So the work I do is 100% remote now. I moved to Southern California because of an industry that has in part moved to remote work. My only requirements are a temperate climate, nature access and hopefully a blue-ish state. Is there a place out there that makes sense financially? I’m hoping to buy a house less then 500k. I don’t need access to large cities as I honestly don’t do anything. The only requirement I can think of is access to solid internet as I stream full screen video for what I do.
I’m currently looking at Michigan and Virginia as options.
West Virginia. No I’m not kidding.
They will pay you $12,000 to move there. Housing costs are absurdly low. Morgantown is a thriving university town close to Pittsburgh. And the eastern panhandle has a lot of access to VA & MD.
Move there and vote please.
I’m seriously considering this, thanks. If you had to say, what are the downsides of West VA?
Poor infrastructure, schools, and amenities.
Go on….
If you’re trying to find work if the remote gig fails, good friggin luck
Yeah, this is definitely a thought, but in all honestly, it’s either remote work or one end of a shotgun for me
West Virginians.
I just fell in love with West Virginia a few weeks back. So beautiful and while not a blue state, exactly, the people there were so welcoming and kind.
Country Roads, take me home…
Sounds like a deal!
If you’re looking at Michigan I would also consider Minnesota. They have voted blue for the most presidential in a row and this last session with democratic majority has made huge gains. Michigan and Minnesota are showing what Midwestern values really mean.
The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul are quite large together so you can get most amenities including one of every major sport league. Housing is no longer cheap within the cities because people from out of state are coming back to buy them. But there’s tons of jobs and fortune 500 companies headquartered here.
Greater Minnesota has lots of smaller cities as well. Rochester, Brainard or Duluth all got their charms. Duluth has been listed as best city in the nation for it’s cheaper coat of living with good job opportunities. Duluth gets real bad winters so get prepared for it. But it’s better to be too cold than too hot
One of the other interesting twin cities facts is that we have a very large theater scene, one of the biggest in the nation outside NYC.
I know we get all the big Broadway hits but a few years afterwards. I know they stop at Chicago and other larger cities first
I know you said the US but have you considered moving abroad? If you want a similar timezone to the States, Mexico and Chile have pretty easy immigration programs you should be able to qualify for without much effort… The crime rate in Chile is about the same as Canada IIRC. I left the US in 2017 and I honestly could not imagine coming back at this point.
NM has what you’re looking for; cost of living is very low, you can kind of pick the climate you want. We’re also blue as a twitter check-mark. We’re not super-diverse though; mostly white and Mexican descent depending on where you hang your hat.
It sounds like you want to move to Oregon or Washington. They have way better climates than Michigan.
Oregon is blue, but mostly in the cities where home prices and cost of living are both high. Moving away from the cities give better affordability, but it turns red quickly. So pick your poison.
That’s true anywhere in the country though. Not a lot of blue rednecks.
Seriously consider Scranton, PA. I live here and most houses go for well under your budget. You get all the seasons, are surrounded by state forest, and multi gigabit internet is available (thru Comcast unfortunately but other ISP’s are moving in soon). Also it’s in a county that remained blue during PA’s 2016 turn to red.
Would you say there’s any downsides to PA? Scranton seems like it may fall on the colder side yearly but not too bad
PA can be fairly cold expect snow and ice every year. It does snow in Virginia as well but I can tell you it’s on average atleast 10 degrees warmer in VA vs PA year round. (Lived in both areas). Virginia is wetter (and far more humid than CA) and has more hills since Appalachia cuts right through a lot of the western part of the state. If you don’t like the outdoors I’d suggest eastern Virginia. If you like the outdoors western Virginia is great for outdoor activity (hit or miss on things like high speed internet, research any specific towns your interested in out there.) One thing I will say is that Virginia is NOT blue. But then Scranton is probably considered the beginnings of Pennsyltucky too.
Scranton is a dot of blue surrounded by red…but overall the area is fairly moderate with a few crazies.
Thanks!
The Scranton Strangler qualifies as a downside…
I mean yes…but Scranton has made one of those safest cities in the US lists…I think like top 100
north of Sacramento and south of Seattle… for that price you’ll have to be inland a few miles.
south of Seattle
Dear god please no. I’ve been here in “South of Seattle” for a good portion of my life, and due to the influx of remote workers, I’m being priced out. Restaurants are shutting down because the workers can’t afford to live in the city anymore.
I know that’s not the fault of the remote workers, it’s the fault of a capitalist system that refuses to budge on pay for work that just a few years ago was deemed “essential” and these people were expected to brave a deadly pandemic to keep things running but are now back to being treated as disposable and replaceable. They’re pretty over it, and many of them are giving up on cities like this because of it.
Eureka is quite nice.
CA north of SAC is definitely not “blue-ish” in the slightest. Towns like Yreka are basically de-industrialized, the locals blame “environmentalists” for that, and now Siskiyou County goes like 70% Trump.
Also, Redding is an absolute shithole.
Would you say that’s a bit cold year round? What are the summers like?
South of Seattle (South King or North Pierce counties, or even further south, closer to Olympia) gets occasional snow in the winter, and occasional 100+ degree days in the summer. Summer is gorgeous FTMP, with temps around 75-80 most days. Oct-Mar can be rough if you’re prone to seasonal depression, from the lack of sunshine. Plan to vacation somewhere sunny for a week some time in January or February, and you’ll do better.
I will say this specific area is pretty rural and red, vs the city centers closer to Seattle and Tacoma.
Michigan gets frigid winters, doesn’t it?
Michigan definitely gets cold if you’re north. Places like Holland, MI seem a bit warmer
Shitload of snow too though, but that is all of Michigan
I don’t mind a bit of snow, especially considering I don’t commute or go anywhere
Lol it can be a lot some times but if you’re working from home you kinda get to choose to go out in it so not nearly as painful. Michigan is awesome.
If you don’t mind the snow, I can strongly recommend south east Michigan. I love it here. You could get a nice home with a large yard, especially if you go a little more rural. You are also likely going to be within an hour of DTW airport, which is a delta hub so you can fly to a lot of places direct.
Take a look at Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Ferndale.
Thanks! Really feeling Michigan as an option
Give it 10 years. With climate change we may be in the 50s and 60s all winter long.
Sad state of affairs for the world unfortunately have guided my choices in this matter
I will say this specific area is pretty rural and red
That’s really farther South or East, really. Olympia is largely “progressive” (of the rich, slightly out of touch, white liberal variety) and that attitude extends to the city suburbs. The only area where that might not be as true is Lacey, which has way more of the JBLM population living there.
Speaking of which, because of JBLM and basically daily accidents on I-5, going anywhere North from the Olympia area is a fucking crapshoot. An accident can shut down I-5 for hours and because of the nature of the area, there’s not a lot of side-roads to offload traffic onto, I-5 is really the main thoroughfare. It’s not as bad going south because there’s less traffic going south, so fewer accidents. But if you want to visit a friend on Tacoma, or catch a flight out of SeaTac, or see a show in Seattle… you pretty much have to add a guesstimated 2-3 hours of travel time depending on how far north you’re going based on how long traffic could be backed up if there’s a severe accident.
The frequency of accidents honestly keeps me off of I-5 because holy fucking shit. I don’t want one of those accidents to involve me. A lot of them are real bad.
Yeah, I was thinking of areas like Enumclaw, Bonney Lake, and Puyallup. You can definitely get a (smaller) house for under 500k in those areas, but I’m not sure if it quite fits OP’s political preference.
but I’m not sure if it quite fits OP’s political preference.
I’m not even sure you could peg a political line on this area other than “meth.” Also, for whatever reason, I always think of them as far southeast of Tacoma.
Although, it can be argued if you want the political climate of those areas to change, people with different politics need to move there.
However, I think that whole area is experiencing a huge influx of remote workers as well, as it is. Rents have been rising all over.
North of Sacramento? Not cold at all, and there are lots of great places to get out in nature. I can’t speak to Seattle much, it will get colder than Sacramento but the nature is probably even better. Summer near Sac can be very warm and get over 100, but that’s becoming more common more places
I’ll check it out, thanks!
You can do ok for 500k here in Rhode Island. No mountain wilderness, but the beaches and islands are gorgeous, and there’s lots of nature to the western part of the state.
Thanks will check it out!
Pennsylvania, depends on what you’d like exactly. Small city? Lancaster fits the bill perfectly. Big city? You have Pittsburg. Massive city? Philadelphia.
I’d vouch for Lancaster though, it’s very blue, very diverse, the area is on the cheaper side; and the city is thriving and growing extremely well. It’s a quaint little city. Further you get access to the absolutely gorgeous Appalachia with just a 20min-1 hour drive to various breathtaking national parks, state parks, lakes, mountains, and game lands.
The city is very walkable and is mainly pedestrian focused with a pretty good public transit system. Everyone also bikes everywhere and they are more common then cars. There are also several colleges and the historical Franklin and Marshall College so the area is maintained well and looked after.
Plenty of houses and apartments for less then 500k and the vast majority of the market is under 800k with not many outliers.
Climate is temperate year round, you have access to a major city as Philly is 1 hour away, there are scenes for pretty much anything, LGBT? Check. Art? Check. Film? Check. Alcohol? Check. Politics? Check. There’s something for every hobby.
Due to Franklin and Marshall and several companies there is a decently sized programmer, streamer, Youtuber, and computer scene as well since you might be interested in that.
The broadband and internet infrastructure is also very good and you can have direct access to fiber ground wire if you pay, so internet speeds can be lightening fast.
It honestly ticks all your boxes!
Western MD, upstate NY, somewhere in Illinois that’s not Chicago, western Oregon that’s not Portland…just off the top of my head. Those are all decent places in terms of long-term climate change issues, as well. Basically, pick a blue state, go to a red rural part. Blue state laws, red state prices. I’d be careful long-term considering Michigan and Virginia safely blue, as well.
Thanks!
I can’t recommend Kentucky enough. It ain’t blue, but it meets your other criteria. House prices are very reasonable. We live just outside Fort Knox and when the Army is done with my wife we’re moving back
Wha… what exactly are they doing to her??
I laughed.
They’re working her too hard and paint her too little. In seven years she’ll be at 30 years and it will be time to be done.
What do you like about it so much? I’ve never lived in a place I wanted to live in. All my choices have been because of family or career. I really just don’t want be be too hot (Southern California here) or have to carry inflated prices because I live near ‘all this cool shit’ that I couldn’t care less about.
It’s beautiful.
From where we live a bunch of interesting places are within an easy drive. Nashville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati are all three hours or less away.
The people are mostly kind and mostly polite.
The cost of living is relatively low.
The pace of life feels slower.
I second Kentucky. Wife is from there, and we are looking to move back there somewhere around Lexington or Louisville because it is extremely affordable and still a nice city.
How “temperate” are we talking here? Michigan will for sure have actual winter. Is temperate comparable to SoCal, or just not absolutely miserable winters?
Come to Manitoba lmao
Saskatchewan and Manitoba 😭
Awwwww hell naw. Pretty sure everyone there is suicidal and desperately trying to escape. Not to mention that 98% of the population is all concentrated in Winnipeg since the rest is an Arctic tundra and impenetrable pine forests.
Rural western Virginia has fiber internet to your home in a lot of places.
For example: https://www.alleghanyhighlandsbroadband.com/
thanks! Internet is a big requirement unfortunately. My work has me streaming 3 monitors, one with full screen video so even some latency is a problem
Alleghany County is extremely red, Covington has a large paper plant which has a nasty smell, and Clifton Forge has a massive coal train terminal and is the most depressing place I have ever been.
Washington would for the bill once you get outside the Seattle area. You can find things on the peninsula or up in B-ham for get $500k.
Olympia area is still very affordable.
I’ve been thinking of Puerto Rico.
Why?
Mostly all the natural beauty and the low cost of living.
I visited for a few months and loved it.
Thanks
power goes out 12 times a week, water’s on for only 5 hours a week, internet drops out every 2 hours, (only alternate option is musky), no cops, no fire dept, no schools, trash is just piled up with no plan whatsoever, no public transit, more superfund sites per sq mile than any state, more taxes than in the USA, … hurricanes, earthquakes and narcos.
if you knew all that, why would you choose Puerto Rico?
power goes out 12 times a week, water’s on for only 5 hours a week, internet drops out every 2 hours, (only alternate option is musky),
I visited for 2 months the only one of these I experienced was the internet going out once.
no cops, no fire dept, no schools
That’s just not true at all.
trash is just piled up with no plan whatsoever,
I’m from NYC, so I guess I’m just used to trash.
no public transit
That’s true, but apartments in the middle of the city are so cheap that most things were within walking distance for me.
more superfund sites per sq mile than any state,
I’ve never looked at this when deciding where to live, but I just looked it up and there are way more within 50 miles of me than there are in all of Puerto Rico.
more taxes than in the USA
Still way cheaper cost of living than where I live.
hurricanes, earthquakes and narcos.
Those are the only things you mentioned that are an actual concern to me. Since I work remotely, I’d have the luxury of leaving temporary if there was a massive natural disaster.
