Tell us about your area & state

[Kathy]

Since many are still searching for their homestead location, maybe sharing some info about your state and location would help in their search.
You don't have to give the town if you're not comfortable-just a general area within the state such as south, east, etc.

Info that might be helpful:

average land prices and availability
climate both winter and summer
availability of water
soil conditions
land use laws
zoning/bldg restrictions
availability of services such as lumber,feed, propane,etc
taxes
insurance & utility costs
crime
quality of public/private schools &/or acceptance of homeschooling
friendliness of the locals towards newcomers

[bbird]

I don't know the specifics about where I live! How pathetic is that?!

I'm in NW Oregon. It's very beautiful with all the forest area's, and the greenness. Close enough to go to the ocean or go to the mountains.

Taxes are high, land is high and unemployment is high. Sounds discouraging huh? It's not really. We paid $10,000 an acre for bare property here, and we have a nice creek that flows through the property plus a pond. That is cheap compared to 20 miles closer to the big city.

We have four seasons, but do get a lot of rain in the spring, summer and winter. If we are lucky we get some kind of snow. Summers are down right incredible, where everything stays green and vibrant. Winters are usually mild above freezing, but there are times when it gets below freezing but doesn't last for too long. Summers are on average around 80 degree's.

I'd say locals are friendly in a friendly way, lol. They say hi, and will answer questions. I think neighbors pretty much mind their own business, but I haven't met any that really talk over the fences. Might be because I don't have any neighbors that close, but we do wave as we pass each other on the road.

Zoning in our area is tough. Building permits are needed for every little thing, even adding a porch or a carport. It's getting harder and harder to find small acreage, because zoning makes you have 10 acres to build on unless it was grandfathered in.

The most beautiful thing about our area are the lakes, rivers, and mountains. Recreation abounds...from camping, fishing, hunting, skiing, windsurfing. We have the great Columbia River 10 minutes away.

Lots of homeschoolers, and it's easy to homeschool here. Just have to notify the school district when you start and then have your kids tested after 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grade.

Usually not hard at all to find water on your property, and most people don't have to watch their water if they are on a well. Electric is high. I don't have the rate it is, but our house is 2016 sq ft and it cost us around $250 to heat and we keep a cool house and suppliment with wood heat. Our soil is very rich, but we live in old growth forest area. I know others who don't and they have clay in their soil. Gardens flourish though.

Cell phone service stinks, but there are alot of hills and valleys.

There are no grocery stores in our town (except for a little discarded bulk grocery place that is dirty) so we go across to Washington to shop.

We have no sales tax in Oregon. Cost $54 every two years to put tag on your car.

There is a big meth problem. School levies always fail.

I didn't mean for this to sound negative. I really do love living here. The land, the wildlife, the quietness of my area is breathtaking at times. My dh drives 1 1/2 hours to work, but like he says "It's worth it to live on this property."

[bergere]

Yup what Deb said.

However, the Electric is much cheaper than NH by far.

Property Taxes are out of this world. Price of land is not cheap. The nightmare of finding any place we could afford in 04 was really frustrating.

We have a Mellow 4 seasons here up in the Hills. This is the 2nd winter here and we have had more 15* weather than last year. All last Nov.. a warm up and back to the 20*+/- in Feb.
Lots of fog in the winter on this Hill.
Depending on the winter it is not impossible to have roses flowering in Dec.
Last summer we had a lot of 80* & 90* days. But I have not been here long enough to give an average.
We were however about 5 to 10* cooler up here, than down on the lowlands.

Our Well has problems with pulling clay into the pipes in the house. At some point we will have to do something about it.

There is a lot of Farm land which I like. I also like that they can't split up the land. Less likely to get the mass of City people moving in and making a good farm a suburb.
For me it is a plus.
But yes, it does make land harder to find and afford.
The 5 acres up the road is going for $80,000.
When we were looking in 04...way out in the Weeds with no utilities was going for $55 to +++ for 5 acres.

School system here is the worse I have ever seen.
Most people Home school.

Crime...so far only have had Poachers cut our fencing and all that.
Neighbors seem to keep to themselves. We wave Hi, once in a great while they stop to talk over the fence but doesn't happen often.

Price of good Orchard Grass hay is running $240.00 a ton delivered.
Surprisingly they will deliver anything you need or want in hay, Farm stuff, lumber and all that. For a price of course. But not as costly as one would think.
Price of 3/4- Gravel for drives is $125.00 for 10 yards.

Have no idea about the Building codes at this point.

Land use laws will depend on where you live. But in this area lots of folks have cattle, horses, goats, donkeys, llamas and all that.

Soil is good old Clay. But things seem to grow well in it.

[rogue]

Well, I am on the Kanawha/Roane County line in WV and I will try to be nice.

Land prices here vary. For good land (flat and only hilly) you can expect an average of $1,000 per acre. Mountainsides and cliffs lol average $100-$500 per acre. There are some nice properties to be had, a few farms but most larger parcels are being divided into smaller lots.

Taxes aren't too hideous. Not too great but they probably wouldn't kill anyone. As for property taxes I pay $300/year on 115 acres + house+ six outbuildings if that tells anyone anything. We do have state tax also and sales tax on everything is 6%. I always send dh to take care of personal property so I don't remember how much that is.

Water is usually only issue when it rains lol. It floods everywhere here. If I am not terribly mistaken I think the average well is 30 ft. City water has made it's way nearly everywhere though. There are a couple of very remote places I know of where people do have to haul water (I don't remember exactly why though).

The soil here isn't too bad. There is a lot of clay and a lot of hard ground but one can grow nearly anything. Don't expect 20 foot corn though and root crops seem to do better with raised beds.

Unless you are actually in a city (or a select few towns) you really don't have to worry about zoning laws, building codes, ect because there aren't any. This county recently decided that a permit was needed when building anything over 13X13 but no one bothers with it lol. And in case anyone is interested, outhouses are illegal pretty much everywhere here lol.

In most places you can get anything you need within probably 20 - 35 miles at the most. Feed, building supplies, and things like that can be found just about everywhere. There are a limited number of coops and so forth that sell feed in bulk.

Utilities aren't too bad but they are going up. My water averages $35/month, electricity $75, natural gas for 1200 sqf in winter $100 (there are some places where free gas is avalible).

We have all four seasons here but it's pretty mild. Summer averages 80-85 and winter averages 35. We do get some snow but usually only a couple of inches. There are a number of places 4wd would be required though.

Public schools pretty well suck here. They spend, spend, spend, but the quality continualy gets worse. there are some nice private schools and Christian schools here. There aren't many homeschoolers but it isn't too much of a problem to do so here (submit a letter of intent to homeschool each year and that is about it I think).

It is pretty conservative around here. Most people mind their own business though. Everyone is friendly and you can expect perfect strangers to strike up a conversation in a store/ post office/anywhere there are other people lol. Sorry to say but there are still some places it depends on who you are as to how accepted you will be.

Crime.......A normal night consists of cops picking up local drunks or kids trying to get into some meaness lol. Not much else happens except for maybe a once a month shooting. Seriously though there is a HUGE, HUGE meth problem here but the cops never do anything about that unless it is too obvious for them not to (ie lab blows up and kills kids in the house).

One really big downer here is the chemical plants. The things should be criminal. The hunting is good here as well as the fishing but there are more than a few places where it isn't safe to eat the fish or actually come in contact with the water. A good part of the state is toxic.

[bostonlesley]

I live about 90 miles SW of St. Louis..Missouri is an interesting state since if you go just an hour or so in any direction, things change dramatically..weather, taxes, land prices, etc.

I've lived in many states (too many)...Missouri is one of the least expensive by and large for homesteading property taxes. The place I'm trying to buy right now has 3 acres, a 4 bedroom farmhouse, several nice outbuildings and a guest house..taxes are $271/Year, and that's a bit high for that area.

Our county sales tax is 6%..others vary..
Missouri has a "personal property" tax on vehicles, boats, trailers, and livestock. At first I didn't like that concept at all..(who likes taxes?)..but now I can see what Missouri does that. It takes the burden of taxing for public services off the land/home owners and spreads it out to include everyone who owns a car/truck/boat..Not a bad idea IMHO..The more expensive your car, the higher taxes you'll pay each year..the tax amount goes down as your vehicle depreciates.

Land prices around this part of Missouri run to a high of $2000/acre for good land.

The little towns have overwhelming zoning, bordering on the ridiculous..i.e. In Arcadia, if you live inside the city limits and have a 5 acre place with a pond you cannot own poultry..even a single duck. No zoning in the county..do what you like.

Water is very hard..I have to rinse vinegar through my coffee maker once a month to keep it working.

I have no clue as to the quality of the public school system..

It's bloody HOT and humid here in the Summer and can be in the 90's by Easter, or have a freak snowstorm..you never know. Winters have been mild the last several years..3 snows/season with a max of 5 inches.In the 1970's, we had HUGE storms..18 inches of snow and many big ice storms.

Most folks around here use electric heat..the rates this year climbed by 45 %..it's killing me to pay that bill!

Healthcare is so poor that if you want decent docs you have to go to St. Louis..really sub-standard.

Very little crime in this area..In the last 10 years I think they've had maybe 6 murders in 4 surrounding counties.
Some meth problem, but it's not rampant.(yet).

People are very friendly but not inclusive..everyone smiles and waves..a LOT..but not interested in making friends of "outsiders".

[chilipalmer]

My hometown is in SE Washington state, the Columbia Basin area. If you look on a map it shows Yakima as the main city, which I've never understood; Yakima has about 18,000 pop but the Tri-Cities (Richland-Pasco-Kennewick) has a quarter million people in the area. Yakima has high crime and jobs are scarce; the Tri-Cities has jobs, mostly of the highly educated sort but blue collar jobs can be hunted up without too much trouble. Most folks shop in the Tri-Cities.

Washington is divided into areas that are highly dissimilar. Seattle area has the people - it's what makes Washington a blue state. Further south on the I-5 corridor you get rural folk and lots of small towns but most are liberal (ish). Spokane and anything north and west to the Cascades and the northern border are mountain folks. South of Spokane and east of the Cascade mountain range is the agriculture area of Washington. Those counties are red to the core.

The famed rains of the PNW stop at the Cascade mountains. The Columbia Basin is dry and windy, lots of sagebrush and cattle and dryland winter wheat, some scrub along the Columbia river. The lay of the land is flat to rolling interspersed with ridges and canyons. When I say dry and windy, I mean DRY and WINDY. Twenty mph winds are merely a breezy day. Forty mph is nothing uncommon. Mild winters but for the wind chill factor, even then rarely gets to below 0. Summers are hot and dry, 110+ in August is expected. No humidity, which makes summer nights just gorgeous. On some forum I followed a link on a thread about relocation to a site that had the 100 Safest Places to Live (as far as natural disasters and weather). The Tri-Cities were ranked number six. Your biggest concern would be extreme wind, which I've seen happen (hurricane force or stronger, gusted over 160mph on Rattlesnake Mountain). Weather always comes in from the west-northwest.

Water isn't as much of an issue as one might think with it being so dry. The Columbia irrigates everything. Wells are anywhere from 80-400 feet or deeper, but are reliable.

If you ride horses, you'll be as good as a local the first time you hit the Ranch & Home. If you neither ride nor go to church, preferably a Baptist church, you'll be a stranger until they figure you aren't leaving. Give it a few years. But folks are nice and love to chat, and not waving when someone drives by is a mortal insult. The schools are horrible. The police are shoddy and useless at best but the county sheriff departments are good folk. The building regs are tighter than a noose. The local politicians have inspired fueds. Health care is bad, there was a heck of a fuss a while back when the local doctors threw a fit over the cost of malpractice insurance and wanted the taxpayers to pass a resolution to do something about it. They took to demanding patients pay for extraneous tests to cover the doctors' buns, ran roughshod over their clientele, many reported parents to the local child services at the slightest opportunity, all the while saying devoutly that the cost of malpractice insurance tied their hands in these matters and if only we taxayers would do something about it...

People in that area don't like Hispanics. Illegal migrant workers are a huge problem and the Hispanic gangs cause virtually all of the local crime. The result is that the last couple of decades have seen a growing, pervasive suspicion of anyone Hispanic.

Taxes are high, housing is insanely expensive; feed and hay are cheap and you can pick up pretty near any tool, rig or gizmo your heart desires real cheap through the Giant Nickel or a store's bulletin board. Electric's pretty high but I've seen worse. Almost no one uses propane or natural gas, it's all electric and wood.

Very horse-oriented area. Lots of casual riders and even more rodeo types, but not much English riding or showing. The best camping in the entire world is Tucannon, in the Blue Mountains. Fabulous fishing, good big game hunting. Long growing season with lots of sunshine. The soil is an odd combination of river clay, sand and windblown dust. Dump a cubic ton of organic material per foot of garden area and you could probably have a nice garden.

Here's some pictures of the area that are extremely accurate. www.fruitfromwashington.com/product/land/valley_view.html#acreage

Five acres of unimproved dirt will run you $25-40k. Covenants will be an issue unless you get away from the cities (way away). Improved good land with maybe even some buildings will cost you twice or three times that price. Any sort of house in any condition above "blown over" will throw an easy $100k to the price.

[auntieemu]

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