3 ms·

In the US, is it cheaper to live rurally? Tremendously so, if you are prepared to live that way. Rural houses are generally very cheap. You've got to live a b

In the US, is it cheaper to live rurally? Tremendously so, if you are prepared to live that way. Rural houses are generally very cheap. You've got to live a bit dirtier, perhaps with an outhouse and a well and some chickens, and you have to figure out what you are doing for a living. But in the US, if you are too poor for wherever you are living, I'm pretty sure you can just move further away from the city. A huge chunk of the US looks like this: http://www.culinaryanthropologist.org/photos/Smtanya0001.JPG http://www.culinaryanthropologist.org/photos/Smtanya0001.JPG http://nebula.wsimg.com/98a9d952e9d4c36a0af32e562e73701e?AccessKeyId=AFC82A4D29E428E10392&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 http://nebula.wsimg.com/98a9d952e9d4c36a0af32e562e73701e?Acc... http://gallery.usgs.gov/images/12_01_2011/bfv2YmkXXS_12_01_2011/large/montana_oldhouse_storm.jpg http://gallery.usgs.gov/images/12_01_2011/bfv2YmkXXS_12_01_2... I don't know all the zoning rules, but when you are 200 miles from the nearest sheriff, I don't think people get too picky.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago
This is so wrong in many ways. Some of your costs go down, but your means of earning money go down also. Also, there is a cost to having poor infrastructure in health as well as money (septic tanks ain't cheap, burning your trash out back will give you cancer), forget about public transit, you have to have a car. Better to be poor in a city, where there could at least be some services to help out, and at least the infrastructure is there and relatively cheap. And finding a job is a possibility.
- stegosaurus 12y ago
  While this might be true, for clarification on my original question I'm not actually that interested in the 'whole picture' analysis of (income - expenditure). In the UK rural property is generally more expensive in addition to being remote. But then, our urban/semi-urban housing doesn't really resemble suburbia in the same way. Streets with detached homes, large drive, etcetera are relatively rare - more common would be semi-detached. (This post has me wanting to visit the US now... all of my knowledge is gleaned from photos and hanging around American folk online, heh) I mean; it sounds to me that a few years salary could enable you to live out in the sticks and 'retire' for a long time, if not indefinitely. That sort of thing would be impossible in the UK; ex-social housing in a run down town is probably your best bet. It might be that I'm framing things wrongly simply because housing (and property tax) is so expensive here. All other expenses are practically negligible in comparison. $3-4000 a year could buy you basic food, utilities, and a computer to hack away on.
  - acveilleux 12y ago
    The scale is a bit different, that's for sure. If you really want the full effect, drive the trans-canada highway from coast to coast, budget a week. Most canadians would shortcut through the US and save ~10 hours of driving (a lot of that with one lane per direction through the northern ontario wilderness.)
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Better to be poor in a city I could definitely be wrong, and I agree there is a point where you are just too far, but I live more than an hour from the city and meet people from towns even further away; life still happens as normal out here and it doesn't cost so damn much. So maybe don't live in a corn field, but don't insist on New York, New York either.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    I spent time living in a small city (Vicksburg MS), the people living in the boonies were much worse off then those in the city or adjacent neighborhoods. Even getting to a grocery is hard, and no trash pickup or anything nice like a sewer. Trailer parks have a bad reputation for a reason.
JoeAltmaier 12y ago
Outhouse? The last home outhouse around here went out in the 60's. Rural Iowa is where I live. We have had plumbing, the REC, mail deliver etc for half a century. As for where I work? Well, in San Jose right now - I work remotely for a Silicon Valley startup. Have for 20 years, one after another. Is it cheap? Pretty much so. 80 acres and built a house for a couple hundred thousand. Worth a lot more now since I live near a college town, but just move south 20 miles and still land is around $1000/acre.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  My view is colored by the fact that most rural property I think about is in the mountains, where septic systems and satellite internet are livin' high on the hog.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    Most inhabited rural property in the US is of the trailer park/boonie variety. Living in the mountains..like say Montana, is even more expensive.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago

This is so wrong in many ways. Some of your costs go down, but your means of earning money go down also. Also, there is a cost to having poor infrastructure in health as well as money (septic tanks ain't cheap, burning your trash out back will give you cancer), forget about public transit, you have to have a car. Better to be poor in a city, where there could at least be some services to help out, and at least the infrastructure is there and relatively cheap. And finding a job is a possibility.

stegosaurus 12y ago
While this might be true, for clarification on my original question I'm not actually that interested in the 'whole picture' analysis of (income - expenditure). In the UK rural property is generally more expensive in addition to being remote. But then, our urban/semi-urban housing doesn't really resemble suburbia in the same way. Streets with detached homes, large drive, etcetera are relatively rare - more common would be semi-detached. (This post has me wanting to visit the US now... all of my knowledge is gleaned from photos and hanging around American folk online, heh) I mean; it sounds to me that a few years salary could enable you to live out in the sticks and 'retire' for a long time, if not indefinitely. That sort of thing would be impossible in the UK; ex-social housing in a run down town is probably your best bet. It might be that I'm framing things wrongly simply because housing (and property tax) is so expensive here. All other expenses are practically negligible in comparison. $3-4000 a year could buy you basic food, utilities, and a computer to hack away on.
- acveilleux 12y ago
  The scale is a bit different, that's for sure. If you really want the full effect, drive the trans-canada highway from coast to coast, budget a week. Most canadians would shortcut through the US and save ~10 hours of driving (a lot of that with one lane per direction through the northern ontario wilderness.)
sliverstorm 12y ago
Better to be poor in a city I could definitely be wrong, and I agree there is a point where you are just too far, but I live more than an hour from the city and meet people from towns even further away; life still happens as normal out here and it doesn't cost so damn much. So maybe don't live in a corn field, but don't insist on New York, New York either.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  I spent time living in a small city (Vicksburg MS), the people living in the boonies were much worse off then those in the city or adjacent neighborhoods. Even getting to a grocery is hard, and no trash pickup or anything nice like a sewer. Trailer parks have a bad reputation for a reason.

JoeAltmaier 12y ago

Outhouse? The last home outhouse around here went out in the 60's. Rural Iowa is where I live. We have had plumbing, the REC, mail deliver etc for half a century. As for where I work? Well, in San Jose right now - I work remotely for a Silicon Valley startup. Have for 20 years, one after another. Is it cheap? Pretty much so. 80 acres and built a house for a couple hundred thousand. Worth a lot more now since I live near a college town, but just move south 20 miles and still land is around $1000/acre.

sliverstorm 12y ago
My view is colored by the fact that most rural property I think about is in the mountains, where septic systems and satellite internet are livin' high on the hog.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  Most inhabited rural property in the US is of the trailer park/boonie variety. Living in the mountains..like say Montana, is even more expensive.