200-400k to spend. On Land. In Continental US

[Herr Kutz]

Look at Eastern Tennessee. View of Smoky Mountains and has streams/rivers and wildlife etc. You'll spend/invest less than $200k for the land.

Edit: I'm in SW NC. So, yeah, on the NC side (east of TN border) you'll find the same. But I think just across the border it's even less expensive.

Fern

I'm jelly.

 

[zerocool84]

Always remember, with land/real estate, there's a reason why it's cheaper.

 

[Thebobo]

I'm looking to retire in about 5 years and move somewhere to the South west.

Someplace like Slab City California looks tempting. Link

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Montana gets you the furthest away from people in the lower 48

 

[Chaotic42]

As far as the Eastern slopes in Colorado, yeah, those are great, but $300,000 doesn't buy that much land there. It sounds like the OP wants a ton of land. Unfortunately most of us are too young to have gotten in on the cheap land back in the day. I'd love to have a thousand wooded acres in the mountains, but that's going to be millions of dollars virtually anywhere these days.

 

[Carson Dyle]

That's not going to get you a lot of land most places, even out in the middle of nowhere. Enough to build a house, sure, but not 40 acres. If you want 40 acres, look at the south. Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas. Maybe somewhere in the Ozarks of Arkansas, but it's not going to be snow-capped peaks and glacial streams.

 

[TwiceOver]

I mean if you go way TF off grid you can probably get what you want there.

Here in South Dakota land outside of city limits can't be any less than 5 acres (might be a county ordinance) and I've looked at a couple places that are far enough out that "nobody cares" but close enough that I have access to city gas/internet off of a paved road, and $200k will just get you the land.

The further out you go, the cheaper it gets, also sellers are more motivated since you might be the only sale they see in a decade.

Don't buy in South Dakota, FYI.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Why not consider cheap land and use the money to replace windows with gigantic OLED or SUHD displays facing indoors to virtually give that to you?

 

[mxnerd]

Agree with @Fern. Been to beautiful Tennessee Smoky Mountains area once , love it. Stunning scenes & fresh, fresh air.

 

[Chaotic42]

Agree with @Fern. Been to beautiful Tennessee Smoky Mountains area once , love it. Stunning scenes & fresh, fresh air.

I wonder if land prices are dropping because of their fire issue?

 

[mxnerd]

I wonder if land prices are dropping because of their fire issue?

No idea.

 

[lxskllr]

Why not consider cheap land and use the money to replace windows with gigantic OLED or SUHD displays facing indoors to virtually give that to you?

LoL! Wake up to mountains one day, ocean the next. Morocco for a day or two, then finish out the week in a rain forest.

 

[jlee]

http://www.landwatch.com/Yavapai-County-Arizona-Land-for-sale/pid/27428662

 

[NuclearNed]

I live in northeast TN, about 1.5-2 hours from the Gatlinburg area. Anywhere around Gatlinburg is going to be more expensive. If you come to my area (Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol) you'll find that 200K-400K will buy a lot of land, and we have the exactly the same scenery as the Smokies. Plus our cost of living is considerably lower, and not nearly the number of tourists.

Just for reference, my neighbor Carl is selling his property. He is asking something like 880K, but that includes @35-37 acres, a 4000K sq ft log cabin, and an enormous shop/garage/hangar/other building, the upper floor of which is a nice apartment. All of it is backed up to the national forest, so no neighbors on one side - hooray!

 

[Chaotic42]

I live in northeast TN, about 1.5-2 hours from the Gatlinburg area. Anywhere around Gatlinburg is going to be more expensive. If you come to my area (Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol) you'll find that 200K-400K will buy a lot of land, and we have the exactly the same scenery as the Smokies. Plus our cost of living is considerably lower, and not nearly the number of tourists.

Just for reference, my neighbor Carl is selling his property. He is asking something like 880K, but that includes @35-37 acres, a 4000K sq ft log cabin, and an enormous shop/garage/hangar/other building, the upper floor of which is a nice apartment. All of it is backed up to the national forest, so no neighbors on one side - hooray!

Damn, that sounds amazing.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I'd say Montana as others have .....

Me, Personally, I plan to buy land in North Wisconsin or the UP of Michigan. Hopefully before I'm 50... ideally with access to Lake Michigan or Lake Superior, but, I'd consider land with access to a smaller lake too ... Ideally under 6 hours from Chicago or Green Bay area ... (Door County would be my top pick, but to get 20-40 acres of waterfront property there is about 500K over budget)

 

[Fern]

I wonder if land prices are dropping because of their fire issue?

Nah.

It's just that there are no cities nearby. I'm referring to my suggestion about TN/NC border. My brother is looking over there where I40 crosses from NC to TN. I think it's about $2k or less an acre.

R/E developers aren't interested since no large cities nearby. Additionally, if you wanna get 80 acres for $100k (like my bro) you aren't gonna have power or other utilities. Mtns, whitewater river(s) ponds, wildlife? Yeah. Roads, sewer and elect? Nope.

Fern

 

[OverVolt]

No point getting off the grid.

Small town busy bodies are the worst.

Just go on vacation, thats what you actually need.

The thing is not all states are great for retirement. State finances/taxes are more important than how cheap you can gobble up land.

Delaware seems nice.
Florida is known for being retirement friendly. Just avoid the panhandle.
Do your homework.