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As a rare south Florida native, I have almost made the decision to leave this nut house and move to another location. I had invested in land further upstate but its rapidly rising property values (10X in 6 years) have made taxes go up tem times as well, unless the bubble pops I won't be building there either. I am looking for the right location to move to, and get away from Key largo where I currently live. Here's what I am looking for:
1) Plenty of available vacant land and no mass migration
2) Plenty of clean water with no shortages and few droughts
3) Median home price no more than 4X median incomes
4) Few or no zoning regulations and no deed restrictions
5) No majority of minorities. English spoken commonly.
6) Generally friendly attitude of the area's residents
7) Good traffic flow with few if any backups.
If anyone lives in a place like this and wants a new resident let me know. Even though I am living in Florida I am not your typical rude, self-centered Miami resident. Am looking to sell what I have and move somewhere, buy a home and hopefully a business. Any areas will be considered. I am not a big city person and refuse to live in a condo or apartment, have to have a home with at least 2 acres of space.
As a rare south Florida native, I have almost made the decision to leave this nut house and move to another location. I had invested in land further upstate but its rapidly rising property values (10X in 6 years) have made taxes go up tem times as well, unless the bubble pops I won't be building there either. I am looking for the right location to move to, and get away from Key largo where I currently live. Here's what I am looking for:
1) Plenty of available vacant land and no mass migration
2) Plenty of clean water with no shortages and few droughts
3) Median home price no more than 4X median incomes
4) Few or no zoning regulations and no deed restrictions
5) No majority of minorities. English spoken commonly.
6) Generally friendly attitude of the area's residents
7) Good traffic flow with few if any backups.
If anyone lives in a place like this and wants a new resident let me know. Even though I am living in Florida I am not your typical rude, self-centered Miami resident. Am looking to sell what I have and move somewhere, buy a home and hopefully a business. Any areas will be considered. I am not a big city person and refuse to live in a condo or apartment, have to have a home with at least 2 acres of space.
Look up Springfield, Missouri. If you don't mind a strong four seasons, then this area fits most of your stated criteria. We have had a drought, and that comes and goes, but it's nothing like what the Dakotas got or Oklahoma and Texas and it seems to be going away. Water is plentiful. Homes are extremely affordable, and outside of the towns, there are few regulations. I live seven miles north of Springfield in the country and can burn my leaves as long as it's not a no-burn day, burn my trash if I chose to (I don't, I pay for pickup), and my water is well water and I get my power from an electric cooperative that is very cheap indeed. There are very few minorities in this area, it's very white, almost weirdly so and people are friendly and helpful. Traffic in town sucks however and is bad for a town the size of Springfield. It has to do with infrastructure not having kept up with growth, though the city has stayed at about 150,000 now for ten years. It's a beautiful area and if you don't mind hot humid summers and cold snowy winters (though it's not all the time), this might be an option. Oh, forgot...taxes are very low here too. There's no animosity against people moving here from elsewhere and I think not many people know about the Missouri Ozarks, how beautiful they are, how inexpensive they are, and how friendly people here are. It's just one of those places most people never think about, but it's a treasure for those who do.
My home on 4.3 acres (half is forest behind the house), $227,000 in Jan./Property taxes: $1479.
Winter version
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r199/MoMark/Winterhouse.jpg (broken link)
Missouri was on my short list of states, along with Iowa Minnesota Kansas and Indiana. I have not been over there in a few years, but St Louis was kind of scary. Funny, your taxes are LESS than 5 acres of vacant land I own , taxes alone over 2,000.00 a year up from 450 3 years ago!
Missouri was on my short list of states, along with Iowa Minnesota Kansas and Indiana. I have not been over there in a few years, but St Louis was kind of scary. Funny, your taxes are LESS than 5 acres of vacant land I own , taxes alone over 2,000.00 a year up from 450 3 years ago!
St. Louis kinda scary??? St. Louis is MEGA scary!!! However, that doesn't stop anyone from Springfield making a day trip across the state to shop at Trader Joe's to pick up specialty groceries or visit the sausage maker, or see a live show!!! I think it's like most big cities, scary in parts, but you can get in, get what you want, get out, and it's a nice experience.
P.S. I like all the states that you mentioned as being on your short list too. Cil is on track with the Midwest as well in my view. For whatever reason, I've always been slightly attracted to Indiana from about Indianapolis southward as well. I think you'll find wonderful places in any of those states, the biggest factors being overall economic well-being and the severity of the weather-what you're willing to live in.
As as those states don't charge sunshine expenses and pay you in sunshine wages all is bearable. You would be amazed how much most people in Miami struggle. Pay is very low.housing is extremely expensive.and it's an UGLY place! Don't get me started about taxes! I have someother questions about your area.
1) Is there any protection for your homestead from lawsuits?
2) Can a homeowner build his own home or make improvements?
As as those states don't charge sunshine expenses and pay you in sunshine wages all is bearable. You would be amazed how much most people in Miami struggle. Pay is very low.housing is extremely expensive.and it's an UGLY place! Don't get me started about taxes! I have someother questions about your area.
1) Is there any protection for your homestead from lawsuits?
2) Can a homeowner build his own home or make improvements?
For the first, I don't know the answer... I'd have to look it up through Google for Missouri and I haven't done so. My immediate thought is no, there's no homestead exemption here, but honestly, I don't know.
Secondly, yep, you can build your own home and make improvement no problem. In Lawrence County to the west of the county I live in, outside of town there are NO regulations. You can build a fort, supply it with power, stick cola cans all around it for decoration and call it home for all they care. Naturally in most places you have to file permits for home construction, but I live for example on unincorporated land outside any city limits in the country and I can burn my own trash if I want, burn debris on my property if I want on no-burn days, etc. There are few restrictions. Yet if I wanted to add on to the house, my guess is that in Greene County (and again I'm not positive) where I live I'd have to apply for the correct permits which I wouldn't think would be difficult to obtain. There is a restriction to how many buildings and septic tanks you may place on a plot of land depending on if it's over or under 5 acres I believe. I just don't remember what that restiction entailed. As for concrete homes, if I had the time, patience, and the right plot of land, I'd love to have a custom built ICF Concrete home. I know they'd survive any but a direct hit by a f4 or above and stay cool in summer and warm in the winter, very efficient and extremely strong method of construction.
Believe it or not, my dad and I built this home completely of concrete and steel. It's ashame I may have to selland move because of idiots driving up costs here.
Just don't move to Colorado.
Believe me, Florida is not the only place with cost issues.
You'd never find anything like what MoMark has.
I was in northern (stress on northern) Iowa some years back; it was very green, threaded with rivers. The winters are likely snowy, but it was beautiful country and building costs are perhaps lower there.
Rick,
I was born and raised in St.Pete Fl. HATE the place now. considering all the "I" states except Ill. And southeastern Ohio. West Va. and Highest on the list actually is N.W.Nebraska, the panhandle area. But I would also consider a summer place is say Ga. or northern Fl.
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I think it's like most big cities, scary in parts, but you can get in, get what you want, get out, and it's a nice experience. 
