the closest you will ever get to living free

Some US states, but only in certain counties, allow to buy undeveloped land, pitch a tent or park your camper/RV/whatever on it and live there. But there are restrictions and permits involved. Namely, health permits. And most if not all to do with that has to do with septic stuff.

Using Texas as an example, I very highly doubt you could buy land in Dallas County, pitch a tent and live on it. That county probably doesn't even offer the permits to do so. But if you were to go to a more rural area, such as Wrinkler County, they'd probably allow it. Do I know that for sure? No. But given there's a whole lot of nothing for miles around in Wrinkler County, probably.

There are two happenin' towns in Wrinkler County. One is Kermit TX. It has Pilot, a Love's, and a Flying J right off state highway 302. Fancy. Just south of that is an even smaller town, Wink TX. The high school there is a big deal where Wildcat Stadium is. I have never been to either of these towns, but both look like decent places to be. And I'm not saying you can buy land in either of those towns, pitch a tent and go about your business. But you could probably do so outside of those towns within Wrinkler County.

At the same time, however, there are houses in both Kermit and Wink for under $150K. I checked. And these are not wrecked properties, either. I don't know how move-in-ready those houses are, but from what I saw, yeah, not bad at all.

The point I'm making is that in a sea of $500K to $1M+ McMansion HOA hell houses, there are sub-$150K houses with sub-$2K/yr property taxes available right now, IF you are willing to go rural. And not just in Texas, but just about any of the 50 United States.

Here's the pecking order when it comes to the prices of property crap:

Level 1: Not a big deal
Level 2: Annoying
Level 3: Concerning
Level 4: Frustrating
Level 5: Angering
Level 6: Oppressive

I'll be describing this as price/tax. For example, a 2/4 is annoying price and frustrating tax.

Property prices in Kermit and Wink are 1/2. Great price with annoying-but-manageable property taxes. If it were Dallas County, that jumps to 4/5.

Going southeast to Tampa Bay Florida, this is where things get pretty wild where you can have a 1/6. Easy to find properties that are cheap to buy, but with absolutely oppressive property taxes the closer you get to the ocean. Things get somewhat better when you go inland, such as Lakeland, but not by much.

Going northeast to New England, if it were somewhere like Boston Massachusetts, that's a 5/6. But then if you go clear across to the other side of the state, in Adams MA it's 2/3. Why so much cheaper? No close access to any interstate, that's why. Only one "major" route through town, Route 8, and that's it. MA-8 is a slow, winding, twisty/turny road from the north to the south side of MA. The closest free interstate is I-91 to the east, and it will take you over an hour of driving just to access it. Adams is absolutely that picturesque sleepy New England town, no question, but not convenient whatsoever. Yeah, you can find a cheap and pretty property in Adams, but you really have to know what you're getting in to up there.

If you're wondering which areas are the worst at 6/6, it's fairly obvious what those are. San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, maybe Denver, and so on.

In New England specifically, almost the entirety of those 6 states (CT, MA, RI, NH, ME, VT) was a 2/2 for price at worst in the early '90s, even in city suburbs. I'm not saying the prices were awesome compared to the rest of the country since New England has always been expensive, but it truly wasn't oppressively bad. At that time, you could buy a property on a lower middle class income and afford the payments.

Now it's the situation where to get non-oppressive pricing that's affordable and good but in an inconvenient area, going rural is the only answer, such as Adams MA in that part of the United States.

The second option is going non-oppressive, ridiculously affordable, convenient and bad. A really good example of that is Birmingham Alabama. There's a whole swath of dumpy broken down houses for sale there at under $20K (yes, really) with sub-$1K/yr property taxes all day. All. Frickin'. Day. But they're all in bad neighborhoods, along with having to sink a minimum $100K into the property just to fix and replace everything. Technically, yes, that's still a 1/1 all around for price since that can be covered with refurbish/rebuild style loan, but that doesn't get rid of the bad neighborhoods. The only good there is the convenience. Birmingham has a lot of stuff like major hospitals, major banks, and so on. If it weren't for the bad neighborhoods (and by that I mean areas west of I-65 and north of 78 a.k.a. 4), Birmingham would be a top tier place to live.

Inconvenience might be worth dealing with?

Not for bad neighborhoods. No way. But for a rural area, maybe.

I have the benefit of having been raised in a rural area, so if I ever had to live in another, I know what to expect. More importantly, I know what not to expect.

While I'm not retirement age yet, that obviously will happen. When I put myself into Retiree Mode Thinking, the dirtiest word I could hear concerning where to live as a retiree is sprawl.

Parrish Florida is sprawl incarnate. Mow down everything, prop up as many McMansions as fast as possible, HOA the bejeezus out of it all, call everything "luxury" when it's obviously not, price it high for the suckers, lower it when the suckers have all been squeezed, and when those secondary suckers have all been squeezed, Section 8 the rest. That last part hasn't happened yet, but it will.

Texas is also notorious for sprawl, as is Arizona. Build build build and do it fast fast fast, cut corners everywhere, sell sell sell, squeeze squeeze squeeze, then do it again for the next town over. Rinse and repeat.

Side note: It's going to be interesting when all those overpriced McMansions made out of cardboard start falling apart (if you know new construction home building, you know that's not an exaggeration) in fewer than ten years.

The ideal place to retire is a town that has seen no sprawl, and moreover is highly unlikely ever to see any. The house bought should be smaller, as in not more than 1,200 sq ft, and sitting on a couple of acres. Nothing crazy. That to me is manageable, and I'm not just talking about cost but also maintenance.

A house is a money pit, so smaller is better. Usually.

Small house doesn't mean to go without, by the way.

Pool? Don't need it. Hot tub all day.

Garage? Only in a state with snow. Otherwise, carport all day. For the lawnmower and other outdoor tools, small shed.

Whole house fan? Absolutely. Get the airstream going through the house during summer. Uses far less electric than A/C.

Retractable window awnings? Yes. Again, summer and hot weather thing. Shade is an easy way not to run the A/C as much.

In the end, "living free" to me does not mean no cost, because there is always cost.

What it does mean is free of sprawl and hopefully future sprawl, free of traffic for the most part, free of NOISE, things like that.

I started off life in a small town like the one I grew up in, and may end up going there again for retirement when that time comes. No, not to the town I grew up in, but possibly one similar to it.

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