Real Estate THAT bad!? Or just no "dream home" in my area

[Listener2307]

Originally Posted by annie_himself

Realize there's about 14 million people living in hurricane territory on the Gulf alone.

I'm with you. Not only are there a huge number of people, but there are a huge number of old houses still standing. The ones that were destroyed were - for the most part - those which had such a beautiful view of the gulf. And a lot of those stood for 100 years or better.
We ain't skeert to live anywhere, and we ain't skeert to build anywhere.

[debbie60]

Hi! I know this is an old post but I was wondering if your friends ever sold their mansion in Vicksburg you mentioned here? We're looking to relocate and looking for such a home.
Thank you!

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

It seems you're looking for a nice old home in places where there are very few "problem people". Otherwise, you'd be looking in Natchez, Meridian, Port Gibson, Edwards, Hazlehurst, Greenville, Clarksdale, Vicksburg, Crystal Springs.... Or you'd be looking for a plantation home in the Delta. All those places have wonderful houses - cheap. I know of one elderly couple at Vicksburg, who are desperate to sell their lovingly-restored antebellum mansion. Yet it sits on the market...

I looked up Hurley, and see that it's in East Mississippi, where the land was too poor to support plantations - thus slavery. People on that side of the state were hard-scrabble poor farmers - often descended from escaped white slaves (officially "indentured servants" - but they were purchased with the intent of working them to death - unlike black slaves, who were seen as having great value). The escaped white slaves often mixed with local Indians. Basically, they were hiding out in the woods. Or they were loggers. Or they were Melungeons or other swarthy hybrids, fleeing to the deep woods, to avoid persecution by the newly-arrived waves of Irish immigrants. The timber barons lived in towns like Meridian or Hattiesburg or Mobile, and built a lot of incredible houses. But those towns are not attractive to you, because they had "jobs" at one point, and so are full of "them"... you know... I don't blame you. You're not suicidal. That's smart.

So, in Mississippi, in order to find a place without "them", you have to find a place where there were never any "jobs". That means areas of cut-over timber land, and subsistence farming. Being a logger working for a company, or being a subsistence farmer, paid very little. People were lucky to have food. Most Mississippians, back when the charming houses were being built for the lucky few, were so poor that they grew up wearing burlap fertilizer sacks. Flour sacks were luxuries. Flour was a luxury. Heck: fertilizer was a luxury. People lived in shacks.

A well-built three-room house, in post-Civil-War Mississippi, was for a prosperous middle class family. Those were the people who wore shoes in summer, studied trigonometry in school, had actual buggies to ride in, actual wells to get water out of... People who could afford ice for making ice cream (for special occasions) - people who had enough money saved up to see a doctor (in the direst emergencies), and who had money for stamps, and paper and envelopes - if they were careful, and counted their Pennies. They were people who could afford a paper of pins for sewing, or seeds for putting in next year's crop. They were the lucky ones.

Most of East Mississippi was too poor to support many of The Lucky Ones. Most people lived in shacks: houses with minimal ceiling height, minimal roof pitch, minimal square-footage... Saws were expensive, and you didn't want to have to saw many logs- even if you were building a log cabin with a dirt floor, and filling in the cracks with mud & moss. And if you could afford actual boards from a lumber mill, you used as few board feet as was possible. Nails cost money, too. And a roll of tarpaper for the roof was a huge outlay - maybe you'd have to live on turnip greens for years, just to pay for it.

If I were you, I'd buy an endangered house in some once-prosperous town enriched with throbbing vibrance, and move it to a good area that was desperately poor, prior to the 1960s. A couple bought one of Canton's mansions, and moved it to the North Shore of the Reservoir. Madison county had plantations. In olden times, Rankin County's land was too poor for plantations or slaves, and was where the escaped white slaves hid in the swamps. Anyway, the house is GORGEOUS in its new setting. And the owners don't have to worry about waking up to see throbbing vibrance standing over their beds, ready to enrich them before killing them.

Even if it has to be cut into many pieces, moving an older house means you're getting virgin heart timber, and joinery that is now available to only the very rich. Save an old house in a dying town, by moving it onto your land.

[vincent from norcal]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

It seems you're looking for a nice old home in places where there are very few "problem people". Otherwise, you'd be looking in Natchez, Meridian, Port Gibson, Edwards, Hazlehurst, Greenville, Clarksdale, Vicksburg, Crystal Springs.... Or you'd be looking for a plantation home in the Delta. All those places have wonderful houses - cheap. I know of one elderly couple at Vicksburg, who are desperate to sell their lovingly-restored antebellum mansion. Yet it sits on the market...

I looked up Hurley, and see that it's in East Mississippi, where the land was too poor to support plantations - thus slavery. People on that side of the state were hard-scrabble poor farmers - often descended from escaped white slaves (officially "indentured servants" - but they were purchased with the intent of working them to death - unlike black slaves, who were seen as having great value). The escaped white slaves often mixed with local Indians. Basically, they were hiding out in the woods. Or they were loggers. Or they were Melungeons or other swarthy hybrids, fleeing to the deep woods, to avoid persecution by the newly-arrived waves of Irish immigrants. The timber barons lived in towns like Meridian or Hattiesburg or Mobile, and built a lot of incredible houses. But those towns are not attractive to you, because they had "jobs" at one point, and so are full of "them"... you know... I don't blame you. You're not suicidal. That's smart.

So, in Mississippi, in order to find a place without "them", you have to find a place where there were never any "jobs". That means areas of cut-over timber land, and subsistence farming. Being a logger working for a company, or being a subsistence farmer, paid very little. People were lucky to have food. Most Mississippians, back when the charming houses were being built for the lucky few, were so poor that they grew up wearing burlap fertilizer sacks. Flour sacks were luxuries. Flour was a luxury. Heck: fertilizer was a luxury. People lived in shacks.

A well-built three-room house, in post-Civil-War Mississippi, was for a prosperous middle class family. Those were the people who wore shoes in summer, studied trigonometry in school, had actual buggies to ride in, actual wells to get water out of... People who could afford ice for making ice cream (for special occasions) - people who had enough money saved up to see a doctor (in the direst emergencies), and who had money for stamps, and paper and envelopes - if they were careful, and counted their Pennies. They were people who could afford a paper of pins for sewing, or seeds for putting in next year's crop. They were the lucky ones.

Most of East Mississippi was too poor to support many of The Lucky Ones. Most people lived in shacks: houses with minimal ceiling height, minimal roof pitch, minimal square-footage... Saws were expensive, and you didn't want to have to saw many logs- even if you were building a log cabin with a dirt floor, and filling in the cracks with mud & moss. And if you could afford actual boards from a lumber mill, you used as few board feet as was possible. Nails cost money, too. And a roll of tarpaper for the roof was a huge outlay - maybe you'd have to live on turnip greens for years, just to pay for it.

If I were you, I'd buy an endangered house in some once-prosperous town enriched with throbbing vibrance, and move it to a good area that was desperately poor, prior to the 1960s. A couple bought one of Canton's mansions, and moved it to the North Shore of the Reservoir. Madison county had plantations. In olden times, Rankin County's land was too poor for plantations or slaves, and was where the escaped white slaves hid in the swamps. Anyway, the house is GORGEOUS in its new setting. And the owners don't have to worry about waking up to see throbbing vibrance standing over their beds, ready to enrich them before killing them.

Even if it has to be cut into many pieces, moving an older house means you're getting virgin heart timber, and joinery that is now available to only the very rich. Save an old house in a dying town, by moving it onto your land.

This is the best thing I have ever read online, you should write for SNL