mjmjr25 wrote:the King wrote:I'm currently looking at property in the county I live in now and it's on average about 25% higher than the county over, but the schools are better, shopping more convenient, etc and less land available. So, if this is where I want to live, gotta pay for it.
Right.
There are a lot of things that go into it.
School and land were our number 1 priorities when looking last time.
If we wanted school, land, and sewer...that was more than we could afford.
school, land, and city water...that was more than we could afford.
school, land, and [insert any of the above: closer shopping, gas station, higher speed internet, closer to school, more square footage, HVAC, etc] put it out of our price range.
We are in the best school in the state and have a good amount of land.
We also use well water which can be unreliable and requires maintenance and testing. We installed a very expensive (and unplanned) septic system. We have dreadfully slow internet. The house by many would be considered "too small" for a family of 6. We have zero HVAC due (use baseboard heat and wood fireplace, no forced air for heat or cold). There is one restaurant. Getting milk or butter late at night is a 40 minute round-trip endeavor - during the day time it's 20 minutes.
It's what you can afford and prioritizing what's important to you.
Hey we must be neighbors! Just kidding, but this pretty much exactly describes our living situation here in Montana as well (the only difference being that our septic system, althouygh relatively ancient, was already in place when we moved in). One issue we're facing is with the water table out here. Despite the fact that our local zoning disallows any parcels less than 5 acres, it's slowly being further developed with new houses going up. This is in turn putting additional strain on the water table, and most of us are already running pretty deep wells. Ours runs down 200 feet already(!)
Other than that though, I love it out here. I'm blessed with a job that allows me to telecommunte (which is unfortunately in direct opposition to crappy internet problem at times), so my commute time consists of walking from bed to desk. OTOH, being 20 miles from town and working from home, I occasionally have to remind myself to actually get out among people once in awhile, lest I become an agoraphobic shut-in.
