we had a fire break out in June about 100 meters from my front door, if it had…
That being said, I would not have wanted to move to the gulf, and certainly not that part of it. Lake Charles got hit by multiple strong hurricanes in 2020, and I drove through a few weeks ago and they’re still covered in tarps and boarded up windows. Look at all the blue roofs on Google Maps! And then compare the distance of Lake Charles and Ocean Springs from the gulf.
Edit: To clarify, I’m sure you know this already. You can’t live there for long and not know. The above is more for the benefit of others who might read your post and not realize the extreme danger posed by rapidly developing, strong hurricanes in the gulf.
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This feels like a bait, since Pine Bluff is almost 80% black.
https://ibb.co/tPbXWhB Taken on I62 on the drive into Harrison.
But yes, right on, 20 or so shops, walkable downtown with houses an easy walk away, a few good restaurants (including a great diner! :) and at least two friendly bars. Good internet connection if you're in town. I don't get in my car for weeks at a time---and that's probably your hardest item, because anywhere between "pretty small town" and "sizeable city with good public transit" living without a car (in the US) is going to be very very difficult. (Even in a place like Farmville, you don't need the car around town but you'll need it to get out of town.)
ETA: I see from your profile you're in DC now. Come visit! We're only 3 hours away ;)
My method sure hasn't worked very well... or has it? I was looking for cheap warehouse space to start a business in, and did a nation-wide search for the largest, cheapest building in the entire continental US. I found one that seemed too good to be true. a 220,000 sqft metal warehouse and office complex on 17 acres. I thought the price was a typo at $375k.The agent assured me that the price was correct, and I flew o…
Promote yourself and your town. I'm looking for a new home in the same way as the OP, and my best hope is that a few dozen like-minded nerds will gentrify a small town, because they have been so undercut by cities of late.
Honestly... It's kind of great. The people are nice, the scenery is gorgeous, it's pretty quiet, and most everything you need is right in town. Since the community is so poor, all the housing is cheap. Nearby towns are all bought up as second homes for expats. Everything outside town is an old farm.
The worst thing about the place is it's a minimum 2 hour drive to anywhere, and having a car is mandatory to get here. But if you have everything you need, there's no need to leave. There is no Uber/Lyft/Instacart/GrubHub, don't expect any startups here. Cell service outside of towns is mostly nonexistent. Also know that none of your old friends will ever visit because it's way too inconvenient.
The only things I miss are "big city" things and more people around into the same things I'm into. And an international airport would be nice, but it's not like I was flying around the world every weekend before.
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This feels like a bait, since Pine Bluff is almost 80% black.
https://ibb.co/tPbXWhB Taken on I62 on the drive into Harrison.