10 ms·

Try the Midwest around rail commuter routes. Most of them developed small yet thriving downtowns that are quite quaint and affordable For example check out Gen

by duped 4y ago

Try the Midwest around rail commuter routes. Most of them developed small yet thriving downtowns that are quite quaint and affordable For example check out Geneva Illinois

jbhouse 4y ago
illinois winters though...
- mandeepj 4y ago
  In the recent years winters got very short, only two months - Feb and March
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- duped 4y ago
  Winter is the best time of the year. It keeps housing prices down from people that can't deal with it.
  - Kon-Peki 4y ago
    Ain't that the truth? But seriously, if you want a small town with a functioning downtown that isn't ridiculously priced, you are going to have much better odds of finding something east of the Mississippi River. Because the type of town you are looking for needed to be established before the automobile became big. Geneva, IL and its neighbor to the north (St Charles) are really, really nice. But they're not a cheap places unless you are comparing them to coastal towns. Try this: make a list of all the counties in all the eastern states. Find the county seat of each one. Look at a satellite photo of the downtown area and if it seems solid, check out the street view. If that is also promising, look at real estate prices. Narrow it down to a list of 25-30 towns. And go visit them.
  - nxm 4y ago
    High property taxes keeps people out and home prices down in Illinois more than the weather.
- hax0rbana 4y ago
  I'm guessing that is sarcasm? Or you were serious and just never lived in Illinois? The average temperature barely gets below freezing and rarely get more than a couple inches of snow. https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/urbana/climate https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/urbana/climate
jazzyjackson 4y ago
Geneva has a very unique feature: the Fabyan estate with its recently restored dutch windmill, built nearby but looks straight out of the netherlands. The story behind the estate is very interesting, iirc Fabyan was obsesesd with finding hidden codes in Shakespeare, thinking he could prove Francis Bacon was the real author. By the time World War I broke out, he had gathered a library of historical cyphers and had a team of codebreakers working for him, who quickly changed course from Shakespeare to the War Department. It's a frank lloyd wright house with a well done japanese garden right on the fox river, worth taking the tour :)
codegeek 4y ago
Also check out Galesburg, Illinois. College town (knox.edu) and you can walk to most things on Main St. It is however a lot of Corn fields other than the college area but the last I was there was in 2002 so things may have changed a bit. Winters were brutal but lot of friendly people and back then as an immigrant, I always felt welcomed.

by duped 4y ago

Try the Midwest around rail commuter routes. Most of them developed small yet thriving downtowns that are quite quaint and affordable For example check out Geneva Illinois

jbhouse 4y ago

illinois winters though...

mandeepj 4y ago
In the recent years winters got very short, only two months - Feb and March
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
duped 4y ago
Winter is the best time of the year. It keeps housing prices down from people that can't deal with it.
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  Ain't that the truth? But seriously, if you want a small town with a functioning downtown that isn't ridiculously priced, you are going to have much better odds of finding something east of the Mississippi River. Because the type of town you are looking for needed to be established before the automobile became big. Geneva, IL and its neighbor to the north (St Charles) are really, really nice. But they're not a cheap places unless you are comparing them to coastal towns. Try this: make a list of all the counties in all the eastern states. Find the county seat of each one. Look at a satellite photo of the downtown area and if it seems solid, check out the street view. If that is also promising, look at real estate prices. Narrow it down to a list of 25-30 towns. And go visit them.
- nxm 4y ago
  High property taxes keeps people out and home prices down in Illinois more than the weather.
hax0rbana 4y ago
I'm guessing that is sarcasm? Or you were serious and just never lived in Illinois? The average temperature barely gets below freezing and rarely get more than a couple inches of snow. https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/urbana/climate https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/urbana/climate

jazzyjackson 4y ago

Geneva has a very unique feature: the Fabyan estate with its recently restored dutch windmill, built nearby but looks straight out of the netherlands. The story behind the estate is very interesting, iirc Fabyan was obsesesd with finding hidden codes in Shakespeare, thinking he could prove Francis Bacon was the real author. By the time World War I broke out, he had gathered a library of historical cyphers and had a team of codebreakers working for him, who quickly changed course from Shakespeare to the War Department. It's a frank lloyd wright house with a well done japanese garden right on the fox river, worth taking the tour :)

codegeek 4y ago

Also check out Galesburg, Illinois. College town (knox.edu) and you can walk to most things on Main St. It is however a lot of Corn fields other than the college area but the last I was there was in 2002 so things may have changed a bit. Winters were brutal but lot of friendly people and back then as an immigrant, I always felt welcomed.