Urban areas have strict building codes that often make it difficult and costly to build with natural materials. Good rural land is expensive and hard to come by. So where can you live? Pinyon-juniper scrub land is very abundant, cheap and worth considering.
rural land
Best Places to Live in Rural America
The cost of building a sustainable home is much higher in urban areas due to the stricter building codes, zoning and other housing regulations. Many readers dream of a simpler, healthier life in rural areas where there are few or no building codes and costs are far lower. But where’s the best place to live? Here are some lists to consider. You could compare the different lists and look for areas that are recommended most often. Everyone has different needs, however, and so you have to work out your priorities. Are you after the lowest cost land? Rural areas with jobs and growth potential? Rural areas with good weather? Minimal pollution? Lakefront land? Outdoor recreation? Good soil for gardening? Lowest taxes? Rural areas with like-minded people? The final choice will likely be based on some balance between these and other factors. Happy hunting.
Land and Farm.com
In your search for rural land with few or no building codes, you might want to try out Land and Farm.com. Their search page enables you to narrow the search by state, county, zip code, type of property (farm, undeveloped, orchard, ranch, etc.), property size, asking price, price per acre, irrigated or not irrigated and quite a few other criteria.
Where to Live: Building Code or No Code Areas?
Comment from mountainviewoffgridliving:
“We’ve purchased your book and are about ready to start buying what we need to get started. I am finding a lot of contractors advertise their leftover building materials on Craigslist so we are picking up things now for either very little or for free like windows, doors, boards, etc. Our next purchase will be the bags and barbed wire. We want everything we need while we can still buy things. We just purchased a Kimberly Stove and after the earthbags we will buy a Sun-Mar Composting toilet. We should be really close then to having what we need… or at least I hope so. .
Gila National Forest/Wilderness Area
I was really drawn in by Keith Thompson’s compelling story in yesterday’s blog post and thought maybe some readers would like to learn more about the Gila Wilderness where Keith lives. This is a huge area in southwest New Mexico covering 2,710,659 acres (1,100,000 ha) of public land, making it the sixth largest National Forest in the continental United States. Part of the area, the Gila Wilderness, was established in 1924 as the first designated wilderness by the U.S. federal government.
Remote Rural Land
Many of our readers long for building a home on their own land, but the high cost of land often makes the dream impossible. One option is to seek out remote rural land. This is not workable for everybody, that’s for sure. The conditions can be harsh, and I’m not going to give anyone the impression that this route will be easy. I’m just saying its one option to look into if you’re serious about going off-grid. There are remote places in NM, for instance, (and other western states) where land is very inexpensive. You might be able to buy a small lot for $2,000-$5,000.