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Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

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Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#13

Post by ajross »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #7

Just pick any mid sized US city and pick a suburb that has a Main Street type of area and it’s not in high COL area. I would look for ones with fiber internet available. The houses should not be anywhere near $1m when you do this. Avoid high tax states like CA or NY. I imagine you have other factors like distance from family, area of the country, weather, proximity to mountains/beach/parks/major metro for things to d…

> Avoid high tax states like CA or NY.

Why? This sounds (especially given the two specific states named) more like an impression from partisan media than practical advice. Those two states do indeed happen to have comparatively high tax burden and metro areas with high real estate costs. But the relationship isn't well correlated. Maine and Minnesota are "high tax" states with cheap housing, and Alaska has (IIRC) the lowest tax burden but wildly higher cost of living. Similarly Miami has low tax and outrageous real estate, etc...

(Also recognize that state and local taxes make up a comparatively small share of an individual's tax burden in the US, anyway. The difference in total tax between NY and TN is something like 20% if I'm doing the math right)

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#15

Post by drewcoo »

fredsmith219 wrote: post #8
User23 wrote: post #5

Quoted post unavailable.

Who made you the judge of where people get to live?

I think the GP's NIMBYism is justified by the threat of gentrifying small towns.

On a similar note, many states would like Californians to stay in California and stop trying to Cailifornify everywhere else.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#16

Post by davidw »

I think 'decent airport' is perhaps tricky, at least on the west coast. I think you'll need to be more specific about some other things like how small is too small or how big is too big, and what 'cold' means for you. This site seems to have some good search facilities: https://www.bestplaces.net/

Also agree with the 'college towns' comment.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#17

Post by edmcnulty101 »

kcplate wrote: post #14
fredsmith219 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who made you the judge of where people get to live?

You may not like their delivery, but they make a reasonable point.

But what if their community sucks though? Being serious.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#19

Post by w1 »

Emporia, KS.

Home of a small college and a few large obscure athletic events (Unbound Gravel and disc golf nationals). Kansas is also a very reasonable state, politically, compared to much of the midwest. Less than two hours from decent sized airports (MCI and Wichita).

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#20

Post by lotsofpulp »

protomyth wrote: post #10

Check a bandwidth map so you are not frustrated. You probably also want to make sure the politicians in the area are of your preferred party since that will tell you if your family will have people with your beliefs in the area. Being the odd person out from the local folks isn't fun.

I would not rely on bandwidth maps. Even the FCC's official one is very inaccurate. I would put the address in the ISP's website to see what is available, and then call them to double check because even the ISP's website is wrong sometimes.
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