[quote=Marks;57207]Greetings everyone,
I apologize if this seems like the same old question many of you may have answered. But we are thinking of moving out to MO or the southeast. And yes, we're from California (Sacramento). Don't need to go into all the details of how bad it is here, seen enough here on this forum
Anyway, my wife and I are late 40s, very conservative, protestant Christians, no children, so we will be selling our property here and are looking for some good land plenty of acreage (5 or more) close to a decent size town. We hate traffic, crime, smog, crowds, big huge cities, tornadoes
Any place you locals would advise on? I thank you very much in advance and for your patience with the same questions.
Mark,
Congratulations on making plans to "evacuate" California
. I'm 43, also from California and had left the Bay Area in 2000 to transfer to Las Vegas. I sold out there last June and bought a place in the country here on 4.3 acres, a beautiful custom-built brick 2300sq. ft. house built in 93. The prices here are much lower than California (unbelievably so actually), and though that doesn't mean squat to Missourians, it's very nice for Ex-Californians. I live 8 miles north of Springfield, Missouri, the third largest city in Missouri at approximately 153,000 people, on acreage that is half forest and half rolling lawns dotted with oaks and hickory trees. It's almost Heaven for me. I must say, winter can be extremely bitter. I expected cold weather, but December last year to just before Christmas was extremely cold. I had my sister send me a Russian earflap fur hat. There wasn't much snow, as a matter of fact, we didn't get real snow cover until February during the next arctic cold snap, and even then it was only about 5", nothing that stopped daily life. Utilities are cheap, taxes are low, people are friendly, crime is low, people are religious, but not in your face. I'm a Southern Baptist who believes Jesus is God and that He saved me when I was born again, but I'm not a regular church-goer. My neighbors across the road and down the road are also Baptists, but far more active. They've invited me to attend church with them, but I haven't yet. I like my privacy. As for tornadoes, well, I'm too far out in the country to hear the tornado sirens in town, and believe me, when those go off and you're within city limits, even Helen Keller could hear them...they're VERY LOUD. I keep abreast of the weather on local television and radio if it's getting bad. I also have friends in Springfield who will alert me by cell phone if the tornado sirens go off. March was tornado time here this year so far. And for two nights in a row on March 12/13th, then the end of March, we had tornadoes touch down. This happened early in the morning about 1:30am and when it got really violent on my property- strobe lightning, shrieking wind, horizontal torrential rain...I hid in a closet and wrapped myself in a futon mattress and prayed. That's thankfully not an every day occurence though. The thunderstorms can be severe, scarily so at times, and the violent thunderstorms can truly rock your world. I always make sure to keep my truck in the garage when thunderstorms are threatening as hailstones can get to the size of golfballs and really do a number on a car. I don't worry about the house as the outside is all brick and the house is extremely well built, all real plank wood sheathing, no particle boards or pre-fab trusses. And the brick is six inches thick. They tend to build homes much better here than my particle board, chickenwire, two-by-four-, prefab stapled trusses, and stucco over "styrofoam" house in Las Vegas
There is bad traffic in Springfield, but only because there are few right-turn lanes and everyone drives in the left lanes, which backs everything up. South of town in the new "suburbs" like Nixa, traffic really sucks. I live to the north however and don't find it to be an issue. There's shopping, and it's 200 miles or so to St. Louis or 173 miles to Kansas City if you want "specialty" shopping. I like all of Missouri, but I think this area in the southwest part of the state works best for me. It's about 7-8F warmer in the winter, cooler than the plains part of the state in the summer, and less snow and arctic waves than the northern part of the state. Plus, it's just freaking gorgeous country here. You need to spend a week in Missouri driving around and becoming aware of the topography to decide what's right for you. I love central Missouri myself too, around Jefferson City (the capital), Columbia (gorgeous college town), and other areas as well. I'm not fond of the deep Ozarks which lie to the east of Springfield and south central Missouri. I don't even like Rolla much, the country is too rough. I prefer more open country with a mix of forest and open countryside and fields. That pretty much describes southwest Missouri. It's truly beautiful. Good luck!
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