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Might want to add to your calculation what its war zone status is.
About 10 years ago, I was looking at land for sale down in the border area of Texas, something like 40 acres for under $1K/acre. Not necessarily so now, though. This might have been like it, however: https://www.landwatch.com/hudspeth-c.../pid/408707951
Anyhow, one of the reasons why I didn't buy such beautiful wild land with the cash I had was that area is a WAR ZONE.
Between criminals crossing your land and what the government may do against them, it just was not worth it, it would be a fool's folly.
Any areas near the southern border where its not secure you will find a war zone. I found this out 40 miles north of the border in Arizona. People crossing north (most are drug runners) will enter your property and steal whatever they can if you are not home. And you don't want to come home with them on your property. They are often armed and dangerous.
There were several areas that really interested me for an off grid living environment in my retirement years.
Being able to survive off grid was really important to me because I believe there will be shortages in the food supplies in the future.
I spent a week traveling throughout the Tennessee area looking at homesteads while my wife was in seminars.
I really liked Tennessee but sadly it just wasn’t for us.
Maine has always been on our radar.
It’s just that we won’t ever see our kids again so sadly that was out.
Washington State fit the bill for us.
I really like the weather.
Cheap flights to the Bay Area.
One of our kids even moved there.
Washington state is not cheap by any means but it fits the bill and works for us.
If you go 3 or so hours away from Seattle it gets really nice.
I do gardening, fishing/hunting, chickens, bee hives and such.
I can also comfortably feed my family when there is no food to be found for a very long period of time.
We have a really good (or at least good enough) internet connection for my wife to work from home so she likes to go there and chill with our daughter for a few weeks at a time.
We currently are about 80% off grid and will increase that percentage shortly.
To be honest I think after the solar/battery bank system is installed we are going to install we will be there.
Once again Washington is not cheap but for those of us that still need to work and are not techies there are plenty of ways to make a decent income and live rather nicely.
It’s just that the buy in will cost you more than most other localities.
I was stationed in Washington for five years, while there we met with dozens of realtors and looked at many properties. The problem that we had in each case was projecting what our Cost-Of-Living was going to be while 'off-grid'.
My military pension just was not going to be enough to support us living there.
A friend of mine likes to say that the cold keeps rabble off the streets where he is (small-town Michigan).
That is one possible answer, but you don't have to go to that extreme. Away from the cities (over 2000 people), away from those whose soft heart has softened their head. Those two things go a long ways.
In a nearby city were I frequently visit, I used to see seagulls loitering in a couple parking lots, eating french fries that people would "drop" and other fast food scraps. When the pandemic hit, they went elsewhere, because the french fries went away. Some people are a lot like those seagulls: if you feed them, they will come.
The romantic notion of off grid does not work out for the majority of dreamers.
It all seems good in your head until the reality hits.
Off grid is work. It’s a labor of life or death.
Many of these tv shows glorify it and make it seem so simple, or exciting, but it’s not.
Which is why so many fail. There’s much more to buying a bunch of land and plopping a cabin down.
It’s a total life change. Which seems great when you have your weekend escape from the city, but when you truly leave it all behind, the reality sets in, and it works, or it doesn’t.
Yeah you can be semi off grid, like a really rural area but you still got electricity and high speed internet, but even that wears down a lot of people. No 7-11 or 24 hour supermarkets or “real” shopping within an hours drive. And medical facilities. Driving an hour or more for medical care gets old quick for many spoiled by the convenience of the city or burbs where you have everything you need within 10, 15 minutes or less.
Very important as you age. Of course climate is a huge factor. In harsher climates where you are buried in snow and arctic temperatures makes everyday life much more difficult. It’s just not for everyone. Even if they want it to be.
Iowa isn't too bad in the winter if you get far south along the Mississippi - Burlington to Keokuk.
I was looking at it from the viewpoint of available land and freedom from regulation.
Not enough renewable natural resources in Iowa as opposed to northern Wisconsin or the UP of Mich.
In the event of civil unrest or pandemic, the UP is strategically located at a dead end of sorts.
Plus there's fish, game, hardwood; and more water sources.
A friend of mine likes to say that the cold keeps rabble off the streets where he is (small-town Michigan).
You would think the idea of cold would keep all the homeless people away [and I am sure that it does keep 'most' of the homeless away]. But in our nearest big city [Bangor] there is a permanent population of homeless people.
One of their city programs offers a free one-way bus ticket to Santa Barbara.
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