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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?

#81

Post by [deleted] »

ajross wrote: post #69
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose I should have clarified to include property taxes. If someone is looking for an area to move to and possibly settle, when you pay off a house you may not want $800-1000/mo in taxes on that house. I said “like” I didn’t do an analysis of 50 states and tax rates. I think it would be common sense if someone was looking to move anywhere in the US to consider taxes and avoid places that were high. Similarly cons…

This still sems mixed up. In fact Texas has among the highest property tax rates in the country, above both NY (which it beats by a little bit) and CA (which is way down in the middle of the pack). You can find data on states by total tax burden (which, sure, is going to depend on your particular assets and flows being taxed). It's not nearly as big a differentiator as you seem to think it is (especially, again, sinc…

[deleted]

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

#82

Post by closeparen »

pontifier wrote: post #39

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…

I would expect big money coming into a small town to face serious static from local authorities unless and until you're cozied up to its political scene.

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

#85

Post by 13of40 »

IMHO, I think Hawaii would be a good place to do this. One issue with Hawaii for people used to living in other latitudes is that the sun basically sets at 6:00 PM every day, all year, so if you worked a nine to five job there you'd be getting off right before the sun went down. However, if you got up at 4:00 AM and worked in sync with people on the mainland until early afternoon, then you could get off and have a few hours of daylight to hit the beach or whatever else.

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

#86

Post by xur17 »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #44

Travel. Just book yourself for two month long stays at a bunch of places and see what you like. I tried that but sucked at it and eneded up staying in the first place I did a stint at... but to be fair there are worse places than Colorado's west slope, especially if you bike and climb and ski. You say that you just need a bar and a supermarket, but you've probably never lived in, like, Brady, TX or Cuba, NM. Stuff ge…

> but to be fair there are worse places than Colorado's west slope, especially if you bike and climb and ski.

Where exactly did you end up?

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

#87

Post by CSMastermind »

> this mid-sized town dream exists

Of course, but you should figure out what specifically you're looking for beyond what you've described.

Do you care about tax implications? Are you planning to rent or own a home? Do you have friends or family in any of these areas?

If you haven't traveled much I'd recommend doing it.

This is the most accurate map breaking down regions in the United States in my opinion: https://i.redd.it/q79o3qo8zz991.png

Just for reference, here is a 'cleaner' version that most people like: https://i.redd.it/y4pxyq5eslh51.png

> ... and/or how we’d go about finding it

Others in this thread have some good search ideas but personally I'd start at the top and narrow it down from there.

If you go to https://www.naco.org/ and click on `county explorer` you can filter the map on a county level across a bunch of different dimensions.

I'd definitely limit your choice to places with high internet speeds, good education, growing population, high scoring infrastructure, etc.

Just keep pruning down until you find a few you think you'd like.

> ideas for cities

I could list dozens but maybe check out: Beaver, PA; Mason, MI; Wilson, NC; College Station, TX; Macomb, IL

Assuming your wife is willing to drive some then: Longview, WA; Castle Dale, UT; Wisconsin Rapids, WI;

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

#88

Post by shrubble »

saxonww wrote: post #58
kcplate wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No they really don't. It was a terrible attitude and a bad comment. The poster would be bringing money into the community. They would be paying taxes; if they buy a house, there will probably be property taxes, which typically support local utilities, schools, libraries, etc. They'd be shopping at local stores. The poster asked about schools, so they probably have or will have at least one kid - so purchasing things…

Every item you mention in your post, only concerns money. Do you see that materialistic attitude as accurately representing your views?

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

#89

Post by s1artibartfast »

ajross wrote: post #13
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…

>But the relationship isn't well correlated.

what relationship are you inferring? Some states simply have higher tax burdens than others.

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

#90

Post by jhugo »

basyl wrote: post #64

I'd also check how the place is bound to be impacted by climate change, e.g. https://coastal.climatecentral.org/ You don't want to end up in a coastal city just to find yourself under 1m of water in a few years!

Just a heads up that your apparent definition of "few" may be a bit confusing for others.
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