What will the next big homesteading state be?

What year did you buy the land? What city are you near?

On 8-16-07 I started a thread "Any South Western Ozark Information or Homesteaders here" so basically I received replies mostly from folks in the Ozarks. (very friendly folks in the Ozarks)

I also received several private e-mails from country folks NOT living in the Ozarks, those people lived in South Eastern states such as KY and TN. I did a little research on those states and they also seem to be popular with homesteaders.

Those states seem to be popular for climate and cost of living as the Ozarks also offer.

Forget Louisiana--crooked corrupt politicians for more than 100 years equals businesses do not want to come here, and with the whites leaving, this state is becoming predominately brown. Get your crayola crayons out and check--those people are NOT black

I bought in 2005.

The closest city would be Bangor.

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http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx

Another great homesteading place is in NW Alabama, around the Bankhead National Forest, in the Moulton to Double Springs area. You talk about beautiful! Just look... http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/387316662GvomXJ And there are still Cherokee people living there. Because of lack of industry in that area, the land is cheap, and the population relies a lot on cottage industries and old-timey barter exchange to survive. Yet a high-tech engineer could live there and commute to Huntsville and NASA, etc., in maybe an hour or hour and a half.[/QUOTE]

This area does have some industry, mostly mobile home plants. We lived in Haleyville for about 9 years, so I am very familiar with the area. It does have some pretty decent areas for homesteading, but don't plan on getting stead work without commuting. I don't remember anyone doing old timey barter exchange there though, nor did I see much in the lines of cottage industires. Most of the industry is strip mining, logging and mobile home industry.

georgec shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh be quite. ive lived in ada since the early 80's getting to be to many folks now around here. he didnt mention the new starbucks being opened too. the adans that i talk to think the housing boom will bust there not that many place that can pay enough to afford the 250k housing i see going up here

I left Missouri and moved to Oklahoma where the taxes and the land is cheaper. This is a great place to retire to, but this part of the state has no jobs, so you have to have an outside source of income to live here.

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as long as you stay away from the 3 big cities (KC, St. Louis, Springfield). Maybe 2-3 counties out. I think regulations won't be an issue (exceptions maybe along the I-70 corridor.. Mostly because its quite built up. It's still fairly rural. There is a lot of growth but its mostly near the cities. That said, in the last few years some of these small towns (especially Ava) has grown and gained some things like wal-mart supercenter (for good or bad) etc. Makes jobs more available in these areas (didn't say good paying jobs.

Taxes are really low here ($10/yr on 21 acres bare land). Taxes on our house in town (Greene county) are $350/yr.

As for climate.. Too hot for me, not enough winter. This has changed in the last 10-15 years. We use to have a couple weeks of real hot weather and reasonable snow. Now we get more hot and little snow.

I think big gov't and regulations are coming no matter where you go, but I think the Ozarks will be the last place to see it.

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

Hey.

OK people forgot to mention they pay next to nothing for property tax.

RF

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It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

Cool, how much is 'next to nothing'?

Are we talking 10 cents per acre?

20?

a buck?

I would consider my taxes high, I pay $1.05 per acre.

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http://www.mofga.org/

http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx

Is that just for the land, or includes a house?

Kathleen

I guess that it would include the house.

We get a bill, and then we get another statement about the property's assessment: it lists how many acres at such an assessed value, how many buildings at such an assessed value, and how many personal property items you have and what they are assessed at. All those assessed values are added together, than any adjustments are subtracted for a total of your assessed taxable property.

I suppose that you can just multiply that with the mil rate, our mil rate is 0.00857% to get the tax bill.

You could likely multiply the mil rate against the assessed value of a house to find the taxes on just the house. But I have never done so.

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http://www.mofga.org/

http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx

There are a lot of 250K houses beging built, but you can still buy a place in town for less than 50k. I don't see land prices going down any time soon, the majority of it is being bought from folks living out of State. One of my neighbors is from PA, the other lives in CA.

This is from a book I just picked up last week. It's The Ozarks, A Personal History, by Tony Stephenson.

"According to the tale it seems a city-dweller died in the bloom of spring and upon entering heaven was surprised to find a wild-eyed, crazy man chained to a rock at the gates of heaven. The new arrival immediately questioned St. Peter, asking how such a thing like this could happen in heaven. The saint looked at the newly arrived man and responded that the chained man was a hillbilly from the Ozarks and that it was spring down there. 'The only way to keep an Ozarker in heaven when the redbud and dogwood bloom and the redhorse suckers are shoaling,' said the good saint, 'is to put him in chains.'

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"I don't want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did."
— Henry James

I can't understand the fascination with warm climates. The Ozarks are beautiful, but who could stand the heat and humidity? I looked at most of the replies on this thread and most places mentioned have god-awful hot climates, in my opinion, except for Maine.

If I ever move again it will be further north, especially with climate change in full force. I want my four seasons, not just warm, hot and hotter.

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-Paul

"If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." -Red Green

Good point. How is the humidity where you live in a normal year? Do most people have air conditioners? I was shocked to find that most people in Wyoming don't have air conditioners.
As far as the original topic... I'm thinking Ford8N has a point. It'll be further north I bet.

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Seriously prepare to construct your own reality, because you can be sure that right now somewhere in the world there is a group of people constructing one for you.

Also many places have issues with droughts and /or finding and providing easily accessible water sources.

Here we have lots of water, very easily accessible.

I do own four window A/C units, we brought them with us from previous homes. But we have never plugged them in since we moved to Maine.

I'd say TN we have tons of open spaces. Most of our cities don't spread far and everything else is farm land.

amen to that. We're in the ozarks and can't wait to get out. The heat is killing us.

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

I just talked to my parents in Southern IL (20 something miles south of Carbondale). They are sleeping with the AC on tonight and I just closed all my windows because it will be in the 40's tonight. What a difference 520 miles makes.

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-Paul

"If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." -Red Green