Best place to buy a farm?

I vote for Maine.

But then again, most of Maine is far too rural for most folks.

From the Valley. Entire family, both mom's and dad's, from the general area between kettle falls and spokane. Moved away when I was 10 but spent every summer up there. I like the cold/dry winter with hot/hot summer better than cold/wet winter with who knows? summer. I'm sick of the rain.

Ha! Have you ever been to North Idaho or NE Washington?

Isn't Kettle Falls the town with the sign, "Welcome to -------, Population blah-blah...and 1 grouch"? I like the climate here too.

pennymac: I sure am serious. Kansas has alot of wonderful attributes. I am very familiar with Stockton. I had a good customer there in Tom's Big A Auto Parts.

As for buying farmsteads here, I bought one for my son this year, just a few miles from me. A big 2 story farmhouse needing updated but very liveable. A large barn, a roundtop machine shed with concrete floor, a loafing shed inside of a corral. a sheep/goat pen area with shelter, a large metal grain bin, detached garage, windmill ( not working ), a brooder house he is using for a kennel right now, and a tool shed near the garden. All of this on 10 acres for $79,000.

These places are out here still. There is a 12 year old brick rancher style house 2 more miles away from my son's place on 10 acres. Near a nice creek with a huge machine shed/ shop. Asking price is 169,000 and has been on the market for months.

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When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep....like my Grandfather. Not screaming and yelling like the other people in the car he was driving.

I would say somwhere in SouthEastern Illinois, the land is fairly cheap(a house a barn and 5 acres was selling for $27,000 last year)

1. poor water quality in this area
2. Earthquake hazard(new Madrid fault)
3. most of the ground is poor clay soil, and if your luck some Salt Brine damage from old Oilwells.

4. very little industy, and depression in many parts of this area.
5. alot of bottom land, only good for farmland and oil exploration.

Yes.

I was stationed on a boat in Bremerton Wa for a year, and then another boat at Subase Banger Washington for 3 years.

During which time, we did search for land that we would like. I traveled up into B.C. looking; and over the mountains Eastward and up onto those high plains; and we looked around homestead Idaho; and down around Pendleton Oregon; and I even make a trip over to Elko Nevada looking at the prices of land and what was around. I made many trips to the Olympic peninsula looking but the realtors there were very busy chopping everything into tiny 50 foot vacation home sites for folks in Seattle.

I almost bought 150 acres North of Elko, that was a sting of old silver claims, but after I got home and called the realtor, that land had already got into escrow via another buyer.

Now that is a good price.

Though it does sound like the list of negatives is pretty serious:

I know where Lisa lives.

*leers*

It's purrrdy.

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Gun-toting, church-going, homeschooling, right-wing conservative, happily married, stay-at-home mom of three living in the real United States of America!

Shhh, we're trying to find a place in Stevens County - don't tell anyone. It is beautiful, but prices are climbing like everywhere else. Up toward Northport or west to Republic (Ferry County) is much cheaper but it's a bit of a drive to Spokane. I saw a property under 20 acres with a 6-acre certified organic garden, shop etc. for under $100k. It was just south of the border, but I don't think the growing season is very long that far north, so perhaps they were having difficulty making a profit on the gardens. Still - I think every day about moving over there.

Oh, and yest Kettle Falls is the "1 grouch". I guess every year they have a fund-raiser and the person who receives the most paid votes is elected grouch for a year. They say the election can be bought :-). I like a town with a sense of humor.

I would like to thank everyone for the great ideas on where to start looking. I have written them all down and and looking at our options.
I had never thought about Kansas, sounds like a good place. Oregon and Washington look like beautiful places...what is the weather like along the east side?
Thank you Lisa for the link...I want the land in the picture;o)
Hubby and I are thinking about taking a summer long around the US tour of all the states...mini-winnie, horse trailer and all.
It now seems as if the decision is harder though.
Loree in ID

$5k per acre?

Ouch.

I guess it's all relative - where I live now in the eastern foothills of the Cascades, $30-50,000 per acre is not uncommon.

WOW!

So to buy 100 acres, and then to build a farmhouse and outbuildings would really cost a fortune.

I am glad that I found thick forest riverfrontage for under $1k / acre.

and in Southern California... those prices are insane.

My mother has a 'cabin' in Mariposa [Southern Sierra Nevada mother-lode area, just outside of Yosemite Park] an acre of foot hills there will run you about those prices too.

Entirely insane.

And brush fires every year, and a drought every year.

There are still lots of rural, no-mans-land areas in the East and very cheap too! Try checking out rural Maine, upstate NY, far north NH, extreme south VT or far north VT, extreme northwest Mass, etc.

Also, if it helps any I check unitedcountry.com and landandfarm.com on a nearly daily basis. It looks like the best bargains and the most rural areas are in West Virginia and Missouri--those 2 states have the most listings on the websites.


good luck!

Cheapskate, is there a hospital near> Im a nurse and still have to work. Your sons place sounds just like what I want. I will have a look. Can you tell me what section of Kansas or is the whole state that good? I still have a little piece of the house that I was born in. I dream about it sometimes.

"Very cheap" ?

No, not so, The cheapest that I have seen in Maine is $350/acre, for thick forest loaded with bear, moose, deer and turkey.