I can get onto Zillow right now and find house all across the country for $200k or less. The key? They are in small towns in the mid west. Wyoming, North & South Dakota, Nebraska, all in towns 40k and smaller.
So, if (I fully realize that is a BIG if) you can make that work, there are plenty of places to buy houses that are still affordable.
Where I live the avg price is $400k or so, but there are houses around me selling for $300k and lower. What you get is a smaller house that needs work, either due to disrepair, or is outdated and needs a remodel.
We tell the youth they need to move halfway across the country to live in a small town to have any hope of affording a house, while their tax dollars subsidize housing an endless horde of workers in the cities which became too expensive for them to afford.
No wonder more and more of them want to burn the whole thing to the ground.
Those are almost exclusively rust belt towns, towns that have been largely abandoned by the wider world, where the mean wage is much lower, which is why the housing prices are lower. If you buy a house there, and wish to make the same wage you make in a city or suburb, where house prices are much higher, you'll have to commute several hours to your job. I suppose the only exceptions would be if you can work from home, or you're an independent trucker (which would still require longer travel times to get to where most of the shipping is done).
The key? They are in small towns in the mid west. Wyoming, North & South Dakota, Nebraska, all in towns 40k and smaller.
Shhhhh, don't let them know about those places! Not like they would move there anyways because people don't want to make the sacrifices of living in BFN. They just love the hustle and bustle of the big city!
Somewhere between Rust-belt abandonland and those resort towns is what I need.
I want to live somewhere that is actually desirable to live but without too many people. Kind of a tall order.
Now if you want to talk about what hte boomers had that we don't... that's one thing. You could move to, like, California to get some extra room when the Midwest was too crowded.
I’ve got a couple houses I rent out a smaller town in the South. Both still worth just under $200k. Not fixer uppers. It’s a big enough place that unless you’re in something specialized you could find work. Boring place that’s never going to seem trendy, but it’s fine to raise a family. I’ve got a cousin there in his 20s, wife, young kid, new house. Average non exotic jobs. I’ve seen jobs there a fit for me, probably a bit overqualified, I just really don’t want to live there, already have a job and house, etc. I’m in my 40s and have already been down that road. It worked out too.
Where I live now it’s like yours closer to 400k. Have an upper 20s friend with wife and kid doing okay-ish. Definitely a lot tighter on the budget. He’s also just now getting to the point of “maybe I should learn something useful.” Very much a product of the “follow your passion” culture who’s passion is unmarketable and instead works in a warehouse.
I can get onto Zillow right now and find house all across the country for $200k or less. The key? They are in small towns in the mid west. Wyoming, North & South Dakota, Nebraska, all in towns 40k and smaller.
So, if (I fully realize that is a BIG if) you can make that work, there are plenty of places to buy houses that are still affordable.
Where I live the avg price is $400k or so, but there are houses around me selling for $300k and lower. What you get is a smaller house that needs work, either due to disrepair, or is outdated and needs a remodel.
We tell the youth they need to move halfway across the country to live in a small town to have any hope of affording a house, while their tax dollars subsidize housing an endless horde of workers in the cities which became too expensive for them to afford.
No wonder more and more of them want to burn the whole thing to the ground.
Those are almost exclusively rust belt towns, towns that have been largely abandoned by the wider world, where the mean wage is much lower, which is why the housing prices are lower. If you buy a house there, and wish to make the same wage you make in a city or suburb, where house prices are much higher, you'll have to commute several hours to your job. I suppose the only exceptions would be if you can work from home, or you're an independent trucker (which would still require longer travel times to get to where most of the shipping is done).
Shhhhh, don't let them know about those places! Not like they would move there anyways because people don't want to make the sacrifices of living in BFN. They just love the hustle and bustle of the big city!
Somewhere between Rust-belt abandonland and those resort towns is what I need.
I want to live somewhere that is actually desirable to live but without too many people. Kind of a tall order.
Now if you want to talk about what hte boomers had that we don't... that's one thing. You could move to, like, California to get some extra room when the Midwest was too crowded.
I’ve got a couple houses I rent out a smaller town in the South. Both still worth just under $200k. Not fixer uppers. It’s a big enough place that unless you’re in something specialized you could find work. Boring place that’s never going to seem trendy, but it’s fine to raise a family. I’ve got a cousin there in his 20s, wife, young kid, new house. Average non exotic jobs. I’ve seen jobs there a fit for me, probably a bit overqualified, I just really don’t want to live there, already have a job and house, etc. I’m in my 40s and have already been down that road. It worked out too.
Where I live now it’s like yours closer to 400k. Have an upper 20s friend with wife and kid doing okay-ish. Definitely a lot tighter on the budget. He’s also just now getting to the point of “maybe I should learn something useful.” Very much a product of the “follow your passion” culture who’s passion is unmarketable and instead works in a warehouse.