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Comment by pkphilip | Hacker News Reader

I can't imagine property being so cheap - that too in the US. Here in India where I reside, you wouldn't be able to get even a 100sq.ft of open land for that price.

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You often see this with old crappy houses in not super desirable areas, because your basically have to bulldoze and build from scratch to get something you’d want to live in rather than a cheap rental.

Rock Island, Illinois was listed on Salary.com several times as one of the five least expensive places to live in the U.S.

Our winters are not very pleasant, but if you like to ski, there is plenty to indulge within a two hour drive.

If you like to ski, Illinois is close to the last place you should be living.

We are within an 8-10 hour drive from some of the best skiing in the Midwest

And some of the best diving in the Midwest too

Funny, what you see as close enough to make it a good area to live in if you like skiing is enough driving time for me to go from central Denmark to Sweden (including ferry) to ski. To me it would need to be within 30mins to count as a good place to live if you like skiing.

I'm fairly certain they were joking-- 8-10 hours is enough time to leave the Midwest and be in the Rockies.

... is that Lutsen or Upper Wisconsin / Michigan?

Ah yes, the famous skiing locations of the midwest.

And if "close to skiing" is the best thing you can say about a town in Illinois, well, it's a town to avoid.

> if you like to ski, there is plenty to indulge within a two hour drive.

I've been to Davenport several times, my ex was from CR, and I went to school about two hours north of there... and I don't recall anywhere that you could actually ski without driving far north into MN or WI. What am I missing?

I used to go to Sundown yearly, a long time ago. I'm not saying it's great, but I did learn to ski there.

https://www.sundownmtn.com/the-mountain/snow-report-trail-ma...

Well there you go - see I learned today there's a ski hill in Dubuque!

There is also Snowstar in Andalusia, if Dubuque is too far.

It's mostly just that the US is really big geographically, and there are a lot of places where very few people actually want to live.

I had a friend who said that her house cost less than her ex's Harley. I've been in that house: I can believe it!

I’ve got a friend I went to high school with who couldn’t qualify for a mortgage, so he took out a $15k credit card cash advance and bought a cheap house with some land in a rural area. Will have it paid off within 10 years of working for near-minimum-wage on a farm.

I can't imagine it being that cheap IN A COLLEGE TOWN. I get it isn't a major Big10 university town, but still... that should mean walkable neighborhoods, better restaurants, etc.

America is blessed with a low population density (10% of India's) and lots of rich people who recently decided to live crammed together in cities. So there's more than enough spare property for everyone.

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