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Hello everyone. I am manifesting the following and wonder if you can help:
5-10 mountain acres
Decent soil (Intending to grow 50-60% of my food)
30-60 minutes drive to "cool" town (50,000 people+)
Not to hot (arizona or texas are out)
Not too cold (Wisconsin and Upstate New York are out)
I'm wondering if anyone would know a good area where I can find the above in any Northwestern state, or Colorado, for $50,000 w/o structure, $65,000 w/structure. I plan to build a natural structure (cordwood or strawbale), so zoning laws would need to be reasonably lax, although I am flexible.
Thanks much for your advice, ideas, brainstorms, naysays, whatever you find applicable!
Piet
Last edited by off-grid-piet; 08-13-2009 at 12:08 PM..
Reason: add building plans
Your Price point, as well as the requirements for "mountain" area close to a 50,000 population city, not too cold a climate ... rules out all of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and the Dakota's. I doubt you'd find any property meeting your list in the Pacific Northwest, either.
The only places I can think of that would possibly meet your list ... and I don't know about the "lax" zoning for non-conventional residential construction ... would be in the hills of Ohio or states around that area of the country.
Mountain acreage (5-10), 100 day growing season, 30 minutes to cool town
I bought 42 acres of forest with 1/4 mile of riverfrontage for $35k. Roughly $900 / acre, and we got 105 acres next to it [without river access] for $300 / acre.
It is not mountains, though we do have hills and ski resorts within a 45 minute drive.
105 day growing season.
1/2 hour drive to a city with international airport, shopping malls, box stores, ...
I am farming and I have been a vendor at our local Organic Farmer's Market. There are folks here who do grow 99.99% of their own food, as well as folks who produce garden veggies for market.
When you say "Not too cold" you need to keep in mind that there is a 'snow belt'. Coming off the great lakes and down-wind is a zone or 'belt' that gets a lot of snow dumped on them. We live North of that belt.
I do see a few folks who are constructing cordwood and strawbale homes. Our zoning laws are rather lax, because we are rural.
Land prices are low, taxes are low, the cost-of-living is low.
We are looking for similar land. I have found NW Arkansas, Idaho and western NC to be closest to what I need. All have areas that can be very cheap. We are looking at building possibly underground though... but still grow our own food, live off the land as much as possible with small footprint.
Thanks sunsprit, forest beekeeper and needing more. I appreciate your insight and observations.
I am currently browsing around Oregon, near Corvallis and other areas. It's a big state - much bigger than the New England states I'm used to... I guess what I'm looking for is the Vermont of the west... I feel like Oregon may have what I'm looking for. I agree SS that the mountain thing is a tough thing to accomodate.. I'd settle for hills. I just struggle with flatland having grown up with water, hills and trees...
Nederland, CO has some great (small) land 20 miles west of Boulder, CO. The problem is winters and lots of snow. That probably reflects the low prices.
Thanks sunsprit, forest beekeeper and needing more. I appreciate your insight and observations.
I am currently browsing around Oregon, near Corvallis and other areas. It's a big state - much bigger than the New England states I'm used to... I guess what I'm looking for is the Vermont of the west... I feel like Oregon may have what I'm looking for. I agree SS that the mountain thing is a tough thing to accomodate.. I'd settle for hills. I just struggle with flatland having grown up with water, hills and trees...
Nederland, CO has some great (small) land 20 miles west of Boulder, CO. The problem is winters and lots of snow. That probably reflects the low prices.
More ideas are certainly welcome!
Will keep you posted,
Pieter
If Nederland CO has winters and snow which is beyond what you want, then you've definitely ruled out the Rocky Mountains ... even as far south as into New Mexico around Flagstaff, or over by Santa Fe.
You've also ruled out Eastern Washington, Idaho, or Eastern Oregon.
I think you'll be better served by looking at the inland areas just East of the Pacific ocean areas of Northern California, or along the Oregon inland areas.
Perhaps the Olympic Penisula area of Washington? Another possibility would be the hilly areas North of Seattle, perhaps along the Western side of the Cascades ... there's some nice valleys around Snohomish, for example. All of these areas have land, water, growing seasons, and a more temperate climate ... and are close enough to mountains for snow and recreation if you want to visit, and are close to metropolitan areas for shopping/business/recreation. You might even want to look at places like Snoqualmie, WA ... which have pretty serious hills and valleys, and lakes, and growing seasons, and while not very far away from "towns", a fair degree of isolation in those hills.
If Nederland CO has winters and snow which is beyond what you want, then you've definitely ruled out the Rocky Mountains ... even as far south as into New Mexico around Flagstaff, or over by Santa Fe.
You've also ruled out Eastern Washington, Idaho, or Eastern Oregon.
I think you'll be better served by looking at the inland areas just East of the Pacific ocean areas of Northern California, or along the Oregon inland areas.
Perhaps the Olympic Penisula area of Washington? Another possibility would be the hilly areas North of Seattle, perhaps along the Western side of the Cascades ... there's some nice valleys around Snohomish, for example. All of these areas have land, water, growing seasons, and a more temperate climate ... and are close enough to mountains for snow and recreation if you want to visit, and are close to metropolitan areas for shopping/business/recreation. You might even want to look at places like Snoqualmie, WA ... which have pretty serious hills and valleys, and lakes, and growing seasons, and while not very far away from "towns", a fair degree of isolation in those hills.
My son looked at a Snoqualmie area 5 acre building site with 200' of lakefront which included about 50' of "beach" in that area a few years ago. The lake had a number of mixed type houses on it, ranging from older "weekend" type cabins to some newer upscale permanent housing ... but most of it all built at least 30 years ago, some much older than that. The price was about $8,000/acre, and it was part of a much larger parcel (several hundred acres) that a fellow who was retiring was subdividing. The lake was big enough for modestly powered 15-18 powerboats ... they had a low HP and speed limit restriction to keep the noise down and promote fishing and paddling and rowboat type use. From what I saw, most folks just used smaller boats with electric trolling motors around the lake, which appeared to be about 25 acres meandering through the hillsides. It appeared to be a pretty "safe" environment to turn even your pre-teen kids out on the lake to play, even in inflatables. The homeowner's association paid somebody to come in and do "weed removal" every couple of years, so the lake was mostly clear.
That was "raw" land. You'd have to clear your building site in the trees, and put your driveway in, and clear your land for your crop area. Some of the sites available had clearings in the forest but didn't have the lakefront site; they were less expensive.
It didn't appear then to be suffering from a "land rush" of folks clamoring to get in and build there at the asked price point. It was high enough in the mountains to get a modest amount of snowfall over a couple of months in the winter, and I think that discouraged a lot of people from moving there who wouldn't want to deal with the snow to get to their jobs. There were a lot of new subdivisions going in the area at the time where snow wouldn't be an issue, and paved roads were in and maintained.
"lax zoning"? I don't know about that when it comes to alternative home construction techniques. There were some rather flimsly looking old cabins and outbuildings around the area, but they may have been grandfathered.
We started looking into OR when our search started but it is very expensive.. I dont know anywhere in the state where you can get 5-10 acres for only 50,000..
OR was the highest priced land in the Pacific NW next to Cali of course. Western OR is EXPENSIVE but you can have good garden land, west OR is dry.. too dry for garden land but is cheaper but still not cheap!
If you like the west.. check into Northern Idaho.. It has lax laws about zoning. mild climate compared to most. cheap land.
With your plans it sound like you might want to go off-grid or start a homestead??? Idaho got rated #1 place to start a homestead in the US... Up around sandpoint area.. Check it out.
I hope you find your land. It sounds like it will be great. There is still some cheap land in MI. There are a lot of rural areas too with the laxer building codes. We have the snow but we can grow wonderful gardens. If you need help building your home look up [url=http://www.discountmi.com]Wholesale Kitchen Cabinets & Bathroom Vanities | Discount Home Improvement - Grand Rapids & Muskegon MI[/url] Good-Luck!
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