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You might get a "decent" house of average size here, not large, average condition may need updating, but your chances of getting any kind of a view for $200K is nil or none. Taxes and home and car insurance are average.
Where exactly are you talking about and what do you consider a "view?" We had a friend outside of Chattanooga with a great view of the valley and distant Mts (hills?) from his front porch. The house was a lot less than $200k. It was an older 2 bdrm home. Cheap Ins and cheap taxes. Because of his job he ended up moving back to Nashville a few years ago.
Taxes and Ins are a fraction of what I would be paying had I stayed in NY or moved to FL. That's why we stay in TN.
Have you ever logged on to Sperling's Best Places? You can plug in your preferences and generate a list of which cities/states might suit your needs. Then you can do searches on other sites (Realtor.com, etc.) to narrow down your choices.
Have you ever logged on to Sperling's Best Places? You can plug in your preferences and generate a list of which cities/states might suit your needs. Then you can do searches on other sites (Realtor.com, etc.) to narrow down your choices.
Good luck.
I am concerned about database statistics when the people entering the data are biased and want their data to show trends to support their profession.
I see this happening a lot in my area with realtor statistics. When I have spoken to realtors about it, some have agreed that it is an issue, while others become very argumentative on the topic.
Hi I am looking to move to a place with cool summer temps (20 days or less > 90F), but the cost of living is VERY important. I am not a survivalist, but would like to start hunting and fishing to be more self sufficient. I would also like to have access to clean free or cheap water and also low cost electricity. I am wondering if I could read some examples of how some people who are creative and have been able to live inexpensively and what places might be a good fit for this kind of living. I would prefer to live in the country near a large sized city to have access to things like good medical treatment, airport, shopping, and entertainment.
I would like to buy a home for around 200k or less and keep taxes and utilities low. I need about 2000 sq. ft. of living space. I would preferably like to live in an area with minimal natural disasters, but I don't want to limit examples and it would be great to hear some real life examples.
I would like to add my 2 cents for what it matters.
1) You probably spend more money hunting/fishing than if you'd just go to a store and buy meat/fish (at least initially until you learn to get it efficiently and consistently). That's why all the stores want you to go hunting.
2) Make your own garden, grow potatoes, carrots, cabbage, celery, etc - i.e. stuff which can be preserved and consumed over the winter. It is more reliable source of food than hunting/fishing. They say 30% of food consumption in USSR came from little backyards of soviet citizens (everybody was growing their own food), it also helped everybody to survive when SHTF and people weren't seeing any money for months (think - you go to work everyday, but not being paid for half a year..., no unemployment benefits, no welfare, etc and you cannot just switch jobs because there's no jobs around which would be paying sooner...)
3) Wood burning/ coal burning stove is a great way to save on heating bills. Coal should be rather inexpensive in USA.
4) Collect rain-water, it's a great way to save on water bill. Dig an artesian hole for supplies of drinking water.
5) Use bicycle as much as possible (for any distance under 20 miles), save on gas (and gym). I know people in WI who ride their bikes 360 days a year, snow/rain or shine.
6) Keep your money in cash and savings in gold The fastest way to lose your money is called expropriation.
I would like to add my 2 cents for what it matters.
1) You probably spend more money hunting/fishing than if you'd just go to a store and buy meat/fish (at least initially until you learn to get it efficiently and consistently). That's why all the stores want you to go hunting.
Most of our neighbors have been hunting, fishing, foraging for many generations.
A box of ammo can last a hunter for many years. The biggest expenses being when a person first begins to do these things.
Otherwise you arr just looking at annual license fees.
Quote:
... 2) Make your own garden, grow potatoes, carrots, cabbage, celery, etc - i.e. stuff which can be preserved and consumed over the winter. It is more reliable source of food than hunting/fishing. They say 30% of food consumption in USSR came from little backyards of soviet citizens (everybody was growing their own food), it also helped everybody to survive when SHTF and people weren't seeing any money for months (think - you go to work everyday, but not being paid for half a year..., no unemployment benefits, no welfare, etc and you cannot just switch jobs because there's no jobs around which would be paying sooner...)
Not much different than the Great Depression here in the USA.
Reliability is a hard thing to firm up. As an organic food producer, I see crops that do well and I see crop failures. During the growing season, I may be able to 'reliably' tell you that I can harvest oregano, mint and asparagus tomorrow.
But I can never predict from season to season, if my tomatoes or corn will produce.
Working in the field today, I can tell you what can be harvested tomorrow, and maybe next week. But that is a very short term reliability.
A trapper can never predict what he will trap tomorrow, ever. But he can state general trends, and he can be fairly accurate in terms of so many varmints per week on average he will get.
Every year I see bear on my land, it is easy for folks to know roughly how many bear we have in this town each season. Along with moose, deer and turkey flocks. I let hunters on my land for the bear. We can not say which hunter will take which bear. But we can generally count on so many bear being taken every year here in town [along with deer, moose and turkey].
'reliability' is not the right gauge for judging crops verses game.
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... 3) Wood burning/ coal burning stove is a great way to save on heating bills. Coal should be rather inexpensive in USA.
We have a coal stove, that we have tried in our home. Freight costs are the biggest part of the cost of coal.
I live in dense forest. I also harvest local peat. Peat is a HUGE resource for North America, that most folks like to ignore. It is sustainable, renewable, and can be re-harvested every 8 years.
Quote:
... 4) Collect rain-water, it's a great way to save on water bill. Dig an artesian hole for supplies of drinking water.
I have not had a 'water bill' for many years. But I understand that urbanites have them. In some of the previous homes we have owned we had water bills, again just the more urban homes.
Quote:
... 6) Keep your money in cash and savings in gold The fastest way to lose your money is called expropriation.
I had uncles who at one time were into collecting gold, they taught me to pan for gold when I was a teen. Can you guess what forced them to stop focusing on PMs? When the US federal government began confiscating gold.
Since the USA has a history of gold confiscation, is it truly wise to tell folks to hoard gold?
I had uncles who at one time were into collecting gold, they taught me to pan for gold when I was a teen. Can you guess what forced them to stop focusing on PMs? When the US federal government began confiscating gold.
Since the USA has a history of gold confiscation, is it truly wise to tell folks to hoard gold?
Anything can be taken from you, any supplies, food reserves, cash money, gold, obviously guns and ammo, your freedom and your life. Does it mean we shouldn't put our trust into those things? Or we should learn to defend what is ours by hiding it better or defending it fiercefully from anyone who wants to take what is ours?
Anything can be taken from you, any supplies, food reserves, cash money, gold, obviously guns and ammo, your freedom and your life. Does it mean we shouldn't put our trust into those things? Or we should learn to defend what is ours by hiding it better or defending it fiercefully from anyone who wants to take what is ours?
As my handle here implies, I spent a lot of years focused on killing other people. I am glad I survived it. I was able to walk away with a pension. Many of my buddies did not.
Now that I have retired from that I live as a farmer, and I am reminded of a song that was popular when I was a teen. The last stanza goes like this:
"... One day this feller from Washington come by
And he spied us and he turned white as a sheet
And he dug and he burned
And he burned and he dug
And he killed all our cute little weeds
Then he drove away
We just smiled and waved
Sittin' there on that sack of seeds"
If you think you can 'fiercefully' defend your stuff, I wish you all the luck in the world.
I am just a simple farmer, I need to produce enough to feed my family and sell the extra. Folks can be as fierce as they can, I'll just smile and wave, siting' on a sack of seeds.
As my handle here implies, I spent a lot of years focused on killing other people. I am glad I survived it. I was able to walk away with a pension. Many of my buddies did not.
Now that I have retired from that I live as a farmer, and I am reminded of a song that was popular when I was a teen. The last stanza goes like this:
"... One day this feller from Washington come by
And he spied us and he turned white as a sheet
And he dug and he burned
And he burned and he dug
And he killed all our cute little weeds
Then he drove away
We just smiled and waved
Sittin' there on that sack of seeds"
If you think you can 'fiercefully' defend your stuff, I wish you all the luck in the world.
I am just a simple farmer, I need to produce enough to feed my family and sell the extra. Folks can be as fierce as they can, I'll just smile and wave, siting' on a sack of seeds.
Well, you are a simple farmer with a pension and maybe a few more sources of income, who knows - online anyone can pretend to be anything they want. Not saying it's you (the latter) - just stating facts, don't take it the wrong way.
Now, I think he is partially right (the person you are replying to) - anything can be taken away from you - gold, savings, stocks, money, house, life - that doesn't mean we should spend life hiding or not living it. That's the thing with many preppers - they go on this one-track thing where soon everything starts looking like a conspiracy, everything has risks and risks are not allowed, so on and so on. Good luck with the whole "guaranteed" thing - this last line is not aimed at you, just in general - it has been my observation that quite a few people get to prepping and they want/expect guarantees - as soon as you say "do this" - they say., "yeah, but in this scenario this won't work because blah blah blah" - well, good luck finding the perfect solution
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We had a friend outside of Chattanooga with a great view of the valley and distant Mts (hills?) from his front porch. The house was a lot less than $200k. It was an older 2 bdrm home. Cheap Ins and cheap taxes. Because of his job he ended up moving back to Nashville a few years ago. 
