The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: spartana on May 06, 2015, 03:10:21 PM
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Any rural area in the entire country I've ever been to has plenty of houses fitting this description. Not a very liquid market but always a few houses available for rent.
30+ miles out of any city (excluding NY, DC, LA and San Fran off the top of my head), so if youre willing to live in the boonies, theres no shortage of locales.
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http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/most-mustachian-townslocations/ has a discussion of this that may be helpful.
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$1000 homes are everywhere. What are you looking for? Beds/baths?
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Possibly an uncommon response, but I live in Hattiesburg, MS and am renting an excellent home for $950/month. It's a 3 bed/2bath with a gigantic back yard and in a pretty good neighborhood. The house is quite old, but it's a rental, so any problems are the landlord's problems.
It's a "college town," which I put in parenthesis because no place in Mississippi is very big. The weather is great, if you like the heat and summer humidity. Granted, I don't intend to spend the rest of my life here (it's a bit too 'southern baptist' for me, and there's no pro hockey team for hundreds of miles) - but's it's treated me well for the past 6 years.
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Albuquerque, NM is available and there's an obscene number of good quality houses for rent. You can negotiate under $1k per month pretty easily if you find a motivated landlord. The city got overbuilt during the construction boom, which is why the housing prices haven't rebounded during this latest recovery. A lot of the homes got snapped up by investors from California and elsewhere, and are being managed by local investment real estate companies. You'll have to check to make sure you're in a relatively safe area, physically, but aside from that there are some lovely neighborhoods. The weather's not bad, year round.
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Asheville, NC
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Eugene, Oregon.
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Asheville, NC is lovely, though rents are going up fast.
Burlington, VT is also great... though also getting more expensive quickly.
Brattleboro VT is like a smaller, cheaper Burlington. Plus it also has Amtrak to NYC, which is pretty neat. We're targeting the Brattleboro area for our homestead move, so I'm a bit biased, but I think it's the perfect combo of culture, natural beauty, and access to major metro areas.
But in general, I'd target college towns. Lawrence, KS is amazingly cheap and a great place to live.
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Jacksonville, FL. In town, along the St. John's River.
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Lake of the Ozarks Missouri --- On the lake!
$1,000 can rent some pretty nice places in so called rural USA. In the midsized, very nice, city of SPFD Missouri you could find a nice house for $1,000. Most people who don't have to work would prefer to live in small town in the surrounding areas for less.
Here is a fairly nice looking 3 bed for $850 In SPFD
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2742-W-Katella-Ln-Springfield-MO-65807/50282123_zpid/
SPFD is a city of 120K that grows to 250K during work hours. Major Universities (4 I think) lot of free and paid activities. City is in the Ozarks, and the surrounding area is full of outdoor rec opportunities.
There are plenty of part time opportunities for those who wish to work a little.
The Ozarks are my top pick in the country and where I choose to live.
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Check out Boise, Idaho. It's really becoming a lovely city, with a lot of great Mustachian amenities. Lots of green space and nearby outdoor activities, designated bike trails and bike lanes throughout the city, a pretty good job market if you're still working, an airport that's not crazy expensive, and housing is still pretty cheap. I suspect it doesn't have great public transportation, but it might well fit your other qualifications. My mother lives there now and is renting a nice 3-bedroom house in a beautiful neighborhood, within walking distance of the green belt, for $1100/mo; I'm sure you could find cheaper.
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I think you could also find what you are looking for in:
Sacramento, CA
Boise, ID
Las Cruces, NM
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All over Arizona
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Thanks for the ideas and links everyone. I am just looking for a small place for myself and a small dog so nothing big or fancy. Prefer within a small city not out in the boonies, where I can walk, bike or use public transit everywhere and has open space/wilderness close by. Thinking of places like Bellingham, WA., Burlington, VT, Portland, Maine, etc... But am interested in pretty much anywhere - and would like to try different places for a few months (6) at a time if they aren't too expensive. Originally I planned to sell my house and travel full time with my dog but, after trying it for a few months, realize it's too limiting so now plan to live in some different areas and rent for awhile before moving on to a new place.
You won't get a house in Portland, ME for $1000. I had the top floor 3 bed 1 bath of a split level in freeport for $1000, but that is well out of town, not biking transit distance (also portland only has seven bus lines, but it's all bike able) you could get a 1 bedroom apartment for that. No first hand experience but I'm pretty sure you can cross of Burlington, VT too.
I'd vote Salt Lake City, UT. I had a great 1 bedroom house with garage and large yard for $850. And the valley is very bike able and has public transit. Oh yea, and the public transit goes to the mountains (you can ski and hike from a city bus line!)
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Thanks for the ideas and links everyone. I am just looking for a small place for myself and a small dog so nothing big or fancy. Prefer within a small city not out in the boonies, where I can walk, bike or use public transit everywhere and has open space/wilderness close by.
Bath, Maine. Brunswick, Maine (or just across the river in Topsham). You can certainly find a small home there for under $1000/month
Portland has gotten a bit expensive with the hipsters dominating, but there's still good places to live for under $1000. Still one of my favorite cities though.
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Anywhere around the upper Great Lakes. I'm not sure about short term rentals but that area of the country is beautiful and underappreciated. Harsh winters but lovely summers and spring/fall are pretty amazing as well. Also, in summer it is far enough north that the days are longer too. Not so sure about biking friendly and wide open spaces being compatible in those areas (we've only vacationed that far north, live in north central Indiana) but many of the "resort" towns are very walkable/bikeable and the beaches are awesome around the Great Lakes and on many of the smaller inland lakes. If you like snow sports then you'd be close to all the many ski resorts come winter too.