Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 582 posts

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

#101

Post by [deleted] »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #89
ajross wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

[deleted]

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

#102

Post by selimthegrim »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #54
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 think most places aren't one of the highest crime cities in the country? I don't think the mistake you made was moving from cities, it was moving to one of the worst towns in the country. Pine Bluff is the #4 highest crime area in the entire country !! https://247wallst.com/city/pine-bluff-ar-is-among-the-most-d...

Nicknames I heard were “Pine Box” or “Crime Bluff” (from a native who proceeded to stiff me of $150 so I should have known better than dealing with him to begin with)

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

#103

Post by notatoad »

If you are just looking for a cheaper city, you're going to be disappointed by any small town. "A friendly bar" is kind of a big ask in a small town that might only have a couple bars. There could easily not be one that you like. Same with schools - in a city you have choice, in a small town you are going to end up with whatever the local school is. Maybe it's good. Maybe it isn't. And maybe the town that has a friendly bar doesn't have a good school.

Honestly, it sounds like you belong in a city. A town isn't just a collection of perfect versions of the things you like from your city, and cheaper housing. That isn't going to exist. The bars will be worse. The schools will probably be worse. The stores will be further away, or else the housing "just off main street" will he more expensive. The social opportunities will be fewer. If you want to be happy with small town life, you need to find the advantages that exist only in towns and not cities: Outdoor recreation opportunities, family to be closer to, or non-social things you can do on your own with more space like gardening.

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

#104

Post by solar-ice »

neilv wrote: post #100
GauntletWizard wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> a few dozen like-minded nerds will gentrify a small town How does one do this in such a way that it's welcomed by people who already make their home there? (I can imagine a lot of ways this could go work out badly, but don't immediately know a good approach.)

You don't. Gentrifying a place pretty inherently means removing at least some of the people who live there. Why would the people of a small town go for that? Unless you're planning on subsidising the existing residents' lives forever as rent goes up.

If you have the money and influence to "gentrify" somewhere... just build a new planned community in the middle of nowhere. The US has plenty of nowhere.

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

#105

Post by forrestthewoods »

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…

> 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, since it's quite minor compared with your federal liabilities)

Nonsense. The difference can easily be 10% of gross income.

Tax burden estimates are also really bad for tech workers making mid-six figures.

Texas may take an extra $10,000 in property taxes on a million dollar house. But New York State + City will take an extra 10% of your gross income.

Sales tax varies by state and city. But if you’re a tech employee you should be both saving a significant portion of your income and living in home that costs a smaller portion of your income than most people.

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

#106

Post by ternaryoperator »

solar-ice wrote: post #104
neilv wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a few dozen like-minded nerds will gentrify a small town How does one do this in such a way that it's welcomed by people who already make their home there? (I can imagine a lot of ways this could go work out badly, but don't immediately know a good approach.)

You don't. Gentrifying a place pretty inherently means removing at least some of the people who live there. Why would the people of a small town go for that? Unless you're planning on subsidising the existing residents' lives forever as rent goes up. If you have the money and influence to "gentrify" somewhere... just build a new planned community in the middle of nowhere. The US has plenty of nowhere.

> Gentrifying a place pretty inherently means removing at least some of the people who live there.

Not necessarily. You could buy a house that's empty.

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

#107

Post by Kon-Peki »

duped wrote: post #97
jbhouse wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

illinois winters though...

Winter is the best time of the year. It keeps housing prices down from people that can't deal with it.

Ain't that the truth? But seriously, if you want a small town with a functioning downtown that isn't ridiculously priced, you are going to have much better odds of finding something east of the Mississippi River. Because the type of town you are looking for needed to be established before the automobile became big.

Geneva, IL and its neighbor to the north (St Charles) are really, really nice. But they're not a cheap places unless you are comparing them to coastal towns. Try this: make a list of all the counties in all the eastern states. Find the county seat of each one. Look at a satellite photo of the downtown area and if it seems solid, check out the street view. If that is also promising, look at real estate prices. Narrow it down to a list of 25-30 towns. And go visit them.

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

#108

Post by notatoad »

neilv wrote: post #100
GauntletWizard wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> a few dozen like-minded nerds will gentrify a small town How does one do this in such a way that it's welcomed by people who already make their home there? (I can imagine a lot of ways this could go work out badly, but don't immediately know a good approach.)

Give them money.

Directly or not. If you're a rich person moving into a poor town, the only way to not piss off the locals is to make them richer. If you can make the whole town richer, you'll be welcomed. Whatever portion of the locals that you don't make richer will hate you. If you don't want to piss off the locals, and you don't want to employ the locals, this is a very expensive plan.

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

#109

Post by xboxnolifes »

When you say "a little downtown area" and "homes you want", what exactly would you specify as being the minimum to satisfy these? I ask, because at least one place I know of exists to some definition of having a downtown, with homes in the $200k-400k range.

Because if you really just want a home, a supermarket, a few local restaurants, a bar, a few shops, and an airport within an hour drive, some New Jersey areas come to mind.

But these aren't likely to be dream towns. They will have flaws. Almost certainly will has less walkability than any city you may live in, unless you live on, and never leave, the main strip. There will be less variety in foods, the bar culture you imagine may not be the bar culture that is actually there.

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

#110

Post by throwaway5959 »

luckyhn wrote: post #75
throwaway5959 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few months ago my wife and I drove through Arkansas and saw a road side billboard for a white pride website and radio program (“Don’t be ashamed of your race”). Hard pass no matter what the price.

This feels like a bait, since Pine Bluff is almost 80% black.

https://ibb.co/tPbXWhB

Taken on I62 on the drive into Harrison.

Post reply on HN