>>1953998Me again. Not sure who that other guy was. Houses here are relatively cheap. I'm in the St. Louis area.
Essentially, you can either spend, say, $150k for a 3br2ba in a suburb. You turn the key, the toilet already flushes, the lights turn on and the internet is fast. Also, you can resell it. All of your neighbors are "normal."
Compare that to what I found about building a homestead (around here): You will have crap satellite internet, some bizarre eco house that doesn't appeal to the Honey Booboo people who actually populate the area you'll be in. It will cost $150k but you have to do all the labor, with the huge opportunity cost that implies. The house itself will be less of a house, since you spent a ton of money just to get normal conveniences. All the meme ideas about water and septic will either require the involvement of an environmental engineer or are simply illegal.
A big issue, for me, was the social situation. The people aren't weird in even a normal weird quirky way. They're either old, religious zealots or crazy hicks. The women all look like Paula Deen or Honey Booboo's mom.
I'd go somewhere else but my whole family is here, my business is here and I don't feel like settling in some random area just to grow some of my own food, which is why I've taken up foraging.
