Antihero's Where The berkeley do I move to thread

So since I don't wanna totally take over the Minor Rants thread, here's a post about where I should move to. I'm not pulling the trigger yet but I obsessively plan for eventualities and this is turning into one 

Basically, my wee town has been found. A magazine rated it as the best lake town in America, population in winter off season is about 1300 spread over many miles. Summer is over 70k now. I don't like people and them bringing their problems with them and the growth is super E36 M3ty at times. I might have to hit the eject button before it becomes the next Tahoe, which is something that a lot of people are desperately hoping for. 

So here's a list of things I want:

Must haves

Not a huge amount of winter, I'm tired of snow. Some is fine, a lot is not

Small towns.

The ability to buy large sections of land and be away. 

Decent gun laws( I know this is a touchy subject but I own guns, will continue to do so and would prefer limited involvement in my life to prevent it)

Not ridiculously hot. I'm ok with some 100 degree days but I don't want to live in Death Valley

Water has to be available *not lakes etc the ability to get a well

The Preferred list of things

I do like trees but high desert is fine too if I'm skirting a bunch of snow.

I'd prefer not to have major natural disasters a huge possibility, so no hurricane or tornadoes

Other than that I'm open , tell me more

What do you want to do for employment?

AZ seems to have the best gunshows and stores.

matthewmcl said:

What do you want to do for employment?

AZ seems to have the best gunshows and stores.

I do construction for a living, I'd probably start up my company wherever I land again.

Unless I could get a huge amount for the property here( not a pipe dream at all) and move to a place that was cheap to buy into and not have to work for awhile. My wife's job skills are very remote-friendly ( graphic design, some web design) , or not very regional ( piano teacher, sax instructor) or even less regionally restricted ( jewelry making, custom made.....pretty much everything, craft show stuff) so If we could thrive on one income I'm cool with that too. Like......the amount she makes at craft fairs would have supported me well at times in my life and that could be an extra income stream.

Don't know where you live now, but I think some of the coastal or near-coastal parts of Oregon may meet your criteria, though they are definitely getting discovered (from what I saw in Bandon this year). However, that would make re-starting your construction company very straightforward.

Biggest issue is that's a long way from anywhere - 2-3 hours to the regional airport at Eugene, for example, so not ideal if you want any city life or to travel by air a lot. (And I don't know firearms regulations.)

Off-topic and not to pry, but curious where you are living now that has been so discovered? That's a scary huge summer population!

What kind of water? Lakeside? Reservoirs within a reasonable drive for an afternoon on a boat? Daily fishing? 
 

Big plots of land cheap is relatively easy. Modena UT has cheap land, reasonable winters, not terrible summers, and very few people. No water though, unless you want 1-2 hour drive. 

barefootcyborg5000 said:

What kind of water? Lakeside? Reservoirs within a reasonable drive for an afternoon on a boat? Daily fishing? 
 

Big plots of land cheap is relatively easy. Modena UT has cheap land, reasonable winters, not terrible summers, and very few people. No water though, unless you want 1-2 hour drive. 

I guess I made that not clear, I mean I don't want it to be arid so I can't get a well drilled.

I actually hate all forms of water, fishing from the shore is as close as I like.

BoulderG said:

Don't know where you live now, but I think some of the coastal or near-coastal parts of Oregon may meet your criteria, though they are definitely getting discovered (from what I saw in Bandon this year). However, that would make re-starting your construction company very straightforward.

Biggest issue is that's a long way from anywhere - 2-3 hours to the regional airport at Eugene, for example, so not ideal if you want any city life or to travel by air a lot. (And I don't know firearms regulations.)

Off-topic and not to pry, but curious where you are living now that has been so discovered? That's a scary huge summer population!

Priest Lake Idaho. I pass Bentley's and Maybachs on our little rural highway more than I should. Ozzy Osbourne lives up here part time, the Kardashians are around and I work for people that I'm not allowed to know their names at times.

Literally 3 years ago I could buy any of 50 houses in the area for less than 75k. Now the cheapest houses are 5 times that. Rent has gone up from $600 ish to 2800 on some places.

It's bad

My wife's cousin and husband had similar requirements, ended up on a lake in Tazewell Tennessee. 

This is happening literally everywhere. People are able to work and live more easily in remote places and those remote places aren't going to be for long. When the guy from Idaho is complaining he needs to find a place to get away from people, he needs to start looking in Alaska or other countries...neither of which meet your criteria very well. 

Sounds like Green Bay, Wisconsin to me. 

Sulligent, Alabama. Sort of kidding but not. I bought a car there 8 years ago and it reminded me of 1970 Oxford, MS before it blew up and got ruined. I hate seeing my home town turn into what it has. We have room for you in Hickory Valley. I'm seeing large chunks of land being bought up by "rich folks from out of town" though.

johndej said:

My wife's cousin and husband had similar requirements, ended up on a lake in Tazewell Tennessee. 

What a name for a town...

Mezzanine said:

This is happening literally everywhere. People are able to work and live more easily in remote places and those remote places aren't going to be for long. When the guy from Idaho is complaining he needs to find a place to get away from people, he needs to start looking in Alaska or other countries...neither of which meet your criteria very well. 

Oh yeah, I see the irony believe me. I'd love to move up Alaska if it didn't have snow.

It's sad to see the growth here, mostly because the local govt seems perfectly fine with letting the locals be stampeded out so they can get more money

NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) said:

Sulligent, Alabama. Sort of kidding but not. I bought a car there 8 years ago and it reminded me of 1970 Oxford, MS before it blew up and got ruined. I hate seeing my home town turn into what it has. We have room for you in Hickory Valley. I'm seeing large chunks of land being bought up by "rich folks from out of town" though.

Hickory Valley sounds very small which is kinda perfect really.

Tell me more, the little I know about the general area is humidity basically. Admittedly I'm not a huge fan, when we went thru Springfield Missouri it was 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity.....which was horrible

I responded to your PM, but I'll respond a little more generally here for posterity...

We went through much the same calculus over the last few years in preparation for retirement (I retired January 23, my wife retired Sept 23).  Much like Antihero, our beloved small rural community (Prescott, AZ) has been overrun by transplants escaping suburban hell, which has had the unfortunate side effect of turning our town into suburban hell.  Local government has welcomed the unrestrained growth, while refusing to plan for it, or spend the $$$ on infrastructure to support it.  They just announced another 3k home subdivision last month.

We ruled out the South due to humidity and bugs, but there's still a lot of really nice places that are affordable there.  Prices anywhere in the Rockies are crazy unless you're really in the boonies, and you better like serious winter.  Same with most of Wyoming and Montana... you don't get a lot for your money, but if you're OK with WIND and serious cold, there's still some nice places.

There's a lot of beautiful country in Utah, and prices aren't too bad if you get out of the urban areas, but if you need access to big city stuff (medical, airport, etc) the Salt lake area is really all there is, and anything within 2 hours of Salt Lake is expensive.

We ended up staying with high desert in Southern AZ, and I'm sure the transplants will eventually get to our new spot, but hopefully it will take another 10-15 years and we won't care as much.

Any GRM needs, like proximity to a track?

j_tso said:

Any GRM needs, like proximity to a track?

Well, this probably belongs in the Minor Confessions thread but even though I'm here and actively want to do the challenge.......I've never raced anything besides go carts for fun.

So the answer to that is, yes that would be great. I'd like to get started there, guess it's never too late to try right?

The South has been very good to me. 
 

There IS humidity, but I haven't seen snow in 25 years, and rural is rural. 

My buddy just bought 80 acres with barns and a house for $380K.

(He got a deal, but it wouldn't be hard to find that for $600k)

Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi are all real nice as long as you are OK living around a bunch of Bubbas.  I am OK with them, my wife is not.  So I am not moving to Tennessee.  They also don't have a lot of taverns, which if you are from Wisconsin like I am, is really odd.  

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Sounds like Green Bay, Wisconsin to me. 

Actually I was there recently and kinda thought the same. We stayed in Milwaukee and I liked it there, winter is super mild too

SV reX said:

My buddy just bought 80 acres with barns and a house for $380K.

(He got a deal, but it wouldn't be hard to find that for $600k)

 

That is a good deal, roughly where?

Way out, I'd suggest Davis Mountains, Texas.  Temperate for Texas yet outside the I-35 sprawl.  Still very friendly to your gun preferences. 

In reply to Antihero :

South GA. 3 hrs South of ATL. 
 

Im actually on the edge of AL now. Similar stuff available. 1 1/4 hrs from the ATL airport, 3 hours from the Gulf coast. 
 

Most of South GA and eastern AL has stuff like that. 

If you have a business already and you and the wife are doing fine, why don't you pick a place out of the summer tourism and rent out your place? There should be a town near buy that you wished for in the past? That way you still get to rub elbows with the rich n famous and not live in the tourist town.