Inexpensive Homes : Our Criteria
My wife and I looked at many inexpensive homes as we traveled
the country. We have seen houses for sale for $6,000 in Butte,
Montana and we watched as the price of a house in Anaconda dropped
from $16,900 to $9,900 to $6,000. I'm sure they needed a little
work, but we put less than $2000 into fixing up our $17,500-house
in Anaconda, and it was very nice when we were done. In any case,
the criteria here are not for choosing inexpensive homes, but
for choosing towns where you would like to live, that also
have cheap houses.
Cheap Houses In Montana
The reason there are so many cheap houses for sale in Butte
and Anaconda, is that there aren't many good jobs left. People
left the area in the 80's especially, after the mines and smelters
closed. This exodus has left one-in-seven "housing units"
in Anaconda vacant, according to the U.S. census, which has driven
down the prices of homes dramatically. Since both towns still
have all the basic amenities, and are slowly recovering, they
are great places to retire to or to move to if you have an internet
or other non-location-based business. (I personally found jobs
in Anaconda easily-but not good ones.)
Inexpensive Homes In Hell
On the other hand, there are towns like the one in South Dakota
where we stopped for lunch. The bulletin board had ads for cheap
houses placed on it by desperate home-sellers trying not to be
the last to leave town, including one for a nice old five-bedroom
farmhouse for $11,000. We looked up the deserted street as we
ate, and noticed that most of the buildings were boarded-up.
This was a town that was clearly dying, and didn't have anything
to help revive it. Inexpensive homes are easy to find here, but
I wouldn't take one for free.
Buy A Cheap House In Paradise
Maybe paradise is too much to expect if you want to buy a
cheap house, but there are many nice towns where real estate
prices are low enough to qualify for our web site. So what does
a town need in addition to inexpensive homes in order to make
our list? Well, the criteria are certainly subjective, but include
at least the following:
1. Population between 4,000 and 80,000.
2. A good library.
3. A good grocery store.
4. A movie theater.
5. Cheap houses: at least six for sale under $50,000.
Want to see what we found? Go to the following pages:
Where To Find Cheap Homes For
Sale
More Places To Buy A Cheap
House
The latter covers towns where houses are regularly for sale
under $30,000. To do your own research, visit this page:
Find Your Own Inexpensive Houses
- You'll find links to the best places to research towns and
to find the prices of homes around the country.
2007 Note: It's great to buy a inexpensive home, but
towns with homes under $50,000 are getting harder to find, so
we have been researching towns where you can still get a decent
home for under $125,000. For information on these places, see
the page The Most
Affordable Places To Live.
2011 Update: How times have changed! There are inexpensive
homes again. See some new additions to our affordable places
on this newest page: Cheap
Towns
2012 Update: The Cheapest
Homes in 2012 - Two new additions and the latest on dozens
of towns and cities with inexpensive houses.
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