Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have a 200 sq ft home, intensively insulated. I have no debt, money saved, reliable vehicle (right , health insurance (medicare) monthly income of $1800. Yes, it is a "feedshed" with a dairy kitchen and septic system to avoid rural residential zoning laws that say one must have a residence, and be built to code (with a high property tax value). I have a milk cow and a saddle horse. My property tax is $500 a year. Do you all think I can pull this off?
North Carolina has good deals on mobile homes on a foundation for around 100k. Usually on an acre where you can grow your food. The mobile homes have around 1600 sq ft. I've seen them on zillow near Asheville area. Your not going to get everything on your list. First you need to find the area you prefer.
North Carolina has good deals on mobile homes on a foundation for around 100k. Usually on an acre where you can grow your food. The mobile homes have around 1600 sq ft. I've seen them on zillow near Asheville area. Your not going to get everything on your list. First you need to find the area you prefer.
OMG
For $100k you can get a 4 bdrm home on 100 acres with a barn and a tractor.
If you are in an area where $100k can only buy a mobile home on one acre, your getting ripped off.
North Carolina has good deals on mobile homes on a foundation for around 100k. Usually on an acre where you can grow your food. The mobile homes have around 1600 sq ft. I've seen them on zillow near Asheville area. Your not going to get everything on your list. First you need to find the area you prefer.
Yeah, that's not a good deal - you are paying a HUGE premium to live near a self-professed weirdo mecca.
North Carolina has good deals on mobile homes on a foundation for around 100k. Usually on an acre where you can grow your food.
In New England you can find 3-4 bedroom homes on 1/2 acre in the city for $70-80K. If you want to come up to Maine, you can get the same house on 100 acres, as Sub said. I don't know why people think they need to spend $100K for decent housing. We have 3 places to hang our hats; none of them have more than 1200 sq ft and only one of the 3 cost anywhere near that 100K figure. It's outrageous, a rip-off.
In New England you can find 3-4 bedroom homes on 1/2 acre in the city for $70-80K. If you want to come up to Maine, you can get the same house on 100 acres, as Sub said. I don't know why people think they need to spend $100K for decent housing. We have 3 places to hang our hats; none of them have more than 1200 sq ft and only one of the 3 cost anywhere near that 100K figure. It's outrageous, a rip-off.
It is about the location. Asheville is a popular new-age town in NC, like a little Portland or Austin. It attracts the rich "green" crowd that is always in search of an "energy vortex" or a good spot to do yoga.
You are right partially - however, if you are in a need of a job and do not have the cash to pony up for land/home etc. - you will need to live near employment. This means city and this means high land/housing costs. It is the proverbial catch 22.
In New England you can find 3-4 bedroom homes on 1/2 acre in the city for $70-80K. If you want to come up to Maine, you can get the same house on 100 acres, as Sub said. I don't know why people think they need to spend $100K for decent housing. We have 3 places to hang our hats; none of them have more than 1200 sq ft and only one of the 3 cost anywhere near that 100K figure. It's outrageous, a rip-off.
Montana has become a mecca for the second summer vacation home, rich and shameless crowd, including a lot of hollywood types and their hangers on, so the prices of land are artificially inflated. They spend a million dollars on a 5000 square foot mcmansion on 20 acres, that they only visit for 2 weeks a year.
It's tough on the folks that live here and try to make a living as we're usually priced out of the market unless it's marginal land or remote/hard to get to, usually with limited water or no timber way out on the prarie as it isn't "pretty".
The locals have been forced further and further out into the eastern side of the state, and it has made for some pretty hard feelings.
In a place like Helena, you can buy 20 acres of bare ground for around $50K, but go to Bozeman or Kalispell, I've seen land go for $30k an ACRE, no house, no improvements.
A basic house on 2 acres on a slab of rock goes for a minimum of $150K.
With our low wages, it makes it tough to make it here for a lot of people, especially if they have limited resources.
It takes time to setup to have lower expense and diminished debt, to no debt lifestyle; if one has interest to have todays amenities and conveniences. Now, if one makes a very high income and the ability to buy all the things needed, "Cash", they can set up quickly.
But for the working person, it takes time. It also takes a great deal of thinking; choosing to buy quality over quantity, choosing to buy durability over fancy and flashy, and choosing to understand what are the elements of ones daily activities and what conveniences one seeks to have within their daily activity. It takes time to earn the money to buy things or pay off the debt of having bought things on credit.
Then, what is the setting these things are desired. Is is a city setting, a country rural settings, or a out in the vast openess type of setting. These things matter greatly, and they matter even more so, when one has to factor in what is their employment options, (note, some may not need to work and are independently wealthy). But for the average person, all of such things must be considered.
Is it economical to live 50 or more miles from work, and what is the expense of such, is there heavy traffic and other factors involved in home and work distance.
Then, as people age, where is the medical facility, what is the assessibility options, the time frame to get assistance and care, all of such things become more emphasised as we age, due to the natural reality of life in relation to heath and age.
If one has a mass of land, what does it cost to maintain it, does it produce in resources or comsume resources to keep it cut and clearned? If one has livestock or such, or a farming program, what is the cost, labor and other elements that come along with it, because it is far more than a fancy whim, or just something chic' to do. It is labor intensive as well as costly.
There is no simple idea, it is up to individuals. Some people want to live a life as a hermit,and deprive themselves of all convenience and luxury, some people like to live as a miser and allow themselves no comforts of convenience and acts that engage luxury of any sort. Some people, want to be a social butterfly and have many associates and some friends, so, depending on a great many factors is what will result to make up how we live.
Everything in my home is paid for, I detest the thought that a creditor could come and take something from me. I paid cash for it when I put in in there, I've also learned, to Choose Carefully, what I buy, I won't just buy name brand for the sake of social popularity, I want to read the spec's to know what I am getting. I also like to buy things that can be repaired, rather than simply replaced when possible. I buy Benz that is maybe 5-7yrs old or such, because the modles are built with durability and quality, so its no problem to get 12-15 or more years of service from the car. Example: I'd like to have Porsche, I found the best options is to buy one that originally cost over 100k, but now sells for maybe 30K. because at 100k, it was built better than maybe the newer one that sells for 60+K.
As working people, we have to think in terms that does not lead us to have to repair and replace things every six or 18 months, because it can be burdensome and often the expense comes at the most inopportune times.
I would not go out and buy and overly expensive flat panel TV; as the changes are so rapid in these things, until in 6 months it could be outdated, so I get a reasonable cost items that does what I want it to do, and if it breaks or needs replacing I have not lost a mass of money on an overly expensive brand/model.
We never stop learning, we as people often buy more than we need of many things, because as people we like convinence as well as we like to have enough of things to share the enjoyment with others.
One has to figure out what is 'reasonable to their individual lives"..
Last edited by Chance and Change; 06-29-2015 at 08:41 AM..
Montana has become a mecca for the second summer vacation home, rich and shameless crowd, including a lot of hollywood types and their hangers on, so the prices of land are artificially inflated. They spend a million dollars on a 5000 square foot mcmansion on 20 acres, that they only visit for 2 weeks a year.
It's tough on the folks that live here and try to make a living as we're usually priced out of the market unless it's marginal land or remote/hard to get to, usually with limited water or no timber way out on the prarie as it isn't "pretty".
The locals have been forced further and further out into the eastern side of the state, and it has made for some pretty hard feelings....With our low wages, it makes it tough to make it here for a lot of people, especially if they have limited resources.
Have you ever considered that this may be part of a planned "denied use" of the land by locking away resources from people, using the Hollywood liberals to carry it out?
Over on the Maine forum, a guy known as Northern Maine Land Man speaks of what he calls "rural cleansing", which I take to mean (he doesn't define it) the effort by elitists and environmental wacko's to set aside rural land for preservation and "non-human use". As an example, Roxanne Quimby who founded and runs the "Burt's Bees" company and line of products, has become a multi-millionaire and has purchased several township's worth of land close to Baxter State Park (not far from where we live). She and her son are trying to have the land turned into a national park...except, who would visit it, that far north in Maine? No success yet, but her support comes from (urban) folks downstate; the locals are mostly against it.
Google the towns affected in MT and see which ones belong to ICLEI, or that base their planning departments on "sustainable development". Those are catchwords of the UN Agenda 21, which has infiltrated the US and wants to push the population into "human habitat areas" (urban multi-family housing). They want to set aside a lot of 'open space' and support the 'Wildlands Project' by introducing wolves and bears.
On their "not sustainable" list you'll find goodies like livestock grazing, soil plowing, fence-building, logging and timber, reservoirs, paved roads, and single-family housing. They believe that private land ownership contributes to "social injustice". It's nothing but wealth redistribution and state collectivism, using environmental concerns as BAIT. When I hear of what you describe in MT, it sounds like that could be going on, or starting to happen. It won't be good for Montanans, if they don't fight back.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
, health insurance (medicare) monthly income of $1800. Yes, it is a "feedshed" with a dairy kitchen and septic system to avoid rural residential zoning laws that say one must have a residence, and be built to code (with a high property tax value). I have a milk cow and a saddle horse. My property tax is $500 a year. Do you all think I can pull this off?
- you are paying a HUGE premium to live near a self-professed weirdo mecca.
