this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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So the work I do is 100% remote now. I moved to Southern California because of an industry that has in part moved to remote work. My only requirements are a temperate climate, nature access and hopefully a blue-ish state. Is there a place out there that makes sense financially? I’m hoping to buy a house less then 500k. I don’t need access to large cities as I honestly don’t do anything. The only requirement I can think of is access to solid internet as I stream full screen video for what I do.

I’m currently looking at Michigan and Virginia as options.

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[–] george@midwest.social 70 points 1 year ago (3 children)

A lot of people in Michigan are expecting the state population to boom in the coming decades. No earthquakes or hurricanes, minimal wildfires and tornadoes. Lots of access to fresh water.

We passed a ballot initiative in 2018 that made an independent committee draw up congressional districts and wouldn’t you know it, the state suddenly went blue when no one could gerrymander anymore! Legal recreational weed, legal abortion, free school lunches, the progressives are moving fast with the new majority.

What area all depends on how much winter you can take. Detroit-Ann Arbor area is probably the mildest, followed by Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo (great cities, lake effect snow storms), Up North (even worse snow) and da UP (Marquette is amazing but if you don’t like snow sports you’ll go insane).

$500k will but you a great house in some suburbs or a decent house in a hot market.

[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Upper Peninsula is actually one of the places that is likely to be least affected by Climate Change. Expect an influx of climate refugees as time goes on.

If I had to up and move, it's definitely an area I would consider. I fell in love with Marquette while watching Joe Pera Talks With You which was set in and shot in Marquette.

[–] ritswd@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And to consider another looming environmental catastrophe: the currently rising water scarcity can’t scare you too much if you live next to one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Another way of looking at it: if the entire world becomes really desperate for the resource in your backyard, your backyard is about to be ruined

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[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago (8 children)

What would you say are the downsides to southern Michigan? I’m seriously considering MI and just curious what the downsides would be. I don’t mind some snow.

[–] sudotstar@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Being incredibly car-centric is probably our biggest issue in my opinion. If you're expecting to be able to use public transit or even walk to basic necessities, and are looking to purchase a house, you'd likely be looking at areas outside of your price range, generally within highly urbanized city centers. Owning a car is very much the norm here, even within those urban environments.

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Luckily I go nowhere and have no desire to do so. Beyond having to go to a store or two a few times a month, my needs are few and far between

[–] v_krishna@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'm from Kalamazoo. Lived in the sf bay now for the past 12+ years and many other places in between.

Winter is no joke, and drags on for a very long time. Diversity is much less than elsewhere I've lived (esp compared to the east bay), as a mixed race person my experience growing up was so much different than my kids' experience in Berkeley. Kzoo is halfway between Chicago and Detroit so not horrible but any big name concerts or museum shows or whatever require a few hours of travel. Like another poster said, also car culture - nobody walks anywhere nor can you feasibly do so (not just because of winter but also due to the influence of Detroit) and outside of AA public transportation is non-existent. And the job market in general isn't great (if you are working remote maybe it doesn't matter, but at least in tech the salaries are significantly less even in Ann Arbor or Chicagoland area vs California, and the number of opportunities way fewer).

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[–] Scientician@waveform.social 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nothing to add, but this is a wildly distopian thread.

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

It’s the world we live in sadly

[–] kralamaros@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Yeah imagine reading this post like 30 years ago

[–] Chetzemoka@kbin.social 24 points 1 year ago (4 children)

West Virginia. No I'm not kidding.

They will pay you $12,000 to move there. Housing costs are absurdly low. Morgantown is a thriving university town close to Pittsburgh. And the eastern panhandle has a lot of access to VA & MD.

Move there and vote please.

https://ascendwv.com/

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I’m seriously considering this, thanks. If you had to say, what are the downsides of West VA?

[–] NITROGENarcosis@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Poor infrastructure, schools, and amenities.

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[–] czarrie@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're trying to find work if the remote gig fails, good friggin luck

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

Yeah, this is definitely a thought, but in all honestly, it’s either remote work or one end of a shotgun for me

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[–] thelastknowngod@lemm.ee 20 points 1 year ago

I know you said the US but have you considered moving abroad? If you want a similar timezone to the States, Mexico and Chile have pretty easy immigration programs you should be able to qualify for without much effort.. The crime rate in Chile is about the same as Canada IIRC. I left the US in 2017 and I honestly could not imagine coming back at this point.

[–] dumples@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you're looking at Michigan I would also consider Minnesota. They have voted blue for the most presidential in a row and this last session with democratic majority has made huge gains. Michigan and Minnesota are showing what Midwestern values really mean.

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul are quite large together so you can get most amenities including one of every major sport league. Housing is no longer cheap within the cities because people from out of state are coming back to buy them. But there's tons of jobs and fortune 500 companies headquartered here.

Greater Minnesota has lots of smaller cities as well. Rochester, Brainard or Duluth all got their charms. Duluth has been listed as best city in the nation for it's cheaper coat of living with good job opportunities. Duluth gets real bad winters so get prepared for it. But it's better to be too cold than too hot

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[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 year ago

fwiw you should probably add walkability and public transport to that list, it's one of the most significant improvements you can make to your general physical and mental health, as well as saving a disgusting amount of money on not needing a car to buy groceries.

[–] walter_wiggles@lemmy.nz 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

When you're looking at Virginia keep in mind that Northern Virginia is what makes Virginia blue. Most of Virginia is purple or red especially the farther you get from DC.

[–] Trebach@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

Richmond, Hampton Roads, and Charlottesville contribute as well, but basically if it's not a city or the suburbs of one, it's red as a sunburn.

[–] databender@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (6 children)

NM has what you're looking for; cost of living is very low, you can kind of pick the climate you want. We're also blue as a twitter check-mark. We're not super-diverse though; mostly white and Mexican descent depending on where you hang your hat.

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[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (17 children)

north of Sacramento and south of Seattle.. for that price you'll have to be inland a few miles.

[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

south of Seattle

Dear god please no. I've been here in "South of Seattle" for a good portion of my life, and due to the influx of remote workers, I'm being priced out. Restaurants are shutting down because the workers can't afford to live in the city anymore.

I know that's not the fault of the remote workers, it's the fault of a capitalist system that refuses to budge on pay for work that just a few years ago was deemed "essential" and these people were expected to brave a deadly pandemic to keep things running but are now back to being treated as disposable and replaceable. They're pretty over it, and many of them are giving up on cities like this because of it.

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[–] MacroCyclo@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It sounds like you want to move to Oregon or Washington. They have way better climates than Michigan.

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oregon is blue, but mostly in the cities where home prices and cost of living are both high. Moving away from the cities give better affordability, but it turns red quickly. So pick your poison.

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[–] FPSkra@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Seriously consider Scranton, PA. I live here and most houses go for well under your budget. You get all the seasons, are surrounded by state forest, and multi gigabit internet is available (thru Comcast unfortunately but other ISP's are moving in soon). Also it's in a county that remained blue during PA's 2016 turn to red.

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Would you say there’s any downsides to PA? Scranton seems like it may fall on the colder side yearly but not too bad

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[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You can do ok for 500k here in Rhode Island. No mountain wilderness, but the beaches and islands are gorgeous, and there’s lots of nature to the western part of the state.

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Thanks will check it out!

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[–] PostmodernPythia@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Western MD, upstate NY, somewhere in Illinois that’s not Chicago, western Oregon that’s not Portland…just off the top of my head. Those are all decent places in terms of long-term climate change issues, as well. Basically, pick a blue state, go to a red rural part. Blue state laws, red state prices. I’d be careful long-term considering Michigan and Virginia safely blue, as well.

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[–] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Pennsylvania, depends on what you’d like exactly. Small city? Lancaster fits the bill perfectly. Big city? You have Pittsburg. Massive city? Philadelphia.

I’d vouch for Lancaster though, it’s very blue, very diverse, the area is on the cheaper side; and the city is thriving and growing extremely well. It’s a quaint little city. Further you get access to the absolutely gorgeous Appalachia with just a 20min-1 hour drive to various breathtaking national parks, state parks, lakes, mountains, and game lands.

The city is very walkable and is mainly pedestrian focused with a pretty good public transit system. Everyone also bikes everywhere and they are more common then cars. There are also several colleges and the historical Franklin and Marshall College so the area is maintained well and looked after.

Plenty of houses and apartments for less then 500k and the vast majority of the market is under 800k with not many outliers.

Climate is temperate year round, you have access to a major city as Philly is 1 hour away, there are scenes for pretty much anything, LGBT? Check. Art? Check. Film? Check. Alcohol? Check. Politics? Check. There’s something for every hobby.

Due to Franklin and Marshall and several companies there is a decently sized programmer, streamer, Youtuber, and computer scene as well since you might be interested in that.

The broadband and internet infrastructure is also very good and you can have direct access to fiber ground wire if you pay, so internet speeds can be lightening fast.

It honestly ticks all your boxes!

[–] rhacer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I can't recommend Kentucky enough. It ain't blue, but it meets your other criteria. House prices are very reasonable. We live just outside Fort Knox and when the Army is done with my wife we're moving back

[–] scrotumnipples@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wha... what exactly are they doing to her??

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[–] Gleddified@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How "temperate" are we talking here? Michigan will for sure have actual winter. Is temperate comparable to SoCal, or just not absolutely miserable winters?

Come to Manitoba lmao

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[–] CaptainHowdy@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Bluish state" or "makes sense financially".... pick one because AFAIK they seem to be mutually exclusive. If you find somewhere like this with good broadband, please let me know so we can be neighbors!

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[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Washington would for the bill once you get outside the Seattle area. You can find things on the peninsula or up in B-ham for get $500k.

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[–] zzzzzz@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Rural western Virginia has fiber internet to your home in a lot of places.

For example: https://www.alleghanyhighlandsbroadband.com/

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[–] FermatsLastAccount@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I've been thinking of Puerto Rico.

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[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you love the outdoors, I recommend Montana and the Wyoming/Idaho border (Teton counties).

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[–] mothringer@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

For fully remote anywhere in the midwest is good as long as you don't need the big city nightlife. You can buy a starter house in the rich parts of KC for 500k, or a nice house in the middle-class areas.

[–] ShakeThatYam@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Illinois is a great option. Can easily find a house for less than 500k in most of the state. The state has really rebounded since Pritzker became governor.

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[–] JimmyDean@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (14 children)

I might be a bit biased for my own state, but Oregon sounds like it could be right up your alley. Real estate prices have kinda settled down recently after the inflation we had the past few years, so you can find nice houses for 350-500k in the slightly-rural areas surrounding Portland like Gresham, Oregon City, Estacada or Sandy.

Nature access is excellent, especially if you were to live around the Columbia River Gorge like in Corbett. A drive to the coast is under 2 hours from there also.

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[–] SlamDrag@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

You should think about Minneapolis. The winters are gnarly, but very few climate change related problems on the horizon, reasonable cost of living, one of the most bike friendly cities in the U.S.

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