> There are good starter homes on my street that sell for 5-10,000 dollars.
While that's a ridiculously low number (something tells me our definitions for "good starter homes" don't align), it's not THAT far off from similar properties in my wife's hometown in the midwest.
But let's _also_ talk about aspects of locality that affect quality of life (and along with it, real estate value):
- Neighborhood schools: absolute crap. 1/10 on the GreatSchools rating system.
- Civic resources (parks, libraries, etc.): none within a short driving distance. Parks not maintained. Libraries closed, partially due to the books they made available (this is one of those areas where books are being banned).
- Local employers: forget about it. The local industries and companies that setup shop there left town long ago. Nearest town where you might have a career of some type is about 70 miles away.
- Healthcare: some kind of urgent care, but it's of middling-low quality. If you have a semi-serious condition, you've got 100+ miles to anything resembling a hospital.
- Crime: exactly what you would expect. There is no opportunity, and people get desperate. Heavy, rural drug addiction.
- Population: trending older, as most people are retiring. People of means fled the area due to lack of opportunity.
- Transportation: there's a new highway bypass going way outside of town! Oh, but local transportation is entirely unreliable. No buses, taxis, uber, etc.
In case you want to just stay inside and not interact with the world, you won't be running with very fast internet access (DSL speeds.) If it's not clear....it's a dying town.
It's not part of an overpopulated metro, but that's what you get in this particular neck of the woods.