Need options; best homestead location 250 mile radius from NOLA

Cascade Failure · #1 03/09/11, 11:14 AM

Wife and I are thinking about moving south.

Cascade Failure · #2 03/09/11, 11:15 AM

Oops, hit submit, more to follow...

Callieslamb · #3 03/09/11, 11:15 AM

Tn is good. Lower cost of living. Lower wages also. No state tax. But summers are a bear.

Cascade Failure · #4 03/09/11, 11:43 AM

Winter KILLS her in New England. From mid-October to late-May she is miserable. I'm not being mean; that is her own self-description.

Kids and grandson are in NOLA. She has distant relatives in the Vidalia, GA area. Other than the kids I have no ties to the area but that is not a big factor for me.

Other than our current mortgage, debt is not an issue. Even with the current real estate downturn we should be able to walk away from a sale with a reasonable chuck of change towards a new homestead. She's a nurse. I am currently in the security field while finishing an engineering degree.

We live on 18 wooded acres in a small town across the river from a much larger "city".

Reasonable land prices, good gun rights, a hospital within 45 minutes drive time and a good growing season are very important. Low taxes compared to CT should be easy to find.

We love to hike, canoe and be outside. Hunting and fishing are important to me. We love to ride our King Quad and enjoy the scenery.

Does this sound like you? Where are you? Our initial conversation has lead us to the the S. Tenn, LA/ARline, or northern AL/GA lines. If you were in our shoes where would you start looking for a new home? Bonus points if you can find me an area with some elevation.

Cascade Failure · #5 03/09/11, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

Tn is good. Lower cost of living. Lower wages also. No state tax. But summers are a bear.

Realistically, anywhere she would be happy with winter, summer is going to be rough for me. That's fine though; I adjust a bit easier and as a couple it would be better for us.

Txrider · #6 03/09/11, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cascade Failure

Winter KILLS her in New England. From mid-October to late-May she is miserable. I'm not being mean; that is her own self-description.

Kids and grandson are in NOLA. She has distant relatives in the Vidalia, GA area. Other than the kids I have no ties to the area but that is not a big factor for me.

Other than our current mortgage, debt is not an issue. Even with the current real estate downturn we should be able to walk away from a sale with a reasonable chuck of change towards a new homestead. She's a nurse. I am currently in the security field while finishing an engineering degree.

We live on 18 wooded acres in a small town across the river from a much larger "city".

Reasonable land prices, good gun rights, a hospital within 45 minutes drive time and a good growing season are very important. Low taxes compared to CT should be easy to find.

We love to hike, canoe and be outside. Hunting and fishing are important to me. We love to ride our King Quad and enjoy the scenery.

Does this sound like you? Where are you? Our initial conversation has lead us to the the S. Tenn, LA/ARline, or northern AL/GA lines. If you were in our shoes where would you start looking for a new home? Bonus points if you can find me an area with some elevation.

Hmm, within 250 miles on NO, within 45 miles of hospital.. and you like to get out and hike and ride 4 wheelers?

I think I would look at the national forests within that range from NO, pick out the towns close to them large enough for hospital, Like maybe Alexandria LA or something, and look up land there on the web to go visit on someplace like landsofamerica.com...

Tobster · #7 03/09/11, 12:38 PM

If you want elevation (rolling hills) look north of Baton Rouge up in the Feliciana Parishes, St. Francisville, Clinton area. The land is fertile, acreage is available good mixes of cleared pasture and hardwood timber. Sizes less than 15 acres with road frontage and utilities will run you approx. $10K per acre. Great hospitals in the Baton Rouge area and is an easy ride to New Orleans.
My dentist lives due east of New Orleans in the Hammond/Slidell corridor. His acreage is sandy soil with pine trees. According to him, over the centuries, the Mississippi River never flooded that far east and in his opinion the soil is lacking. I will PM you a link for a realtor's web site with a good search engine for looking at prices and availability in the area.

halfpint · #8 03/09/11, 01:18 PM

If you're wanting to stay within 250 miles of NOLA, you can't get to North Alabama, Tennessee or Georgia. I'm outside of Birmingham and it is about 350 miles to NOLA. You'll be pretty much limited to Louisiana, Mississippi and a portion of Alabama, Texas and Florida. If you don't like to run from hurricanes, I would suggest staying inland, then you could be the retreat for your children & grandchildren.

I've only visited, but to stay within that distance you might want to look in North Mississippi outside of towns like Jackson, Vicksburg, Meridian or a little further north near Greenville, Starkville, Clarksdale or Tupelo. We have several friends that have hunting places in Mississippi.

Not sure with an engineering degree where you could work there though. I think most of the manufacturing is closer to the coast. Here are some interesting maps that might guide you to available industries, and to see what is in the area - since you like to canoe several of them show the rivers.
http://www.nmida.com/maps.html
Dawn

Ramblin Wreck · #9 03/09/11, 02:00 PM

Like halfpint noted, northern Alabama is slightly out of your radius, but if you can live with the extra distance, you might want to check out the Huntsville, Alabama area. It has good schools, good health care facilities, "cultural" stuff if you want it, and the economy seems better than in many areas. The area has lots of technology driven jobs that might provide openings for those with an engineering degree/bent. You'll be close to the Lookout Mountain ridge, and there's plenty of hunting/fishing close by (including parts of Tennessee and Mississippi).

Country Lady · #10 03/09/11, 02:34 PM

Check out areas surrounding Hattiesburg, MS. I think you would like it. Since your wife is a nurse, she wouldn't have a problem finding work. This town has everything you would need. Sure, we have hot summers, but everyone has air conditioners.

RebelDigger · #11 03/09/11, 05:00 PM

North Mississippi on a ridge top here. My son lives here and goes to college in Booneville and works in Tupelo. North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, Baptist Memorial Hospital in New Albany (Union County next county over) and we have a smaller satelitte of Baptist in Ripley which is the county seat of Tippah County where we live. Our six acres on the ridge top and down the west side of the ridge with yellow pines, an old dog trot farmhouse and a mobile home with two developed garden spots, bunches of fruit trees and bushes and a 15x30 wooden shed cost us $28,000.00. Property taxes should run about $200.00 a year and the cost of living is much lower here. Sales tax is 7%. We have plenty of hills and hollers and game (just saw a couple of deer in the backyard of the house when I was doing demo work there yesterday). New Orleans is about a five hour drive. Memphis is a hour and a half drive. No hurricane worries and winters are normally mild. Growing season is long, I will be planting my garden around the middle of April and we usually don't get frost until November or December. For an engineering degree, this is a good spot since Toyota is opening up a big plant between New Albany and Tupelo (thank you Gov. Barber). Oh and out here in the county, no building permits, inspections, etc. Folks around here still believe that a person should be able to do what they want on their own property. Everyone hunts, fishes and has guns, so blending in is easy for preppers.

Cascade Failure · #12 03/10/11, 10:31 AM

Thank you all for your input. The 250 mile radius was just to keep the S. California/Arizona suggestions to a minimum. A few extra miles won't kill us.

Rebeldigger's description has me thinking about a roadtrip!

As far as jobs, her's is more secure. I will do whatever I need to provide income. Completing the engineering degree is more important to me as far as proving I can than having to rely on it.

Other than the heat, what do you NOT like about your area?

RebelDigger · #13 03/10/11, 01:13 PM

The heat does not really bother me but, then I was raised here so I am used to it. The number one thing I can think of off the top of my head I don't like is being in a tornado prone area. FYI the closer you get to Jackson and south of there, the higher the cost of living, the cost of land and the greater the hurricane risk. Katrina damaged all the way up to Grenada. As a matter of fact, some houses in Blue Mountain (where we lived before we bought this place in october) were severaly damaged since it was still a Cat. 1 when it went over North Mississippi. BTW, it is possible to commute from Tippah County to Oxford (Ole Miss) in about 45 minutes--I did it for three years getting my degree. So if you need to transfer your school, hey best university in Mississippi right there. Hotty Totty!

Country Lady · #14 03/10/11, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cascade Failure

Other than the heat, what do you NOT like about your area?

Snakes!!! For those of us raised in the south, we have a natural instinct to look out for them in certain places.
BTW, University of Southern MS is in Hattiesburg. Hattiesburg is an hour from the coast, Mobile, AL, and Jackson, MS, and a couple hours from New Orleans.

buffalocreek · #15 03/10/11, 06:44 PM

Is the oil spill and threat of polluted rain in the coastal areas no longer an issue?

Country Lady · #16 03/10/11, 08:54 PM

It's no longer on the news.

rwinsouthla · #17 03/10/11, 10:53 PM

If you're currently in the security field and pursuing an engineering degree, I think what you would be looking for is in East or West Feliciana Parishes, eastward across St. Helena Parish, Tangipahoa Parish to Washington parish. If you would like to settle somewhere where YOU would have an opportunity, you'll need to stay in the East or West Feliciana parishes, with an easy ride toward the Mississippi river as that is where most of the industry is located. There are likely 20-25 potential plants you could work at now in the security field, and then work there as an engineer, that are a 20-30 minute ride from the Felicianas. St. Francisville is a charming little garden community/town with an artsy side to it, rolling hills, fertile land. Jackson, LA is more country-fied than St. Francisville. Jackson also has Thompson Creek and when I was up there a year or so ago, lots of forested land and pasture land for sale. Don't know the prices though. Exxon is 40 minutes or so from there and they employ probably 3000 people not including contractors. Dow is 50 minutes or so from there and they employ 1500 or so. Economy in this area is also doing well and has for the most part been shielded from the downturn in the national economy. Thinking I heard we were 3rd or 4th in the nation in the economy arena. But be advised, our summers can be brutal. Not unheard of to have low to mid 90s for 3 straight months, with lows of only the upper 70s. Add in the humidity and it doesn't cool off from mid May to late September. But it's my home and I wouldn't give it up for anything. Just my $0.02. Oh, and one more thing...the oil stayed in the Gulf. It didn't go upriver.

Tom in TN · #18 03/11/11, 12:20 AM

Cascade,

I live in Middle Tennessee and don't know anything about Louisiana. My wife and I have been married for 48 years and have lived in nine different states including California and Maine. Everyplace has good and bad, but we've enjoyed wherever we have lived. We are active church goers and have made dear, lifelong friends in churches in all nine states where we've lived.

We have a close knit family and simply enjoy life.

You asked about negatives - I don't know if they have them in Louisiana, but the fire ants in Alabama and South Georgia are treacherous. They can literally kill people and animals if the person or animal is exposed to multiple bites.

Good luck on your search. God is good - all the time.

Tom in TN

Use Less · #19 03/11/11, 08:44 AM

Heat, insects. The gardening season in the deep south is completely different than CT, and some things just won't grow. Small-town places can be difficult to get accepted anywhere. Goes for upstate rural NY as much as the south. I imagine spending the worst of winter someplace warmer, but the hottest part of summer drains me and is really difficult for him. 6 of 1, I guess.