Would you buy closer in, or further out?

CJ · #41 01/13/08, 05:34 PM

I guess I should mention that my idea of "in town" is basically 5-10 miles out

When I say "out", I'm looking at 45-60 minutes away.

Around here, driving an hour out doesn't seem to make land prices much cheaper. In fact, land seems to be pretty scarce period. In and around town of course, it gets chopped up and turned into subdivisions, but up the hills where we love it, it would seem that families have owned the land for generations, hundreds, sometimes thousands of acres, and very little of it in small parcels makes it onto the market. Usually only after they've timbered it and sold the mineral rights.

It's become my "quest" to find the unfindable piece of land here in Central Arkansas! LOL

lo6xzm · #42 01/14/08, 07:54 PM

We lived in a small town (1000 people) named White Deer in the Texas Panhandle for 6 years! Now that was remote. It had a quick stop and a blinking yellow light. I would not recomend that to anyone, unless they were born there and couldn't leave. Now we are in the Memphis metro area and it's been a good adjustment. (We're still adjusting after 2 years)

I spent the weekend on my 160ac "Retirement" farm in Douglas Missouri. I passed up a doe that would have been my first ever on Friday evening. January is a tough month to camp -even in a 27' travel trailor. We had lows in the mid 20's. There is about half pasture and the rest is a deep draw/canyon forested with mainly hardwoods. The pastures are worth more but I love going down into the draw. I can't imagine that draw ever getting developed, it has huge bolders. The bottom is "paved" with big chunks of thick flagstone, with a seasonal creek and steep slopes on both sides. The draw is very sheltered from the wind and stays much cooler in summer.

speedfunk · #43 01/14/08, 08:31 PM

It's funny we bought some property 2 years ago that I never thought we would have bought. I grew up 8 miles outside of nearest town of a few thousand on a dirt road and really like rural living. The place we bought is overlooking a town of 15k a 1/2 hour away from where i grew up. The land we just bought at first I thought was way to close but it was affordable 45k for 15 acres (BTW 15 acres of undeveloped land around the town(city)is unheard of!. This land though has a fresh spring and is a completely wooded cliff lol ) it does have a really nice spot to have a home though with a flat yard teraced in. It faces perfect south for a solar bermed house and has enough of a drop where the spring water will generate enough electric for our simple home. It is also very private and is steep enough where no one in the right mind ( no one except myself and DW ) would or could develop. Our neighbors are the hositpal which only cares about it's watertower that is on the same hill and cell towers!! It has a very flat driveway that wraps around the mountain and is at the end of the cul-de-sac. The city noise was my biggest problem and My wife wants to see the stars at night..I've come to notice that both don't bother me as much as I anticipated. The light pollution makes it easy to walk around my woods at 4:00 am lol. the noise hides the fact that i'm building with no permits

My wife works in that Town so her drive would be a few miles or she could walk down our hill and jump on a bus!! So that will save her money. I have to drive 15 miles to work, but I work 2 days a week so my drive doesn't matter as much. I do think where I live now (farther from town, but only a few miles out from new property) has better neighbors, they have sheep and chickens and I just sold our house to a guy who is going to bring goats in and has heavy equipment to rent from. Where the neighbors on our road seem like yuppies and not in the same simple mindset we have. ( i could be wrong though , i've had limited interaction with them so far. So it's defiantly a game of give and take. Privacy was my major reason to live in the middle of no where, but the new land even though right next to the city you don't see any houses at all

RebootMyself · #44 01/14/08, 08:52 PM

Just a thought to you and your husband, CJ. Speaking as someone who lives about an hour from work and often puts in 50+ hours, it really can sap your energy for homestead projects. After an hour on the road, a 10 hour day, then an hour back, I don't have as much energy as I'd like for tackling projects. Most real work waits for a weekend or vacation, and with church and family stuff, I don't get much time for other things.

Don't know your situation, but would offer that you should be ready for how slowly things might progress with land clearing and such when you give up 2 hours on top of a 10+ hour day for commuting.

indypartridge · #45 01/15/08, 05:05 AM

We moved to the homestead (log cabin in the woods) nearly four years ago (when gas was $1.50/gal). I commute about 60 miles one way (about an hour and a quarter). "Reboot" is right about not having time/energy for homesteading projects, but that said, I'd still do it over in a heartbeat. We love where we live, it's been great for the kids, and we do what we can and don't worry about what we can't do.

CJ · #46 01/15/08, 05:41 AM

lo6xzm, we also have land in Douglas county that we bought for retirement, right around the corner from Girdner, are you close by? We love it out there.

As for the commute and it sapping time and energy from the homestead, I completely agree. I already pointed this out to my hubby, saying his time would be limited to weekends (those that he gets off) leaving the bulk of the work to me. I don't mind, but there's a lot I can't do anymore, so my progress would be slow.

We do have a tractor, so I can do a fair amount with it, but I can't operate a chainsaw or drive fence posts anymore.

Regardless, I can't imagine living close enough in where I can hear neighbors all the time, the hiway, and the darn train. If we find something here, we may sell our land in Missouri, and so I can't help but look at this purchase (whatever it ends up being) as possibly forever.

By the way, the 60 acre piece we thought we walked was behind the land we actually walked, which had sold already... and of course it would put neighbors right in our face with the way the land lays. So that one is out.

pcdreams · #47 01/15/08, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJ

With the economy like it is, and looking likely to get worse (especially fuel prices) if you were looking for some land to live on, would you look for something closer in to where you work/shop, or further out?

I'd have to say further out (or at least more remote). We bought a fuel efficient car (+/- 50mpg, diesel) just so we could go. Our old truck was burning near $400 a month in gas just going to work and back each day. With this car we can go almost a month on one tank. now our cost in car payment, insurance, and fuel is roughtly $10 more per month that what we were paying in fuel alone on the truck. and we can go out once in a while without worrying about if we'll have fuel to get to work.

to me, being remote (read peace of mind) far outweighs any cost of fuel. But once again, without a fuel efficient vehicle one wouldn't be able to do it.

Best bet would be to find odd jobs around the community, or small scale garden sales, maybe sell beef on the hoof. The further removed you are from corporate America the better, more healthy and sound minded you become. Just my 2 cents.

pcdreams · #48 01/15/08, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texican

I'll not sacrifice my life, to be closer to humans and work... what's the point of making a living, if you hate what you're doing and where you're doing it?

Amen. Unfortunatly I'm stuck in that situation as we speak

gina kay · #49 01/15/08, 11:05 AM

We lve on 12 1/2 acres about 11 miles from town. Seems further because we are down a long gravel road so it's slow going until we hit the county road. The town has a population of 3500 and has a grocery store, small clothing store, courthouse, tax office, a few doctors and tiny hospital. This is family land on dh's side so we didn't have to pay anything. Can't beat that! The nearest big city is about 40 miles that has a big hospital. There are also bigger towns within 30 miles. Our other option, when we wanted to moe from the city, was to move to my family farm that my dad left me and my siblings. But it is very isolated with suits me fine(as far as distance from stores), but I worry about what if there is a medical emergency. The nearest hospital is approx 60 miles away and to get to the farm you have to go down an extemely narrow single lane mile long dirt road and when it rains it gets washed out. My dad had a fatal heart attack when living there and it took along time for paramedics to reach him. It's beautiful there (surrounded on 3 sides by national forests and other side is a farm but their house is far from fence line). We are getting older and feel we should be closer to medical facililties my family history of heart disease. Also the jobs are an hour away and dh isn't ready to retire for another 10 years. We love to go visit and my dd wants to someday live there. It will stay in the family and that's what is important. Meanwhile where we are we don't have much traffic and it's not zoned so I can have all my critters and garden, etc. The surrounding property owners are farmers and ranchers.

lo6xzm · #50 01/15/08, 02:24 PM

CJ Yes, our places are within a few miles of each other...We don't live there at the moment though. I wish we did...especially when spring comes. My farm is in between Sweden and Girdner along P highway and south on gravel 321. We rent the pastures to a local cattle guy and an old lady rents the little house. Best of Luck in the Arkansas Ozarks.

Rob Slattery

sugarbush · #51 01/15/08, 02:39 PM

Five years ago we drove 80 miles to work one way, as gas prices went up we moved closer to work. My wife now drives 2 miles to work and me a max of 25 as I am self employed. Even with a short commute we still saw the need for a hybrid car.

I expect that gas prices will double in the next five to eight years. Spend the time looking close in now and if you want to move farther out later do so. In town property is going to rise and rural property will either stay the same or fall.

Not too far in the future you will not beable to afford to live in rural areas unless you can do it self sufficently.

Rural America has been hemorraging its population for years now, then gas went up and excelerated it.