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In O8, I was living in an apartment where the state helped with the rent. This was in California. There is NO cheap housing in California. The place was going downhill, as the owners had planned on kicking out the renters and making it condos. Except it wasn't approved for condos. They sort of quit caring after that. Massive numbers of people were moving.
I visited a friend in Oklahoma, all of us going to a tv show convention (for Jericho) and I noticed there were a lot of smaller houses. I decided to look at one. It's 720 sf, but one room is storage. The living situation in California was getting worse, and my family helped out. A few months later, we started making plans for me to move in the spring. We negotiated the cost down to about a down payment on a 'small' house in CA (which wouldn't really be small). But I wanted small and neighbors you couldn't hear from inside your house.
It was in the end a very good decision. The cost of living here is much lower, and the population is much lower. I loved the lack of a crowd and going on ten years soon I still do. The overflow room has stuff I haven't felt the need to use. I've become a great fan of tiny house shows because the used portion of my house is within that size, and there's good hints.
Unless there is a specific place or kind of place you want to live, looking into small towns with older houses can be a great solution since you can find apartment size houses but you share no walls, and you can't even hear the neighbors. And if you want to be out of the fast lane, small towns don't hurry either.
Its moving to a very different kind of place, but for me it worked very very well.
As for politics, the local brand aren't mine, but then it wasn't really that in California either and all the rest matters more.
In O8, I was living in an apartment where the state helped with the rent. This was in California. There is NO cheap housing in California. The place was going downhill, as the owners had planned on kicking out the renters and making it condos. Except it wasn't approved for condos. They sort of quit caring after that. Massive numbers of people were moving.
I visited a friend in Oklahoma, all of us going to a tv show convention (for Jericho) and I noticed there were a lot of smaller houses. I decided to look at one. It's 720 sf, but one room is storage. The living situation in California was getting worse, and my family helped out. A few months later, we started making plans for me to move in the spring. We negotiated the cost down to about a down payment on a 'small' house in CA (which wouldn't really be small). But I wanted small and neighbors you couldn't hear from inside your house.
It was in the end a very good decision. The cost of living here is much lower, and the population is much lower. I loved the lack of a crowd and going on ten years soon I still do. The overflow room has stuff I haven't felt the need to use. I've become a great fan of tiny house shows because the used portion of my house is within that size, and there's good hints.
Unless there is a specific place or kind of place you want to live, looking into small towns with older houses can be a great solution since you can find apartment size houses but you share no walls, and you can't even hear the neighbors. And if you want to be out of the fast lane, small towns don't hurry either.
Its moving to a very different kind of place, but for me it worked very very well.
As for politics, the local brand aren't mine, but then it wasn't really that in California either and all the rest matters more.
I'm so glad you posted about your experience. I was amazed through the whole process at what I could accomplish. My place wouldn't suit many people because of a perceived lack of amenities, but I rarely had access to those same amenities before I retired and I don't miss them now.
If you are in reasonable health for your age, try thinking out of your comfort zone. I think its important, at least for me, to not think of this as my last move. It doesn't have to tick all the boxes for the place that sees me through to the end. Right now is still important and this is working now. When it doesn't, I'll move...... and I see my next move as a rental.
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