Wanting to buy a cheap house in a small town

[mamamovin]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

North Dakota has very little forested area. You need to go much further east to central Minnesota or southwest to the Black Hills of South Dakota to have greater tree cover.

Thanks! I think only a few areas like Pembina have enough tree coverage.
I have found some other things out in the meantime.
For one thing, northern Wisconsin has some rural fiber optic initiatives (and...quiet and green!).
And this list was cool, too:
https://www.kiplinger.com/real-estat...n-america-2020

[mamamovin]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

North Dakota has very little forested area. You need to go much further east to central Minnesota or southwest to the Black Hills of South Dakota to have greater tree cover.

https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/...-2019-edition/
Some of these articles are at least a starting place. You can weed a few places out that might be ok, do your research on them re crime and internet and other factors...hopefully I can narrow down the dream place.

[mamamovin]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

North Dakota has very little forested area. You need to go much further east to central Minnesota or southwest to the Black Hills of South Dakota to have greater tree cover.

https://ruralinnovation.us/post/11-s...rural-america/
and another one...I'll stop spamming now.

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by expatsid

Thank you for the tip about living in the lower part of the state. We are also looking at
South Dakota and Nebraska. Dont want to go any lower, we have had it with the heat,
and would like to live in a colder place.

Reading this reminded me of a joke that I heard on WCCO radio nearly 60 years ago and it was so good that it's still with me and will be as long as I live.

In the 50s, 60s, and a ways into the 70s, there was a beloved radio personality on WCCO named Maynard Speece. He was their Farm Service Director and his laid-back homespun style was perfect for early morning radio chatter in those days. Their 50,000 watt clear-channel signal covered a massive area that was nearly completely rural outside the Twin Cities area. Even my suburban location 15 miles from downtown felt rural in those days. Anyway, Maynard was great and was an inexhaustible source of humor that made me smile countless times.

This would have been around 1962 - give or take a year or two. I did considerable searching, hoping to find some of his jokes published online, but found only this....

https://www.amazon.com/Maynard-Humor.../dp/0911506144

So this is purely from memory and I'll no doubt leave some things out, but I'll do my best.

There was a North Dakota farmer who worked a large acreage that had been in his family for generations. His land was right on the border with South Dakota....such that his farm's southern border coincided with North Dakota's southern border.

One day there was a knock on his door and it was a couple of men who identified themselves as surveyors who worked for the government. They told the farmer that the exact location of the state border had come into question in his area and that they were there as part of a surveying project to determine whether errors had been made in the past in designating exactly where the state border was. They said they would need a few days and asked for his permission to access his land to complete their work. They were pleasant and credible, so the farmer granted permission….asking that they let him know of their findings.

So….a few days later another knock on his door – the surveyors had finished and were back to thank him for his cooperation. The farmer then asked, “so what did you determine about the border?” The lead surveyor replied, “well, they were right – errors had been made and the border is actually about two miles north of where they thought it was and had been designated. That means, sir, that your farm is actually in South Dakota.”

“Thank God!!”, exclaimed the farmer. “Why do you say that?” asked the surveyor. The farmer replied, conveying a sense of relief, “because now I won’t have to endure any more North Dakota winters!!”

[TenderFrost]

I'm about an hour away from Grand Forks and the prices here are often under $15k for a 2-3 br house. No need to spend $25-$40k for a house.

Internet is a problem, when I moved here 2 years ago, they asked for$800 to dig the connection to my house.
Of course, that could only happen next year because digging season is very short and usually accounted for a year in advance.
So, I still have just the hotspot from my cellphone and it works alright.

Huge advantage of small villages is that there are no codes or zoning laws preventing you from doing anything in your yard, so the freedom factor is huge here.

We had a week of close to -60F wind-chills.
Funny thing is that locals were praising this winter as "quite mild". No joke.

I personally don't find -40F uncomfortable, and can walk my dog just fine, but I do draw the line at -54 'F. Even my Siberian Husky gave me a WTF look at that temperature!
That was about 3 weeks ago.
All pipes in my house froze, despite house being quite well insulated and running 6-8 kW of electric heaters 24/7. Yes, hundred kW per day.
Expect $300-$400 in electric bill for January and February. Double that amount if you want to heat also upstairs bedrooms :-)

[TenderFrost]

Originally Posted by Star691

Yes, northern areas of ND can get -30F actual temps or colder.

This is North Dakota. Air temperature is absolutely irrelevant.

The only thing that matters is actual wind-chill. The wind is constant.

Few weeks ago, when it warmed up to -25F, the life resumed, kids playing in streets, people chatting on street.

Hell, I even upped my walking to 3 hours a day, as at -25 it was 30 degrees warmer, so it felt like a heat wave.
And layering up for -30 is way easier than -50.

Last August, for about a week, I had to wear a jacket and gloves while walking my dog. You wouldn't expect that judging by the air temperature, but I was getting frostnip and losing dexterity in hands. Swimsuit weather on the paper

Now, of course, if you only walk from your car to the door, wind-chill won't really bother you...