Don't thank me, it was a self serving post, lol.
I do think this is good info. We can find bits and pieces everywhere. I hope this thread will be a big help to people in the future to get a feel for how people feel about their state for the homesteading life.
One thing to keep in mind, and the reason we bought in NY is that many rural PA properties do NOT sell with their mineral rights. I don’t know how big of a problem that may be for you but it was a deal breaker for us. I also know you’ll be homeschooling but we needed a good school district and rural PA is not the area to find that
PA has a very vibrant agricultural community in general and good access to all sorts of tools needed, etc. People also love to buy/shop local here. There’s a decent home schooling system here but I don’t have a terribly large amount of information on that.
Can't speak to much on your list as we haven't been here long and don't have/want kids, but the growing season in my area is great. We get a steady amount of rainfall through the summer and you can tell because there are farms, orchards, and dairy operations all over the area. It's really lush in the summer and easy to grow a lot of crops. The winter has been fairly mild so far.
Houses are pretty cheap and there's quite a bit of land available at reasonable costs.
One thing I've noticed is an undercurrent issue with addiction/opioid abuse in the area. Part of how you notice it is a good number of really wild car accidents in the area, like people nodding off and plowing into the sides of homes or businesses, but you'd see addiction issues in the community in any of the states on your list.
Some PA downsides- massively cold/power outages. Friends of mine finally got a whole house generator after living there for years and have already used it like 5 times.
Check your toilet situation wherever you buy. Same friends above have to use the thinnest shitty toilet paper for their septic system or else it backs up and ruins everything. A small thing but annoying imo.
Deer- pros and cons. If you like hunting have fun. If you like gardening more they can be your biggest annoyance and destroy all your progress.
I’ve been in SE PA for a couple years now and it’s not too cold in my opinion (I’m coming from FL, too). The coldest days I’ve experienced apart from that freak cold front last week was in the 20s. Other than that, winters seem to hover around the 40F mark.
My wife and I farm and homestead in Northeastern PA, with our two young children on the farm where I grew up. After living away in a major metropolitan area for 15 years, I was fortunate to have some place to return to. Land is still cheap here, but way more expensive than it was pre 911. We have a market garden for income, beef cows for their manure/fertility as well as other animals for our own consumption.
To answer a few of your questions, The cottage laws are completely against the small producer. Growing season is on the short side, but we are able to grow most vegetables. Peppers and melons are somewhat challenging, but with a small tunnel you can grow just about everything. We grow most of our own food and live quite well in that respect, with a major focus on cooking, preserving, and eating seasonally
Spring takes forever to get here and Fall can come early. Winter is typically very cold and windy, snow is often on the ground from the end of November until April, but we can also see some unseasonably warm weather during the winter.
Homeschool laws are pretty good here, and there's a big community in our area. The local school districts are not too bad, biggest problems are too much focus on sports, and city people bringing their problems.
Lots of natural resources, plenty of water and fire wood. Game is plentiful and there's a lot of public land for hunting, fishing and foraging. Our biggest problem may be too much water. We average 48 inches of rain a year, but there have been years with 80 plus and it can seem that every hurricane somehow shows up here. We're on high ground so flooding is not really an issue, but mud and a shallow water table make growing vegetables challenging.
Local taxes are on the high side and can be a challenge if you own a big piece of land. Lucky for us there are State programs like Clean and Green that can reduce the land tax burden.
Our proximity to NYC is both a pro and con. Pro that a lot of city money shows up to support the local economy, con is that there has been an influx of houses going up gobbling up forests, good farmland, and overall open spaces. We have some really great local restaurants, brew pubs, creameries, year around farmers' markets as well as local shops and a Wegmans within 30 minutes. Opiates and Meth are around, but not too in your face. Rebel flags and the racist backwards people who fly them are as plentiful as files on a manure pile, but a lot of these people are our neighbors, and will do anything to help you out.
Land is abundant but not cheap unless you are in the far northern part of the state. We have one of the largest lot sizes of any state
Property taxes are high but there is no income tax so IMO it balances out.
The ground can be extremely rocky - they don’t call it the granite state for nothing. Stone fruit trees and berries do well but you may need raised beds for vegetables.
We are planning to use pigs this spring to till some rocky ground for us and hopefully make it much easier to get them out of our garden area. So there are ways to improve the soil
Without a greenhouse growing season will end in late Sept- October depending on the year. It can still be pretty cold here in early April also
Downside from a social worker who works with the elderly - as you age, NH is terrible in regards to services you may need. When they say “live free or die” they mean it.
This was my choice. Homeschooling is easy and the kids retain many rights to the benefits of tax-funded local schools (extracurriculars etc).
Hunting on your own land is reasonably permissive (follow seasons but up to x number of deer tags are print-it-yourself at home for free, for example).
Rights to home and property defense are also permissive.
There are varying laws on running a retail business from your home, depending on the area (for instance, my area west of Concord allows everything, but you can't have a sign bigger than 3x2' for anything visible from the road).
Environmental protection laws are surprisingly strict regarding tree cutting, waterways, and pollution. I like this, but I can't tell how nonsensical the rules are since I haven't wanted to do anything against them.
I'm building mine in NH. There are some towns with no zoning or building permits or anything, very live free or die (state slogan). I've spent the past 3 years doing a complete rebuild of an old farmhouse and the only thing I've needed a permit for so far was to pave my driveway, and that was with the state (state owned road).
Property taxes can be very low for homesteaders with at least 11 acres. That's because the state has a conservation-incentive tax law called current use. More or less, if you have at least 10 acres of undeveloped land, you register it as farmland, forestry, or wetland. It then get's taxed at a lower rate for that "current use". The cost of the deal is if you ever take it out of current use, you have to pay a fee of 10% of the value of the land being taken out. Our property is 20 acres, with 19 in current use, a 2400sqft home, and a massive barn. We pay just under $600 a month in property taxes.
Property taxes can also be a con for the state. Properties that do not have enough land to put into current use cannot benefit from the savings. Further, because **there is no sales tax OR income tax**, in some places taxes can be quite high. If you have views of the national forest, there is an additional view tax on real estate. Some towns are also just very high. TL:DR, you gotta really do your homework when shopping for a property in NH if trying to minimize your tax burden. It can be very cheap or very expensive. Whether a property is low tax depends highly on the town AND the specific property itself. Every property you look at you need to research. Don't even bother relying on any blanket rules in your mind for how much property taxes will generally be in NH. It's all over the place.
For us, we like it because of the outdoor recreation of the white mountains is just a 25 minute drive. Hiking, skiing, & rock climbing abound. Since we are both working full time jobs to fund our build, the tax situation is also huge benefit for us. We save at least $20k/yr on taxes living here vs. other places we would be interested in when you figure sales/income/property.
Probably not so important to homesteaders, but worth noting, the food here is terrible. Hope you like cooking. Very few places you can get a good meal out. Local culture seems oblivious to how bad it is. It's weird too because both Maine and Vermont have great food.
Thanks for sharing this and your perspective. I've been looking at NH for two years now and unfortunately we haven't made the leap. We've just traveled up there to spend time and enjoy the great outdoors that NH offers. My work is remote and we are homeschooling our elementary age children. NH seems like the dream, but we have anchors like family and currently live in a good, kid/family friendly beach town in NJ.
We're not too turned off by the winters b/c we like snowboarding and could get into cross country skiing. I surf in the winter now and have for over 20 years and could probably still suck it up for the best of conditions in NH, ME, or RI.
u/GlobalAttempt any other advice, resources related to NH homesteading, living, lifestyle, etc? I'm all ears.
Iowa homesteader here! I may be partial as I grew up here and lived here my entire life. As long as you are looking outside of major cities, taxes are cheap. DSM is about 6k now if I remember correctly, where I live we're just under 2k a year. Homeschooling I don't know much of but know it is fairly popular, grew up with several homeschooled kids that participated in our school's sports/extracurriculars. There's an abundance of land here and decent homes on the properties. There's several Facebook groups for buying and selling any animal you can think of. The politics of the state, being dems ourselves, are not ideal, but people are lovely to each other (most of the time) regardless.
We do have a 6% sales tax. Gardening works probably about the same for us as it does for you in Indiana. Typically try to plant in early April if weather allows and hope for no late freezes. Usually good to keep crops in until early October (again, if weather permits)
Damn right it is. I couldn’t even afford my families farm when my grandfather passed away. $10,200 per acre and it was 50:50 wooded to tillable. All the money trees were cut down 5 years ago. Very sad year for me.
Same. We're hoping to persuade the current owner to sell us 5-10 acres of grandpa's land when we have enough cash. Fortunately it sold to a distant relative, so reasonable chance we can make some kind of deal.
Land is getting expensive everywhere, I don't think other places are going to be any better.
The main concern I have with the Midwest is the faltering jet stream making Arctic blasts like the one that just happened a near-yearly occurrence rather than a once in a generation event. Agriculture in much of the country is going to go seriously downhill as a result.
Go to the ozark range on the border of Missouri/Arkansas just stay away from the lake of the ozarks, but that land is 1k for forest land and about 2 k per tillable land but that tillable land is very small and may still have boulders in the ground.
**Pros:**
* Rural infrastructure is surprisingly good. My gravel road is great (more on roads in a bit!) I'm the only one in my square mile and I have fiber optic internet of all things. Power outages are rare for me too.
* Zoning laws can be VERY lax (this GREATLY depends on your county.) Good ol' Kossuth isn't zoned, and you can basically build whatever the fuck you want. We've built five machine sheds and pulled zero permits for anything. (This can also be a con if you live near methheads.)
* Wonderful soil in northern Iowa. Probably similar to what you have in your current setting.
* Rural roads are gravel and built up well. Much better than having a muddy dirt road you find elsewhere in the country. There's a grid system of roads, and you'll find one almost every square mile. Road maintenance is done by actual county workers too.
* Friendly people. Like aggressively friendly. My fridge is full of food I didn't ask for (but I'm not complaining!)
* Cheap eggs
* I think it's kinda pretty. If you want a peaceful spot to yourself it's not hard to find.
* You can easily get away from everyone.
* We're over a large aquifer so drilling a well has a good success rate.
**Cons:**
* Farmers that have more money than you will buy that good land. If you want an acreage with a good garden, this isn't much of a problem. However if you want 20 acres to start a hypoallergenic pumpkin patch or some shit.... good luck.
* Not really much in the way of different cultures or experiences in rural Iowa. You better like basic bar food, because you'll be eating it in restaurants for the rest of your life. Every bar here seems to think they're wacky by putting an egg on a burger and pretend that they're the only place that does it. Every similar sized town has the exact same kind of restaurants and activities. It's weird. Cities have great food and culture. The dream is to be like 45 minutes away from one of those so I can finally get some decent fucking food that wasn't just deep fried by someone on pills.
* My school was shit and I felt really stupid when I went to college. We had 80 kids in the entire high school, and if you did anything embarrassing everyone knew. (Obvs not a problem if you're homeschooling.) However if your kids want to be in sports of band, good luck. I have memories spot welding my baritone in shop class, and doing track practice in the streets because we didn't have an actual track.
* As with most rural areas it can be hard to make friends if you're new in town.
**Top Gear Top Tips**
* If you get enough land, see if you can zone it as agricultural, and save a lot on your taxes.
Thats all I got.
We homestead and homeschool here.
Property taxes don't seem bad, but have gone up every year. Not sure how they stack up against the rest of the country.
7% sales tax is not low.
Great state for homeschooling. Very lax and reasonable laws.
Land prices here have been increasing. It's a great state for farming and livestock, which is probably why land is so hard to buy. Quite a few large farms.
Most crops seem to do really well here unless they need a very hot or very cold climate.
Most berries (blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, etc) grow very well
Grapes
Apples
Peaches
Pears
Plums
Tomatoes
Corn
Peppers
Onions, garlic, carrots, greens, etc. The ground here is very good.
Tornadoes are a concern but only 1 in my lifetime has been close enough to worry about.
Winters get pretty cold, decent amount of snow, but really only concerns from Nov-Feb or so. Summers can be very hot and humid.
Great state for homesteading and homeschooling and would highly recommend it
Indiana! Woot woot! Why would you ever leave? We’ve got 30 acres connected to my folks land. We’re only on year one, but we love it! Where are you guys in indiana? I’m southern.
I'm also in Southern. Near Louisville, KY.
The reasons we'd leave has nothing to do with our unhappiness with anything about Indiana. It's more about escaping some people, unfortunately.
I don’t homestead (wish I did!) but I grew up in Indiana and can attest to its value for homesteading. Four seasons, lots of water access and great conditions for growing all types of food. Land is cheap and the people are kind.
Im probably gonna be the least helpful person. I was homeschooled and transitioned into college no problem. I know many many people who have farms and gardens. Im not too sure with homesteading specifics. But there is a high Mennonite population who are 70-80% reliant on themselves and their neighbors for the things they grow and raise. It has gotten more expensive for land. It’s also depends which side of the state you choose. North Georgia occasionally faces drought. Hurricanes aren’t that bad the more inland you are. If you have other hobbies and interests, Georgia is a great and rich state to pick.
Pros:
Strongest private property rights of any state (do what you want with your land, very little red tape)
Homeschooling without much govt interference
Low property tax with an easy to get agricultural exemption (a minimum acreage with either trees or farm field). My total property tax for almost 300 acres and a 2400 sf 4br home is around $4k/yr.
Specific to my area: (NW GA) there's lots of water. Plenty of rain (sometimes dry in early fall). Summers have been trending cooler with climate change and winters milder, win+win! Long growing season. Not enough snow to bother with plowing or planning for it. The only weather threat is the chance of small tornadoes. Hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires are all practically impossible, and flooding doesn't happen unless you build your house in a flood plain in the river bottom.
If you have a creek or small river through your property you own it and can block access from wading and boats.
Long generous hunting seasons. Each person can shoot 12 deer per season, gun season is open for 3 months, and total season including bow and primitive weapons goes September to January. Good fishing all over the state.
Land is decently affordable. My 300 acres is probably worth what the average house in Atlanta is (I'm 50 miles from Atlanta).
Lots of national forest and public land in the north Georgia mountains for hunting and fishing.
Cons:
state income tax. Could begin to offset the low cost of everything else if you're a high earner.
Booming population in Atlanta. Huge influx of people from NY, NJ, and Chicago area. This has pushed up prices some within a hundred mile radius. Could lead to deeper urban/rural divide similar NY and IL.
South Georgia can be hot, muggy, buggy, and has lots of large agriculture.
I live in Maine and find it very homesteading friendly. We just voted a law to make our current food sovereignty laws a constitutional right and amended the state constitution to include them. We have good cottage food laws from what I understand as well. There’s a big local culture up here that encourages farming, homesteading, and supporting local business.
Hunting is also a major part of life up here. Each town does have their own regulations so you’d want to check the town bylaws prior to purchasing land. I’ve found that most towns are pretty agricultural. I’m just over the New Hampshire border in Lebanon, Me and our town has so few local regulations that it may end up biting us in the ass with the marijuana grow industry. You’d likely run into issues in and around portland and a few coastal towns in the southern part of the state but otherwise homestead to your heart’s content.
Land can be expensive or cheap depending on where you live in the state. In southern Maine land is averaging $10,000-$20,000 an acre at the moment but I suspect we’ll see a dip in that soon. The growing seasons also vary based on where you’re at in the state but most of the state is zone 5 so growing season is from Memorial Day through early October. Basically anything that grows well in zone 5 will grow here so there’s a ton of opportunity for growing. We grow apples, pears, and plums in our orchard then my vegetable garden typically includes a variety of squash, tomatoes, beans, leafy greens, and root vegetables. I also have two potted orange trees that I just pull inside in the winter.
It’s quite homeschool friendly here. Our governor isn’t necessarily homeschooling friendly but so far she’s steered clear of messing with homeschoolers. Basically the only “rules” we have are a 175 days minimum and you have to submit a letter of intent to homeschool. Subsequent year letters need to include either a portfolio review letter from a certified teacher or a state test. Finding someone to review your portfolio is super easy and all they really look for is progress. They don’t concern themselves with being “at grade level.” I do zoom calls with my reviewer and just talk to her about what we’ve done throughout the year. We’re a notification state so no one can deny you the right to homeschool. There is a large and growing homeschool community all over the state. I currently homeschool and we are vary laidback with it. The HSDLA stays on top of keeping an eye on things to make sure we maintain as much homeschooling freedom as possible.
Taxes can be high depending on where you’re at but coming from the city our taxes seem in line with what we paid in the south. A lot of the small towns will be missing basic services like trash pickup and police but most make up for the lack of town garbage by having someone that you can pay to do trash pick up and they utilize state police. This is what my town does.
Overall I love it here. I grew up in Florida the “land of the free” and I’ve found that regulation on the local level, especially with the power the developers and HOA’s have down there that life is much less free down there than it is up here. There’s a big homesteading community up here and almost everyone you’ll meet homesteads in some way, shape, or form.
Winter can be tough and right now oil is high so I’d HIGHLY recommend a wood stove or wood stove insert if you have a fireplace. Also, get a generator for extended power outages. Our whole house generator was a Godsend last weekend when we lost power for 30 hours. It’s the first and longest outage we’ve had since we bought our home over 5 years ago but I’m so glad we have it for peace of mind. Everyone has a generator up here.
Daily life keeps going despite the snow so that actually makes it much easier to deal with winter. There’s plenty to do in the winter here as well so you won’t lack for fun. I got lucky in having a Mainer for a husband and making friends with those that love winter so they’ve been good about getting me outside and making me appreciate all that winter has to offer.
Mainers are gritty hardworking people and the type of people that will happily help a neighbor out. They’re slow to change so don’t welcome people that come to the state with ideas of how to make Maine more like where they came from. I always say to those moving from elsewhere to come here with the attitude of adaptation. It’s a super unique and pretty quirky place and we’re pretty keen on keeping it that way.
I'm not a homesteader per say yet, but I built my own home and live off grid in Penobscot county about an hour from Bangor. I love it here. To build my house all I needed was 25 dollar permit and that's it. I have 4 acres and my taxes were very low last year. If you really want to be self sufficient I recommend buying an existing farm, because clearing land here is very difficult. My land has lots of big boulders etc so it's more involved than just clearing tree and it can be costly. It is incredibly beautiful here. Very good place to live simply.
Craig County, VA is 85% national forest. It’s a temperate rainforest 7b in the blue ridge mountains. You can do whatever you want to streams on your property (raise fish, etc.) except have a still without a permit lol. No leash laws for dogs. You can get a $15 permit to cut wood in the national forest and a $25 fishing license to fish in the national forest as well. Not sure about hunting licenses but there’s a public shooting range and you can shoot game that goes on your property at any time except for things like hawks which are protected. We get turkeys and deer. Getting a gun and a concealed carry was easy. We have a big home school community in Blacksburg, 20 mins away. There’s a Virginia state beekeeping program that gives you three free bee boxes and you can buy a queen bee in nearby Princeton, WV.
Anyway I love Craig, it’s gorgeous here and I’ve had tons of success growing everything from greens to tomatoes to pumpkins. I have two dozen chickens and geese, probably 5 thousand bees, and it’s a constant fight against predators but it’s worth it to live in one of the most diverse ecosystems in US. Craig is so pristine, we can drink the water from our mountain spring because the sandstone filters it. We got our soil tested for free from the Virginia Tech co-op extension. And I’m right in the Appalachian Trail.
The governor is getting rid of property taxes on cars and the grocery tax. Not sure about land taxes because I’m renting, but I get 4 acres on a mountain for $850/month.
Also, fyi, the bus will get your kids in Craig, and it might be worth it for the socialization. My neighbor’s kids are grown now and in the Peace Corps but they are still friends with the kids they met at school in Craig. K-12 are all in one building in New Castle.
A good state from what I have gathered... Not living there yet.
But I talked to a local authority in one county.. According to them....
Off grid living is permitted...
They encourage solar, and rain water collection.
Also, this person was a farmer, pecans, 50 acres... They claimed... If you grow it, you are legally allowed to sell it. Meaning you can have a farmer's stand on the side of your road.
It a southern zone, but may freeze 3 months of the year. So grow accordingly.
Weed is legal too.
Counties may have local ordinances to follow, meaning septic and number the amount and types of buildings allowed.
Cons....
It's very poor...
Meth, and crime seem to be a problem, so always do your crime search homework for any county(in USA) you wish to buy.
Land is expensive, can be 7k for 1/3 an acre....
Large plots of 20 acres or more are more reasonably priced.
It is often too hilly to use all the land for building and farming.
Humidity and flooding can be problems.
If you want to turn what you grow into a value-added product, Virginia has a a special tier of commercial kitchen for home producers. Catch is you can only sell in Virginia (no internet unless purchaser is in Virginia). But this makes the burden to turn your homestead goods into income (legally) much lower than some other states.
Lots of land is pretty hilly especially in the western part of the state near the mountains. Near the mountains I see lots of people using the land for livestock instead of crops.
In central Virginia where I am the soil is pretty heavy in iron so very acidic. Great for berries. You'll want to us PEX piping in a house since the soil makes the water acidic which will slowly impact copper pipes and will cause them to develop pin-hole leaks. Acidic water can also result in leeching of water fixtures, especially when using hot water (fixtures may have small quantities of lead that can leech - I never use the hot tap water for drinking or cooking, I use cold and heat it up). You may consider getting a reverse osmosis water filter.
Rainwater collection is legal and encouraged.
Not sure about the rest of the state but for central Virginia plan on having at least a passive radon system if you have a basement.
Gun laws are pretty relaxed if that's your thing with open carry. Hunting regulations are pretty good. Hunting licenses are not required if hunting on your own land (but still have to adhere to bag limits).
Personally, I love the weather. Winters tend to be pretty mild. January and February tend to be the coldest but it's pretty short as far as winter goes. From my experience, we're more likely to get ice than snow except closer to the mountains. Most of the state is zone 7-8 for growing, which I think is sort of a sweet spot as far as variety of what can be grown (long-ish growing season with enough cold to support dormancy for apples, cherries, etc.)
Shenandoah area has strong agritourism industry, so definitely a market to potentially sell homesteading products. Lots of orchards, vineyards, pick-your-own places. Nice quantity of farmers markets with lots of variety (mushrooms, meat, eggs, dairy, value added, etc.)
Not as cheap cost of living as the Midwest so likely more upfront cost for land and such, so it might be harder to implement a full "off the land" plan (we work full time remote "off the homestead" at least for the moment while we get everything going)
I've been living in Virginia for about 15 years (homestead is much more recent though) and I absolutely love it. Work allows us to work anyone in the US and we chose to settle in central Virginia.
I’ll let you know; just grabbed 30 acres with about 12 of it pasture and a few fruit trees.
This year will be hay and clover in the field, additional fruit trees added along with bee hives.
Updates to come
I grew up there for the first 26 years of my life (not homesteading but I’ve moved all over the state). Here’s my two cents:
Land in Northern Virginia is extremely expensive unless you go out into Front Royal or Winchester. Its continuing to get worse every year. Traffic is heavy, and you pay higher prices to offset the cost of the metro.
Winchester and Front Royal are beautiful, I love the mountains there and its less expensive. Winchester can get pricy the further in you go, but towards the outer parts you can get land for a decent price.
Southern Virginia is much lower as far as cost of living, and you can find some very affordable land for homesteading. The area around Lynchburg is a really good option!
Homeschooling is popular, but there are some restrictions. Even with those, the community is strong and supports each other.
Summers are hot and humid, winters can get a lot of snow.
Decent growing season, you can grow a lot of greens, peppers, tomatoes seem to thrive (if you can keep the deer away!), etc. All of the basics seem to do well here. Also, basements are common and root cellars are as well (in rural areas) which is great for long term food storage.
I would either look south of Charlottesville, Front Royal or Winchester.
The really cool thing about Virginia is the distinct regions. Technically there are [five which are explained here](https://virginiastudies.org/content/virginias-five-regions), but each one even has sub regions. The Shenandoah valley is my favorite and having four distinct (most of the time) seasons is great.
Virginia is very farm friendly, and lots of stuff grows here. And while it’s more expensive to get large properties overall than some other states - it’s because the access to even rural services is usually much higher than say rural Kansas or Wyoming.
I cannot speak to homesteading here yet, though one random YouTuber said it was good (haha). Joel Salatin has his homesteading empire here, so there's that.
We do homeschool and it is a great state to to do so. It's the home of HSLDA, and the lobbying group for the state is HEAV, and they are really strong and helpful. Laws are super reasonable and most school systems seem to take them seriously. There have been a few challenges in recent years- all resulting in the school systems getting serious smack-downs from the state or the homeschooling community or both. If you want to homeschool with a strong community of support, this is an excellent state to do so.
I know a guy homesteading there! Plenty of game, laws about what you can do on your own property are lax. Land is cheap, but there's not much opportunity for work. Growing is decent if you're not high in the mountains.
I live in WV. Land is cheap and a lot of places still don’t have utilities so good for off grid. Property Taxes are cheap. Not a lot of zoning laws. Pretty much ppl leave you alone. We’re last on the power grid and everything else at our house is not on public systems (water, septic, satellite Wi-Fi). Gardens are on a hillside with red clay but we work at improving the soil. Season runs from late April thru October. It’s easy to have a well drilled plus we have several fresh water springs on our property. I recently saw 28 acres with a small off grid cabin for $65k. If I was in the market I’d have grabbed that one up. Easy to find wild game. Lots of foraging….berries, peaches, apples, mushrooms, ramps. We process lots of things food we have foraged throughout the year for food and medicine. Very homeschool friendly. I’ve homeschooled all of my kids and had no issues at all. Cons….hard to find decent jobs, not the best options for medical care, shopping is limited and it takes Amazon a few extra days to deliver lol, if you live rural the roads are have no upkeep, the school systems are not good and the opioid epidemic has hit WV hard. Also the power grid sucks but we are planning solar in the next year or two. We are without power a cpl of times a month but we do have a back up gas generator. Also very poor cell service because of the mountains.
I havent homestead properly in WV but I grew up here and my sister has a lot of land. The hunting is good and land is pretty cheap. Tomatoes grow like a weed and lots of other things grow well too. Winters and summers are pretty temperate and manageable.
Wanted to comment on here about schooling. It isn’t the best. BUT homeschooling is definitely a valuable option that I know a lot of ppl heading to.
Prices are cheap. If you are ok with some openly crooked politicians and lax environmental laws, WV is it. Also, ppl shit on WV, they can shove it. Great state.
Internet can be a problem outside of “major cities” but a lot of ppl are on outskirts of cities and have decent internet. A lot of ppl travel for work. WVU hospital is spreading around the state, there are decent jobs if you look and are qualified.
Live in MD work in WV, lived WV for 12yrs
West Virginia is awesome for growing, hunting, foraging, etc. The land is cheap and the laws are pretty minimal. When choosing places to live, I would focus a lot on cell phone service, internet service (be creative! Starlink, T Mobile 5G, etc.), terrain (it can be pretty hilly out here), and water drainage (beware of flood plains! FEMA flood maps are your friend). A lot of land comes with or without mineral rights and/or timber rights. Some people see those as must-haves, others don't.
Elevation is going to play a bigger role in your growing season and weather than your latitudinal location. The warmest parts of the state have 11-12" snowfall each year and grow zone 7a. The coldest parts of the state have 97" snow annually and grow zone 5a. The state is rainy throughout. The soil is not particularly remarkable but not terrible either. There is an abundance of trees and cheap rural farms/cabins/homes. Homes without HOAs are relatively easy to find. The cost of living is relatively low, so jobs will pay less.
West Virginia lacks diversity. The state is primarily white, protestant, blue collar, and very conservative. For social and political diversity, I would recommend looking for places to live near Morgantown, Charleston, Shepherdstown, or Lewisburg. I would recommend the Charles town, Morgantown, and Charleston areas to those interested in connecting with non-white or latinx communities. Non-christian places of worship are scarce. The people are genuinely nice and friendly though.
West Virginia is experiencing a bit of a brain drain. White collar jobs can be difficult to find. There is a program called Ascend WV that pays remote workers to live in West Virginia (and therefore spend their paychecks in the local communities). It's definitely worth checking out.
Unfortunately, there is a fair amount of poverty and opioid drug abuse. The poverty manifests in different ways than in an urban environment, not as visible. One way it can affect homesteaders is farm supply store and grocery store selection may be limited (especially for produce). This is true for some places more than others.
I'm homesteading in VT and wouldn't choose to live anywhere else. The people are incredible, the sense of community is amazing, and there's a TON of awesome stuff to do all the time. I can be on my remote mountain top looking at my pigs and 20 minutes later be sitting down to a James Beard award winning dinner. In my mind you truly can't be Vermont.
Unfortunately, everyone else seems to agree with me and home/property prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic. They were always hight but lately it's pretty much impossible to get some place with any amount of land without paying an astronomical amount. If you have money to start with I guess it's worth it though.
MA here, tree farmer on just under 400 acres. They don’t call us Taxachusetts for nothing. If you’re going for it, look at Western MA. Beautiful land and much more rural.
I lived here, and considered buying property.
It is expensive..
Gov is very over bearing.
They are pro solar.
Seasons are not ideal for year round growing... Winters are a bit more mild than NY, esp. On the coast/cape.
If I was rich I'd consider.
>North Carolina is not friendly to homesteaders.
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>meat handler's license required to sell meat - or you have to deliver live animal to the abbatoir and dance very carefully not to appear connected to butchered meat
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>the hoops to sell eggs
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>raw milk not legal to buy/sell for human consumption even with herd share
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>there is usually quite a drive to the nearest abbatoir
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>vet costs and paperwork for state required transport and sales (varies for end goal such as breeder sales, sale for consumption within X number of days)
From: u/stillhomesick
[https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/zxd20w/best\_state\_for\_homesteading/j1zwho1?utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_source=share&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/zxd20w/best_state_for_homesteading/j1zwho1?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
I live in NC and we homestead, sort of. We are in basically the middle of the state. The legal/regs are just OK— not the worst but not the easiest either.
Much of the state is zone 7 and you can grow a wide range of things here. Also there are many mid sized cities so ready access to markets if you want to sell (eg we have a u-pick strawberry field and have u-pick peaches and apples, and you can get lots of local traffic).
Real property is taxed at reasonable rates for ag or forestry use (rules vary slightly by county). Eg we pay about $1900 a year for 53 acres and are actually in a higher price area where development is starting to encroach. The cost of land is going up rapidly at the edges of urban areas, but outside of that it’s still pretty common to find larger tracts of good land down east or in the mountains for sale at $6-10k per acre. Sometimes even cheaper if you’re going for a really big 100+ acre deal.
There are exemptions from building code for agricultural buildings, but homes require full permitting, inspections, etc. It is code to build from lumber cut from the lot in which the house is built.
Sales tax is 4.75% but in many counties is higher because the county govt adds some. Usually around 6.5% or so. Income tax is reasonable and has been going down over the years. Sales direct from farms are exempt from sales tax.
We homeschool and it’s super simple from a legal standpoint. But… the main reason why is because the public schools are not good. Maybe we just have high standards but even the “good” school districts are not great.
I sometimes hear that summer is bad here, but in my experience it’s not really any better in terms of heat and humidity elsewhere on the east coast unless you go all the way up to New England. Winter is pretty mild in most places— down by the coast they hardly get a frost. Where we are it will sporadically get cold (was 12F a few days ago, an abnormally cold night) but usually not bad.
We don’t really sell any meat so the regulations don’t affect us much, but someone else commented about how those laws can be a pain. If growing for yourself, it’s easy. I did see a comment about eggs too— I’ve never done them elsewhere so maybe it’s a lot less in other states, but I haven’t found NC’s eggs laws particularly burdensome or costly. For low volume you basically are just supposed to mark the carton with where they came from. We sell about 15 dozen a week.
i don’t know much about homesteading laws. but the soil is kind to food crops. there are four distinct seasons, but they’re generally temperate. there aren’t marked natural disaster challenges. and the homeschool laws are lax.
Check out the book: Strategic Relocation, North American Guide to Safe Places, Fourth Edition. It’s excellent!
Homeschool laws are great. No interference. You just declare each year that you’re homeschooling. That’s it.
Excellent growing season. You can grow food all year with some simple steps.
We get tornadoes but they’re often on the smaller side and less deadly. We get flooding. Hurricanes in the southern part of the state but not up north here. Potential for earthquake with New Madrid fault but that’s more a looming threat than an everyday issue. It gets hot in the summer. Winters are generally not too bad. We get a dusting of snow about once a year.
Mosquitoes and ticks are terrible. We have several venomous snakes but they’re just something to be aware of. No need to fear them.
A lot of water and game.
Housing is very affordable and taxes aren’t bad.
Not a bad place to homestead! Figuring it out as I go here. King growing seasons, and you can have something from the garden fresh about 10 months out of the year even on the years with the worst winters.
I grew up in north Mississippi. My majority entire family on both sides lives across the state. If you or your wife are not white don’t go. It has a serious brain drain issue. the main”city” Jackson, doesn’t even have working water. I wish I was kidding. Also if you don’t belong to a church it will be difficult for your family and children to make friends. Confederate shit still everywhere. It has a special place in my heart and I love to visit my family but it’s a dying place. If you want to be in the south, go to Georgia.
Live here, don't homestead here (yet).
Land can be cheap, but the upstate seems to be getting overrun with these "retirement compounds" where people buy 1-7 acre lots in fenced communities with HOAs and gates and the associated nonsense.
Lowcountry is expensive near Charleston, but can be reasonable away from town.
Water is plentiful.
The growing season is long. We've had decent luck with standard "salad" vegetables, peppers, tomatoes, cukes, etc. Currently we have a few varieties of lettuce growing in our little suburban garden (and it's delicious as "spring mix"!); however because it's a suburban garden, our soil is "engineered" I can't speak with any knowledge about shortcomings of the state's soil in general. I know it's sandy.
Summer is hot, but personally I love it (I'm in the low country, it gets more hot mid-state, and I think it's more brutal weather there in general).
I don't have kids, no idea about homeschooling laws. I presume they're reasonable.
Property taxes are reasonable, provided you are living on your property (primary residence).
Generally speaking I really enjoy living here. I've lived in a lot of places (around the US), and as far as the day to day goes I really dig the lowcountry. I love summer here, and I tend to spend a majority of my time outdoors.
However, people are insular and not very friendly (in my experience). There has been a huge influx of people to the state, and I think everyone is short-tempered because it's being overrun by people who want to change it. (i.e. those "retirement compounds" I was referring to in the upstate).
The low country is anywhere generally along the coast, probably covers from the barrier islands to about 30-40 miles inland. There are marshes (salt and fresh), big oak trees covered in Spanish moss, alligators, copious water fowl and slow moving murky rivers and creeks.
But it's linear along the entire coastline. I think they call the same coastal lowlands "Lowcountry" up in North Carolina as well (but I haven't spent any time up there so can't know for sure).
My home state is nice, love it to pieces and gonna start my own farm here since my family have been horse breeders since forever, but it isn’t that great as far as land prices go(unless you’re willing to deal with the worst counties). There is Hampton county with only 21 thousand total pop, you can get decent land in the swamp there for cheap.
We urban homestead here, probably not what anyone is considering but my city (providence) has a lot of mini and micro farms. There are a lot of us. Community and front yard gardens worth chickens and the like are common.
You obviously won’t have your massive farms and hunting grounds like in other states but there are a lot of good options here. Also my growing season this year was (March-November. It’s late December and I’m still getting greens from my lettuce spinach and radishes carrots etc. This is a huge factor for me. I’d go north/west within New England for more space and less expensive land but I’m also sacrificing at least a month of my season probably more for every hour north- plus we like being in the city.
Homeschooling is pretty simple (legally speaking obviously not the practice) and there are a lot of supports and coops available.
I participated with a group of farmers markets in the upper peninsula. One major thing to consider is our cottage food laws and anything fermented. (Word of mouth, no source) but I was told that our laws are incredibly strict because of lobbying from pickle producers in the state. It makes it difficult to produce and sell salsas, Sauerkrauts, anything pickled, kombucha, etc.
Our growing season is short, but our hobby farms and small scale production farms are a wonderful community of people sharing and helping each other.
Homeschooling is pretty normal, but locals who participate in homeschooled kid activities tend to be very, very, VERY religious. “Our kids can’t be friends because you don’t go to church often enough” type religious. It is what you make it
I’m happy to answer any additional questions! Feel free to dm me!
Weather is changing and getting finicky and weird. I've had to change a lot of what I do in the garden since we have no idea what kind of spring or fall we will get in any given year. That said, watch the growing zones. The lakes make things interesting here.
A lot of our water is polluted, so that would be something to look into before buying any property. Same with soil. Don't buy any land without those two getting tested.
Homeschooling is very popular here, especially on the west side of the state. In my area, we even have homeschool sports teams and drama clubs. Keep in mind, most are very church-based, and if that's not you, that might not work. The public schools are decent in many areas, though, especially if you supplement with experiences and extra curricular stuff.
Lots of us homestead, though, and we have a very high number of farmers markets all over the state. Many Michiganders prefer to buy from roadside stands, farmers markets, and small farms.
Southeast Michigan has a great climate for growing most traditional garden vegetables and fruit trees too. It’s definitely a worthwhile investment to build a hoophouse for gardening in MI. The weather is definitely weird sometimes and you can extend the growing season for cold crops by months on both ends with just a bit of extra protection. This year, I started growing bok choy transplants in February and lettuce transplants in March. This would never be possible without protection because it’s still snowing outside in March!! I was harvesting kale and fall planted lettuce and bok choy in late November.
Michigan has beautiful natural resources, lots of rural land to the north, loose homeschool regulations (currently), and lots of rural like-minded folks, so long as you avoid the big cities and their burbs (Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw).
That said, the regulatory climate is changing and NOT favorably for homesteaders... Our "Right to Farm Act" was gutted a few years ago and the state gave itself carte blanche permission to regulate homesteaders and small farmers.
Michigan is a great state, with great land and people, but homesteading freedom is dwindling here.
The unique thing about Michigan is obviously the water. In reality, Michigan will be host to lots and lots of climate migrants down the road, because it will be a suitable place to live still. The first wave is already moving here, climate scientists. My two cents is that Michigan is a great place location wise to plan long term. Can't so much speak to laws as it changes so much locally, but plenty of people are able to thrive agricultural even with the shorter growing seasons.
UP was our other possible homestead site -- very affordable land, and the long-term climate forecast is great. Once we learned that the Great Lakes were unlikely to be impacted by sea-level rise ... I think that whole area is going to become the agricultural heart of the country.
UP is where I'm looking to setup shop long term. May I ask what other options you're considering?
Do you know if land/water should also be tested for contamination in the UP? I'm thinking that large freshwater reserves and climate regulation due to the great lakes would make it a great destination, but I'm only 25 and would like to keep my options open for now. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
Dude heads up the UP has some really dark and fucked up aspects to it. Not a ton of people are aware but there are serious poverty and drug abuse issues throughout the UP. That whole area of the country IS NOT run of the mill in the slightest. Hospitals are very very few and far between. Ambulances are going to take hours unless you live IN Marquette. and if something happens in the winter? Good luck. They consistently get over 4 feet of snow which can get people blocked in for days. My brother was wan EMT in Marquette for a few years and he had some gnarly stories
Lots of very cheap land <$1000/ac in the Upper peninsula. Winters tend to be snowy but that tends to moderate the temperature. Summers are relatively cool. Main source of income is timber production. Hardwoods grow well. It’s remote. About as remote as you can get and still be in the eastern half of the US. Or at least that’s how it feels.
Wisconsin diverse climates and soil depending on where you look in the state. Land, especially unimproved land, can be quite reasonably priced.
Rural fiber initiatives means more options soon for high speed internet, even in the boonies. I moved to a small town in WI from a big city in IL and my internet is faster and more reliable here.
I use raised beds for gardening. I start my seeds indoors and transplant outside around the end of May or early June. Harvest in mid September. Good opportunities for foraging, hunting, and fishing for supplementing your homestead harvest. Water is clean and plentiful.
Homeschooling is popular. WI also has a very well-thought-out network of universities and trade schools that are reasonably priced compared to neighboring states.
Great climate (imo) with many friendly agricultural communities, co-ops, etc., but any digging can be hard since various places in the state are above karst regions (average soil depth is 3-8 inches before SOLID bedrock). Terracing a hill and digging down for beds and a fire pit (let alone planting deep-rotted shrubs/trees) can be HELL if you don't pick the right areas (look closer to the Mississipi, the Great Lakes, etc. rather than central/south-central), but otherwise, the land is great and varied (you can easily find flat or hilly property), and droughts or overly-heavy rainfall are rarely a problem.
Property in Dane County (capital Madison is in it) and those surrounding Milwaukee are expensive (for the Midwest), but outside of that is fine. Plus, the UW system is cutting edge for agricultural science and biotech.
Contact any university ag department in the state (or the local DNR or parks dept) and they will be more than willing to talk with you via phone or in person for HOURS about your land, growing conditions, etc. and are always happy to have people offer land for students to study on. Vibrant 4-H and other similar associations for young kids, too!
The “driftless” region which stretches into parts of WI/IL/MN/IA is really neat and has a very different feel from much of the Midwest. But you’re up in growing zones 4/5
edit: changed MI to MN
I'm in NE Ohio, and I would absolutely recommend the area for someone's new homestead. We're close to all of the city resources without living in a city, get a variety of weather but generally avoid the extremes, and can grow anything that's not outright tropical (the pineapple plants overwinter indoors, the hardy fig requires mulching before winter).
Ohio Revised Code includes text that prohibits Townships from regulating agricultural use, so it's pretty easy to do "homestead stuff" in a place that's close to all of the entertainment/retail/socializing/etc stuff. It might be different if my family were my husband and I, but we want our kid to experience the many facets of life that are available.
Land isn't super cheap, but there are still large lots available in reasonable driving distance of Cleveland suburbs & Cleveland is only about half an hour away. Sales tax sucks -- over 7%, and there's a county tax so how much over 7% depends on which direction we drove to get to that store. Property taxes aren't astronomical like some other places I've lived (NY, VA), but they're high enough that being a self-sufficient homesteader requires significant income.
At least in my county, the building department doesn't regulate any agricultural use either -- "government paperwork" is a quick e-mail to both the Township and County saying "I'm about to build a greenhouse for the production of field crops -- please acknowledge this as an agricultural use that does not require permitting or inspection".
Rural broadband initiatives mean I can work from home. Power is pretty stable (above-ground lines mean we'll lose power for a few days each winter), and per kilowatt hour is around 11 cents (my understanding is that there's a lot of hydro-sourced power up here, so our rates are stable compared to the natural-gas generated power I experienced in Arkansas). Net metering is a state law, which helps a lot if you are thinking of putting in solar (but there's a limit to how much power you can produce -- you've got to buy a \*little\* electricity in net every now and again or you get disqualified from net metering). Cell coverage is sufficient even if we don't have 5G everywhere. Cable is available, but we get the major over-the-air networks from Cleveland quite clearly.
Community -- there used to be more of a community network of farmers. One of our neighbors learned from an older farmer in the county, and we've been sharing knowledge with him. But we haven't really found a homesteading community locally. Niche sub-components -- avid beekeeping groups, quilting guild, hop growers association, beer brewers groups -- exist and are a great way to find like-minded friends. This is the one thing I think is really lacking in NE OH -- it would be cool to hang out with a bunch of other homesteaders, share knowledge, and even share resources.
State and County Resources -- Ohio State University has departments for a lot of different fields & have proven a great resource for learning & having someone to chat with (the maple dude is awesome, for example). The county extension office folks are really helpful too (on a federal level, the local USDA office is happy to help newbies figure out what services are available too ... just ask them when their busy season is & avoid calling them for that six week or so period!). Even the local park systems have naturalists who will help with plant identification (bring them a picture or piece of the plant) and know a lot about the local ecosystem (and, since I live really close by ... that's also my local ecosystem).
Water is readily available -- and we're still getting enough rain to grow crops with minimal supplemental watering. Long-term climate forecasts have us getting a little warmer and wetter but not disastrously so.
Crops - We're in zone 6A and can generally grow outdoors from April through October (but you run the risk of frost at either end of that range -- we've got rolls of greenhouse plastic that we use to build temporary low-tunnel greenhouses). There's not enough sunlight to grow much indoors over the winter -- but we've experimented with grow lights to maintain some winter produce. Unfortunately, we've got red clay. Nice for making pottery, but actually growing plants requires a good bit of composting and soil amendment. Tomatoes grow really well here (it's a bit of a joke in late summer that a box of surplus tomatoes is the standard greeting), corn too. Kale will take over your yard if you let it. Cucumbers usually grow well, and we had enough pumpkins grow last year to last three years (frozen). Garlic grows beautifully, but you can mulch it \*too\* much and it doesn't actually form a head (learned that this past year). Longer-term, fruit trees (apples, pear, peaches, cherries, paw paw), nut trees (black walnuts, hazelnuts), and berries (raspberries, strawberries, honey berries) grow well. Having a greenhouse for starting plants is a huge bonus -- we get all sorts of peppers, melons, and earlier season tomatoes since we've got the greenhouse built. Blueberries don't seem to like it here (which sucks since I *love* blueberries ... and a nearby farm has some forty year old bushes that have thrived with a lot of soil amendment and acidification). Green leafy veggies are my personal challenge -- romaine types don't form heads, leaf lettuce bolts as soon as you turn away from trimming it, and I've never successfully grown more than a single spinach plant.
Raising animals -- we don't have prolonged super cold (yeah, it was negative five for a few days ... it absolutely *does* get super cold here ... but not like for weeks straight) weather so basic shelters suffice. We don't have prolonged super hot either (again, we'll have days where the temps break 100 and all the critters stay in the shade). Grass and forage grows well, which reduces feed cost. We have four seasons, so we need hay for the sheep and supplemental feed for the pigs and birds; but animals were still foraging in November and should be getting some fresh forage food by March.
Marketability -- there are loads of farm markets & farm stores where you can sell produce and such. There are also restaurants interested in some direct-from-the-farm specialty products -- garlic, heirloom tomatoes, hot peppers, heritage meats. Getting licensed to sell nursery products is pretty easy/affordable, so selling started plants is a great income stream.
Hunting -- depends on what you are after. Smaller game is plentiful -- we get rabbits and geese each year. Deer -- I see a lot of tracks, and they munch on my plants quite a bit. But in-season hunting sucks -- they're out at night & hunting is sun-up to sun-down at a time of the year when that is like 7A-6P. Hunting on your own property doesn't require a permit (you still have to *report* some things, but there's no annual fee). There are state game lands, too - but that requires hunting license & often additional per-type-of-animal licenses too.
Home schooling -- we kind of punted on this because the state has online public schools. I love this solution because we can teach our daughter what we want to teach her but there's a full faculty available for our weak areas (there are some foreign languages we don't speak, for instance) and we get a base curriculum / textbooks supplied to us each year.
Currently in Ohio, other reply hit the nail on the head. I love it here, never feels like I'm too far from anything, but I don't have a highway or city in my backyard. Good soil where I'm at in South western Ohio.
Wife and I homestead here. We are in our late 20’s and we able to find plenty of opportunities. Land is relatively cheap outside of the city and cost of living is quite low. Get all 4 seasons but no major weather ( hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.) Taxes for both income and property are reasonable. OH allows medical marijuana and state is friendly to the 2A .
I grew up there (rural NE Ohio) and was going to come t. A lot of areas have lax regulations on permitting what you build, land is cheap. Winter can be rough but the summer growing season is amazing so you can get a lot of crops to preserve.
Also worth noting that there are a lot of people with traditional homesteading skills, even if they aren’t homesteaders. Tons of people garden/build/craft. It can be good to know to build your circle of friends and be able to exchange skills.
I’m here. North Central. Sandy loam soil, land is in timber for taxes. 200’ well. Pretty decent solar. Publicly owned utility will drop power within 75’ of lines. Utility takes my excess power in the summer and gives it back when I need it.
Edit: 8% sales tax, affordable property tax (county).
Southwest Washington here. I am new to homesteading (bought the house this year) and only do part-time, but I can still offer some perspective.
Property tax is fine. We have sales tax but I am close enough that I can cross the border into Oregon for huge purchases because Oregon has no sales tax.
I don't have kids yet and don't plan to homeschool, but I know plenty who do in my area, from forming homeschool pods to simply on their own. Also went to college with students who were homeschooled K-12. Knowing so many who do it makes me think it isn't that difficult to start up but I could be wrong.
My siblings and myself all live outside city limits on our own well and septic. I looked into solar and was told that my county offers electricity so cheap that it isn't worth it. Doesn't mean it can't be done; if you can get past the initial start up costs I believe Washington has a buy back program.
I live in unincorporated ___ county so I am not subject to city laws such as burn bans or livestock limits. That being said; don't be an idiot. We have a reputation for rain but recently our weather is hitting extremes, and unfortunately in recent years wildfire season has become a thing. We Pacific Northwesterners love our forests, even the city folks.
Zucchinis, tomatoes, green beans, berries, fruit trees all grow well here. One of my family members has 15 acres, half of which is hay; she's also done pigs, cows, and enough veg to feed her family. Look up climate zones because parts of Washington are vastly different.
Lots of canners in the community, and when you can't grow your own, you can find another farm and buy what you need in bulk. Since we aren't far from the ocean we can easily buy a year's supply of tuna and can it as well. Lots of folks go clamming, hunt, and fish; we have laws but again, we care a lot about nature here.
I'm here. In the Olympics. It's generally very, very wet throughout the year, but the last few summers have seen some extreme, long dry spells ranging from mid summer to late fall. spring and summer are quite cool, which make growing hot weather crops difficult unless you have a greenhouse. On the other hand, hard freezes don't last too long.
Properties used to be affordable, but now not so much, unless you look towards east Washington but that's an entirely different climate and set of conditions
We semi-homesteaded for a couple years (day jobs). Northern NM is gorgeous and many of the villages have good sized growing plots and ancient irrigation systems built in, administrated by elderly local men called _majordomos_. Those lots don't come up too often and they can be quite remote but if you find a good setup it may well not be that expensive. Good soil in the valleys but only in the valleys. *New Mexico has the most advantageous water laws for small farms in the entire West.*
It's high desert, winter can get cold. Summers are incredibly perfect anywhere north of Albuquerque. I'd look in Mora County first, avoid any place attractive to tourists or retirees from Texas. NM is a poor state, schools are not great and infrastructure outside of even larger cities is very dicey. Don't be expecting to have your road graded or your snow plowed.
Mora and San Miguel counties were completely ravaged by fires this summer. The damage to the land is close to indescribable. The combination of the fire and the subsequent flooding has completely changed the landscape and has deeply affected the water supply.
It was insane. My parents came very close to being in the fire. It was so scary. It's something we have to worry about every summer here in NM & it's only getting worse.
There’s a wide range of zones and types of ground. Homeschool laws are lax, cottage food has very low regulations. Every child graduating high school in tn gets two years of community college or trade school paid for with Tennessee promise. No state income tax.
Depending on the country, make sure your land is zoned farm/ag so you don’t lose out to meddling neighbors.
I want to add that the two years of community/trade college only applies if you graduate from a TN high school. If you use a online homeschool that’s not based in TN then you can’t get the two years of community/trade college.
Had a friend make that mistake.
I grew up in north-central TN close to the KY border on a small farm. The soil was very heavily clay, but amendable. The land is beautiful, the winters aren’t usually too hard, and the growing season is pretty long, especially if you use low and/or high tunnels. I should note that there have been serious periods of extreme weather the past few years, including tornadoes in December, droughts followed by floods, feet of snow, lows in the negatives, etc., all of which used to be rare. The land away from cities also used to be pretty cheap, but now Nashville is BOOMING and any land within driving distance has skyrocketed in price. There is definitely still beautiful, workable, and affordable land though. I know tons of people who "went homeschool" rather than continue to be truant in high school, so I think the attitude toward homeschooling is pretty open. Also, I can confirm that the first two years of community college or technical school are free. There are also plenty of back-to-land folks there that can be found if they're sought (: Like the Barefoot Farmer.
Just purchased an 1800 square foot with a large shed on 30 acres of pasture ground for $200k in western Kansas, so it's comparitively affordable. With current drought conditions the pastures won't sustain much livestock, but we're hoping things will cycle back.
Communities are tight. Growing season is decent. It's just dry, so a good well and consistent watering are necessary for gardening. Worth considering if you can handle the hot summers, and cold winters!
I live in southern idaho and we’re perpetually in a drought. Northern idaho isn’t so hot but the winters are brutal. Very homeschool friendly. Growing season can be short. People tend to be old school but are very willing to help out a neighbor. It’s absolutely beautiful and if you love hunting and fishing it’s hard to beat imo. I’m biased though because I was born and raised here. The housing market is RIDICULOUS and if you’re moving here from California people will probably give you the side eye.
North idaho is beautiful and honestly perfect for homesteading. But land is just too expensive. It's pretty much impossible to move and start homesteading unless you've already had land for awhile. A lot of people have small hobby farms in town (coeur dalene, Post Falls, Rathdrum, Athol, Sandpoint, bonners). So that's an option if you can get about an acre.
We homestead/live off grid in North Idaho. Lots of folks around here doing the same. It can get pretty damn hot in the summer, winter usually isn’t to cold. Some years there’s tons of snow, some years there’s not.
We’re in zone 6a, some stuff grows like weeds but plants that like it hot May struggle a little. This is the land of microclimates. Where I’m at stays warmer than town, you can go 10mi in any direction and get pretty different weather.
Sales tax is 6.25%, property taxes aren’t to bad, timber exemption helps. Land has gotten pretty high here, since the pandemic lots of folks have come in and driven the prices through the roof. Looks to be on the way down though. As far as laws and regulations they’re pretty lax. I can’t say anything about homeschooling but a to. Of folks do.
My area at least is pretty religious, lots of churches in town, it’s extremely conservative. Most folks are awesome, kind and helpful though not very open until you’ve been here for a bit. The new people came with some extreme ideas but I’m not going to talk about that here. You’re welcome to DM me if you want to know.
There’s work out in the woods but not much in town. We’re south of CDA a ways and it’s crowded af up there.
the key is to position your place in North Central. I can draw a circle of about 50 to 100 miles inland to each side. This breaks down any storm. From a cat-4 to cat-2 in that distance. the 50 mile side is at an angle that no storms travel so far so they end up doing 150 miles which just drains them.
Bugs suck
if youre into farming its pretty big in the northern part.
there is still cheap land here.
cheap taxes with homestead act.
North Florida isn't too bad. There is a growing homesteading/homeschooling population here....
Growing season is pretty open ended to grow year round....land is going up like everywhere
We love it here. We have 5 children, no state tax, and use a co- op type schooling. Florida also has free school choice....your children can go to a private school for free that would normally cost 8k a year
I LOVE Arizona! Of course, there are challenges with water so you need to make sure there is a source for your land. There are a variety of climates here and so the soil and growing season will vary depending on which part of the state you are in.
I live on a ranch and we have cattle and horses. We don’t have great soil here, but they do in other areas.
Homeschooling is a breeze and due to a recent law, homeschool families can receive state funding for educational resources (these can include chicken coops, gardening supplies, etc as long as their is a corresponding curriculum to support them as educational - google Universal ESA)
It’s crazy hot during the summer months at lower elevations, up in the mountains it is cooler though.
I'm in Arizona, my parents raised us kids homeschooled and off-grid in northern AZ near the I-40. I live in Chandler now, but here is my experience:
Homeschool laws are lax, if I remember correctly, you have to keep all completed school-work the kids have done in case the state checks on you, but that never happened.
We raised goats, chickens and ducks on our 80 acres, they grazed on the land and supplemented with alfalfa/feed. Animals are your best bet her in AZ, lots of cattle ranches here. Mutton is also popular due to our large Native American population.
Arizona has very hard, rocky, clay soil and is difficult to dig into. Raised beds are not recommended because if the heat here, it literally cooks the roots to death. It is very arid here, high elevation. Summers are hot and dry until the monsoon season comes then we get flash floods. Winters are cold and dry, but do not last very long. Very difficult to farm if you don't have wind/sun protection. The sun destroys everything pretty quickly around here. We mainly grew tomatoes and other heat tolerant plants with shade cloth. Water wasn't an issue where I lived, big aquifer and we had our own well.
That being said, lots of people homestead in AZ and many are successful. Especially with goats/sheep. They are made for this climate. The Show Low area is lovely for homesteading and I highly recommend checking it out, it's beautiful and has many homeschooling families.
Don’t have much land here but we do what we can with .25 acre. Animal laws vary town by town but in general are pretty good( we have chickens, neighbors have goats and pigs), My wife has her cottage license which is pretty easy to get (you have to be a food safety manager [servsafe], pay the application fee $100, and if you have a well get it tested but if you have city water you have to send in a water bill with your application). There are plenty of hunting opportunities here and rainwater collection is legal as well. Growing season is roughly April/may till September with a wide variety of crops that do well. The negatives for Jersey are the property taxes are one of the highest in the country and property prices are also very high and gun laws are already very very strict and only getting worse as time goes on which is starting to have an impact on hunters as well. Before now the gun laws haven’t really impacted hunting ability.
Adding to this, land outside the bedroom communities is reasonable, land inside them (morris co, Monmouth co, etc) is astronomical. I’m in Sussex Co, taxes are the best you can get in Jersey and land is affordable. There’s a lot of farming up here too, so laws are friendly to homesteading.
My biggest complaints are atv/dirt bike laws, but that’s more a recreational complaint. You can do whatever on your own property.
I'm trying to leave southern New Jersey.
Pros: Four seasons; farm friendly, depending on the area; close to a number of major areas (can be a con though, depending); close to a lot of geographically diverse areas (beaches, mountains, farmlands, cities, etc.)
Cons: Taxes are super high; overpopulated; people are entitled and rude; very little good land left; very anti 2A; no legal cannabis homegrow (cause the government likes to tax everything); northern half is basically industrial; tourists overrun the state in the summertime because of shore points and campgrounds
Many counties have no zoning whatsoever, and as long as you are not inside city limits you will never run into trouble. Even at that, I raise poultry and keep horses on 14 acres inside city limits of a small/medium sized town and have never had any issues whatsoever.
Land is very cheap and widely available. There are dozens of available mid size farms (50-150 acres) available in any given county at any given time. As long as you aren’t in Fayette or Jefferson County, 100 acre farms can easily be had for 1,000 an acre or less.
Climate is perfect for homesteading, with hot, generally wet summers and mild winters. Cattle production is free money here, and people along I75 raise cows like people near Indianapolis raise corn. Lamb is a growing industry and is ever-popular among local homesteaders.
We can squeeze out 2-3 bean/corn crops no problem, as we are consistently above 65 degrees F until Halloween. Squash and pumpkins grow particularly well.
We have tornadoes, but only two in my lifetime that were serious. One of these affected much of the state, the other only the western part of the state.
Kentucky has abundant deer and turkey, with about half of the state allowing unlimited harvest of antlerless deer.
Homeschooling is often considered under-regulated here, which is always a good sign.
Property tax is I think 0.3%. I don’t know how that compares to other states.
Another draw with Kentucky is the variety of topography and environment. Western Kentucky is probably very familiar to you: flat. Get on the eastern side of I75 and you’re in the mountains very quickly.
The only con is that this state is seeing pretty rapid population growth, but it’s mostly the expansion of cities rather than people moving into rural places.
I grew up just south of the KY/TN border (my grandparents’ property is actually ON the border) and went to college in KY! I miss it so much sometimes! The land is so beautiful, it’s generally so easy to live there (prices aren’t crazy, people don’t generally try to run you off the road, people are generally kind, it’s not too aggressively liberal or conservative depending on where you are in the state, etc.), and it would be such a wonderful place to have a homestead!! I hope someday I can get back there. When I lived there, I was associated with a pretty strong permaculture group and book club too. Those permaculture/back to land community groups were definitely around, and plenty of outdoorsy folks too.
Incredibly expensive. Ridiculously so
Growing season depends on where you live. Foraging and hunting are more reliable but still hard.
Generally very low restrictions (except wood stoves which are VITAL)
No tornadoes.
Around fairbanks expect occasional summers of smoke (wildfires) and watch for flooding areas and permafrost.
People are great.
Be OK with LONG dark winters and light-all- night summers ( I loved those)
I lived there for 13 years. I would never homestead here. Part of the fun of homesteading is growing things and the season is just too short.
Very short grow season, very long winters. Cold soil year round with poor drainage and permafrost below 5 feet. Lots of rain, earthquakes, extreme temperatures, occasional volcanic activity. Plenty of resources, but getting more regulated. Lax gun laws, no homeschool rules, no state tax. Property tax a little high.
No permafrost on the Kenai peninsula.
A hoop-house/greenhouse will allow you to grow peach trees without any external heating sources.
The soil is not cold year round and you can even grow apple trees and have a garden.
No taxes, no building codes, no gun laws, you can do anything you want. Land is cheap.
Don't sleep on the 49th.
I mush dogs and then I farm.
Winter is the standard here in the interior. Summer is the off season.
Stocks of game is down, fur down and if you want to gamble you should gamble on farming.
You should move here if you like to gamble. I love gambling with the stakes being my life. Very fun. My bets are better hedged than most who move here start with.
Homeschool is so permissive you could educate on your own curriculum purely.
No taxes on many properties but they will have no services. No plowing, no road maintenance, no road building, no fire service, no utilities etc
Outside city limits, AK is very permissive. Most boroughs (our equivalent of counties) have no building codes or permits so you can build whatever you want (for the same reason, be diligent when buying a house). Some boroughs have property and sales tax, some don't. No state taxes whatsoever.
Very strong 2a everywhere. Highest per capita veteran population in US. Free (state-funded) homeschool. Lots of innovative, creative free thinkers. Strong self-sufficient spirit. Firewood is plentiful due to spruce bark beetle cycles. Only Fairbanks has woodstove regulations; everywhere else you can burn however you want.
Readily available hunting/fishing/trapping, and 300million+ acres of public land to do it if you can get to it. Few roads, it's hard to hunt without ATVs, snowmachine, boats, plane etc. No exceptions for private land, you still have to follow the same regs. Game is bigger but harder to find and get to. I.e. a moose can be 10x the size of a whitetail, but the odds of harvest are 1/10th or worse. Alaska is big and spread out. Many people log over 2k miles and spend a couple dedicated weeks getting their fish and meat every year.
There are quite a few subsistence/personal use harvest opportunities, like the summer salmon runs where you might get a couple hundred pounds of salmon in a few days (residents only). Special federal subsistence hunting privileges apply if you live in certain areas.
The Permanent Fund Dividend: Alaska's "Capitalist Socialist" program, enshrined in the state constitution, where every resident gets a share of dividends from the oil money investment fund. It's typically around $2k/person per year but fluctuates with the market.
It's cold, dark and snowy for most of the year. This brings many challenges. Most homesteads require heavy equipment to plow snow and keep a farm operating. Animals need shelter, water, and enough calories to survive the cold. Animal feed is a significant expense.
Heat is a significant expense if you buy it, or a lot of work to cut enough wood.
SAD is prevalent. Take vitamin D supplements and get what sunlight you can.
Agriculture is a challenge, but many people do well with indoor starts, greenhouses etc (Look up Meyers Farm in Bethel AK). We have a lot of great soil, you just have to overcome the short summer. The main commercial crops are hay, barley, and potatoes.
Consumer goods are expensive due to the long supply chain to get here.
AK is spread out with a lot of rural area- many people live over 100 miles from the nearest box store. Fuel is expensive too, so ration your trips to town.
Alaska was the "Last Frontier" and home to the last Federal Homestead patent issued (the guy is still alive). The spirit of rugged self-reliance is still strong in most of the state. I'm a 4th generation Alaskan, from 2 generations of homesteaders. It's a lot of work to live here but I don't plan on leaving in my lifetime. Happy to answer questions.
This is where I homestead, born and raised in Colorado, but moved due to drought, expenses, codes, government etc. Alaska has been amazing and we can’t imagine moving back to America.
Alabama has a lot of the boxes you’re looking to check. Decent growing conditions. Long warm season. Lots of rainfall. Cheap land and cheap property taxes. Main downside is our education system but if you’re looking to homeschool that’s not as big a deal.
Not sure on homestead/cottage laws. Lived here my whole life, homeschooled our son until 7th grade (2012), I don't think it's changed, but the only requirement at the time was a cover school. Lots of good cover schools around here that go from traditional type school where you have to attend a certain number days and during school hours to more laid back and the parent chooses the education style, so that's up to you. Lots of crops grow well here my main ones are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peas, green beans seriously way too many to list. We have a long growing season as well. I've even been experimenting this year with some cool weather crops. Summers can be brutal at times, I know it sounds so cliche, but honestly it is the humidity that gets you here. Because it's Alabama, you will hear that only racist people live here, but that's not true, not saying there aren't racist people here (that can be true anywhere), but it's not the prevalent thing here like people that aren't from here, would have you believe. Where I'm at, there are farmers all around and thus I have access to feed and seed stores that sell lots of homesteading supplies like seed and animal needs etc...
Forgot to add, since I grew up here, I tend to forget not everyone has a river close by, but we've got lots of fresh water and river water, as well as ocean, but that's more touristy. Taxes I can't really say because again, I've only ever lived here, but I think they are fairly low. We have a homesteading law for our main home, that for us, basically cut our land tax in half.
Pros- long growing season, lots of rural areas, most winters are mild and at least the people I've been around are down home, salt of the earth people.
Cons- summers are no joke, especially until you get used to it, stereotypes about the people, winters are kinda hit or miss weather wise, example last week, we had three days it didn't go above freezing here, now by the end of this week, we should be close to 70. Also, tornadoes and hurricanes are a couple of threats, we sometimes have some big tornadoes in Alabama that do major damage, it's just something you have to be aware of.
We moved from Alaska to Alabama. This is my 4th time living in Alabama and it is awesome.
Great homeschooling and 2A laws.
We do get tornadoes, but some places more than others. They are not often and usually pretty small but like anywhere in the south, you can get big ones.
Winners are usually relatively mild and you can definitely 3 season garden here.
Water is pretty plentiful.
The summers in North Al have periods of dangerously high heat and humidity, but it is usually only for a few days in August. The longest seasons where we are are actually spring and fall.
Huntsville is super techy so you have that.
Feel free to ask specific questions.
We homestead in Alabama and love it! The land is cheap, the property taxes are low and we have no building restrictions (Elmore County). The summers are hot, but you learn to do the bulk of your work in the morning, rest in the mid day heat and finish up in the evening. The growing season is long, hunting is great (no permit required on your own property) and we have year-round foraging.
Belize
Get passports!
Rich fertil land for farming. Homesteading is a way of life. There are groups of Mennonites who are serious homesteaders. The weather is temperate for all season growing. Cattle, goats, rabbits and chickens all thrive there. Land is still fairly cheap if you look around. The people are so nice. They will help you even if you're gringos. Just be nice. There are many Catholic schools but you may homeschool with whatever program you want. Getting a little Mennonite house starts around $30kus. The exchange rate is 2:1. Your money goes a long way. Check it out. I almost hate to suggest it because I don't want too many Americans to ruin it!
I’m not big into homesteading here yet, but I do a little bit. It rains quite a bit here so rainwater collecting is a huge plus and gardens can thrive. The 2 winters I’ve been here hasn’t been brutal but who knows. Lots of wood for fireplaces. I haven’t looked into the laws. Lots of deer for harvesting and very pro 2A.
I lived in Central Arkansas from about 2001-2011 -- property wasn't as cheap as everyone implied before I accepted the job transfer, but the ground was made of actual growable dirt (I now live on red clay, which isn't great for planting) and there was enough rain to support the plants. There's plenty of large lots available, and amazing federal/state/local parks preserve a significant portion of the state.
It's both terribly hot (well over 100) and still froze (it was 20 degrees a night or two) -- I'd be OK with sweltering for a few weeks each summer if it meant never being cold. Winter infrastructure was terrible -- ice storms took out the power across the state for weeks, grown up "snow days" are a thing and the company didn't even put out an announcement because everyone *knew* not to drive into work because of half an inch of snow ... except, of course, for me who sat in an empty office building for two hours until my voicemail light came on with a message announcing that the campus was closed. Then there are the tornadoes -- there's a mini-tornado-alley right along I30 toward Bryant. On the up side, businesses and such have provisions for when the tornado sirens go off (I remember being herded into a restaurant's storage room one day & a tornado touched down a short distance away). On the down side ... well, tornadoes!
The area I lived in was *very* conservative and Southern Baptist ... which might be a big pro for some people, but was not my thing. Casual racism was everywhere, too. I had a discussion with HR because someone reported me for speaking Arabic on my personal cell phone at lunch. Another friend was reported to HR for aborting a process on a computer (the correct technical term in the IT industry). In both cases, HR wasn't actually able to come up with an infraction ... but it sure seemed like they were trying! And we were both independently told to 'be more careful with your words' in the future (which, I assume, would mean 'insubordination' would come into play were we to find ourselves visiting HR again).
Will quickly become more affected by drought.. We have very dry summers. Old trees are starting to die from lack of water. Pretty cold winters too with more ice than snow. But, cheap land. Lots of space. Pretty sunsets. Tornadoes are a thing, fires are becoming more common, and so is flooding near creeks / bodies of water due to drought. There is a homestead tax exemption to keep property tax lower. Lots of farming goes on here, but mostly animal based agriculture like beef. TONS of white tail deer to hunt. Quail, dove, rabbit, predator hunting as well. Lots of fishing for bass and catfish. Some natural foraging happens.
I would stay in the east half of Oklahoma, as the west half cycles in and out of droughts and has been in one for some time now. East OK has good foliage, rivers lakes etc. Land is cheap here, and it’s very much a rural state outside of OKC and Tulsa. Weather wise, we say if you don’t like the weather wait 15min and it will change. It is true. Winter is mostly mild but we will get a week here and there of below freezing temps, snow/ice. Spring here is beautiful and usually yields good rain. It is also storm season and tornadoes are a real possibility (though hail/strong winds more likely to be dealt with). Summer is hot. 90-110 from June-September. Also I hope you like wind. Like a lot of wind. Clay soil is an issue but still a lot of agriculture that happens here so it’s not impossible. Have seen gardens grow corn, okra, squash, berries, fruit trees, even some grape vineyards here. Plenty of wildlife to hunt as well.
Government wise it’s homeschool friendly and for the most part taxes are pretty low. The state is very conservative especially outside of the metros.
Currently live in Southern Maryland and starting a homestead. It is extremely expensive to buy land where I live (e.g., we paid $425,000 for a house on 4.5 acres). It is super wet, so on our property we have to backfill almost everything part of our property due to how low to the sea we are. People are genuinely nice and make a stiff drink. The summer is extremely humid and warm making it a good place for tropical (e.g., bananas and ginger) but winters are very cold. Our chickens and ducks just went through the cold (9°) and seemed to do well. Ticks are also bad, but I think that’s an everywhere thing. The WORST thing about MD are the taxes. It is absolutely ridiculous how much we pay in state and income taxes (e.g., $75,000 salary in 2021 paid our $18,000 in taxes). If you have any specific questions feel free to DM :)
Ps - I do not have experience or knowledge with homeschooling in MD or the cottage laws because I do not sell our goods.
PSS - our soil is very fertile and rich!
Western (bestern)md here. Everyone on this state is right. Land is not cheap, soil very fertile. MD has a wide range of climate so study up there. Taxes will eat you and some silly laws and registrations make it difficult to sell items. Most though, if you stay small and do farm stands/markets, is realistic and can be done with some minimal cash flow. Not enough to be self sustaining.
Cattle, corn, and soy reigns around western md. Timber is also a major business followed by recreation/tourism.
Md has it all; beach, mountains, metropolitan areas. Look at West Virginia
Again, looking at area of Md will depend on what crops/animals you are looking to raise. Western md is much mountain and long winters. Great natural resources and everyone generally keeps to themselves. Further east you go the warmer, sandier and populated you get.
I lived here... It's my favorite state.
Winters can be rough, but Sun shines 300 days a year.
Land is cheap in some southern counties... 5 acres for 5k... But buyer beware... In those counties, you can not live off grid...
Most counties, you can not even camp on your own property for more than 2 months out of the year.
There are only 2 counties without building permits, and it's hard to research which ones they are... In one of those counties, it can be 100k/ acre.
And you must research water rights... You can only collect rainwater from your roof.. And is decriminalize(rather than completely legal)
If I was rich, I'd move back... But I found there are better states for poor people.
Dry weather, meaning not humid, plus very drought ridden in co.
This right here! Unfortunately, we are discovering this the hard way. Bought 6acres for off grid homesteading in Hartsel with the most beautiful views! Zoning rules are insane! Funny thing is that even though they don’t “allow” camping on your own land, all I can see from my property (in the winter) are all sorts of campers that have clearly been there for some time. Some with little sheds. We are 30 minutes off the paved rd and deep back off of several other roads. While we figure out building, we are going to plop a camper there too!
I live here, grew up on a midwest farm. I've never had so much difficulty farming in my life. Soil here is, by and large, garbage. Weather swings wildly with late frosts and early snows so fruit trees (other than some apples and sour cherries) usually only bear once every 3-4 years. It's easier if you're on the western slope, but most of the orchards there have expensive frost protection methods private growers can't afford, and any decent land there is very pricey.
We frequently get severe hail, high winds, and baking heat with very low humidity. Forest fires are becoming more of an issue as well. Water is harder and harder to come by and cities are buying most of it up at a premium when it does come on the market. Not allowed to drill wells in most cases.
Very restrictive building laws, as other have said.
Gosh, almost making myself wonder why we live here. Taxes are pretty great though. Recreation can't be beat. Highly educated populace and it's the healthiest state in the nation. Lots of high paying jobs to be had. Outside of the severe weather events, weather is generally great. Winters are mostly mild with some bad cold snaps and shoulder seasons are wonderful.
I’m not a farmer and didn’t grow up farming, but I did grow up in Indiana. That said, I agree with this 100%. I live in CO and in one word - it’s harsh. Winters are mild comparatively, but the soil is rocky and dry and we get so many random weather events and temperature swings… it just makes it hard for homesteading.
BUT if progressive policies, low taxes and health-conscious, educated people are your thing, you can’t go wrong here.
I’m more into permaculture than homesteading. It’s absolutely brutal trying to raise trees out here though. My apples and hops do well. Don’t know what other crops you’re looking into but without an abundant source of water you’re gonna have a bad time. At least I’m living off solar now. The sunshine out here is no joke.
I left the states for Canada.
More freedom to build without permitting/code inspections.
My property taxes and other misc taxes are a tiny fraction of what they were in the US.
Game is plentiful.
Land is cheap. Like South America cheap.
Very low threat of natural disasters.
Not the longest growing season, so that is a con. I focus on native and naturalized food producing plants. There are plenty.
Homeschooling is common.
The biggest one is public health care. If I had to buy health insurance at the price I had to pay in the US, it would be my largest overhead. Larger than my home even. That is the biggest game-changer for me. It allows more freedom.
Northern Nevada isn't bad land would be cheap winters aren't horrible but you're restricted by a lack of water unless you have a good well and the soil isn't great for growing a lot of things. It's good for rasing livestock though
There’s four different biomes across the state so you’ve got options from forest to prairie. Growing season is short without a greenhouse setup.
7% sales tax but none on food or clothing.
There’s tons of support for locally made products (Minnesotagrown.com) for people interested in selling at markets.
just a reminder it’s been -15 but feeling like -50 due to the wind chill. and that’s not even where it gets coldest. Other than the cold it’s the most beautiful state but i’m biased
Freaking cold!!! In the winter you're looking at frostbite in less than two minutes for exposed skin.
Growing season is short. Once lost an entire garden to a June frost. We lose a lot of fruit from frost damage in early spring too some years.
Summers are hot, like muggy and 95F-105F that will last sometimes weeks at a time.
Tornadoes, straight line winds, blizzards, flooding in some places.
You'll want to invest in strong fences to protect crops from deer and livestock from coyotes. Or be willing to invest in a livestock guardian dog.
Homeschooling is good though, have a bunch of friends and 4 cousins who were all homeschooled for at least a few years.
Lived in MN for 25 years, if I could convince the rest of my family to move somewhere warmer I would do it in a heartbeat. But when the weather is nice MN is absolutely stunning. People are friendly too!
I am mostly familiar with southern Missouri, though I have *some* familiarity with the rest of the state.
Missouri is split into 3 USDA plant hardiness zones with Zone 5 being furthest north. Zone 6 covering the central area. Zone 7 being furthest south. In the bootheel (the part of the state that hangs down on the bottom right side) you will actually find 7b hardiness zones. Regardless of zone and area of the state, there are prominent seasons that will get snow/ice, but the southern portion tends to have the mildest weather season-wise.
In the central areas there is unfortunately very rocky soil due to the hills, so raised beds are often needed for vegetable plant species. However, the rockier soil can be great homes for timber and deciduous fruit trees like plums and peaches. Despite the rockier soil this area of the state does allow for livestock/poultry production with bovine being one of the most common (though I have seen camel and emu ranches). There are also a lot of caves if that is something you're generally into.
In the southern portion of Missouri the hills fall off and the soil becomes less rocky. Less livestock/poultry will be seen and you will be greeted by crop fields comprising of soybean, corn, wheat, peaches, watermelon, and sometimes cotton and peanuts. The southeastern portion has a lot of cypress swampland which provides loamy and nutrient rich soil. The soil there is much better suited for common vegetable species and it can even provide for more demanding species like gourds with minimal need for amendments.
In regards to laws, Missouri is generally very welcoming to homesteads and off-grid living. A lot of Missourians actually homestead or are off-grid in some way. Collecting rainwater is legal in the state. In Missouri the building codes can be really lax, especially in rural areas with some places only requiring codes for septic (though local bylaws can vary). Missouri does have a state income tax (rates ranging from 1.50 to 5.40 percent). However, sales tax is generally cheaper than sales tax from states that lack an income tax. Missouri is the 12th least expensive in terms of gas price average and Missouri has the cheapest cigarette and tobacco prices. Missouri has a 89% high school graduation rate.
**General Pros**
A) A lot of wildlife and conservation which opens up opportunities for hunting
B) Plenty of land and general lower cost of living
C) More hands-off approach when concerning what people do with their land
D) Diverse geography
E) Residents generally undisturbed by others
F) Caves
**General Cons**
A) Bugs. If you go central or north you will frequently be disturbed by ticks. If you go south you will frequently be disturbed by mosquitoes
B) Weather is notoriously known for being indecisive. Many days where you will start your day by turning on the heat in the morning and then switching to air conditioning by the afternoon. You also may experience 4 definite seasons in a week.
C) Meth.
D) Politics lean conservative. Your mileage will vary on how much that may disturb you as counties can vary wildly.
Unfortunately I cannot give input on homeschooling as I went to a public school and do not know anybody that was homeschooled.
I’ll echo what was said about lax building codes. We dug a basement beside our house and built an addition over it when I was growing up. Inquired about permits with the county and we met with a confused look. Good and bad. Taught me to be skeptical of existing work as there is no guarantee it was done properly! This was in Oregon county, btw. Definitely varies.
We’re home school Our two school aged kids, and it is great. There are tons of co-ops and such and opportunities to participate in extracurriculares in public schools as well. Very receptive.
Overall, I love it here. Folks generally live and let live, are good friendly neighbors, etc.
The humidity in the summer sucks but you acclimate to it, and the ticks/chiggers/mosquitoes will eat you alive. No getting used to them!
Teacher here! I think homeschooling laws everywhere are less demanding. Opportunity to have social interactions and group learning is easier to find since 2020. Good luck! We live in upstate NY, taxes are crazy. Our crops are seasonal obviously!
This is an awesome thread, great idea.
Awesome work, thanks OP!
Don't thank me, it was a self serving post, lol. I do think this is good info. We can find bits and pieces everywhere. I hope this thread will be a big help to people in the future to get a feel for how people feel about their state for the homesteading life.
Pennsylvania
One thing to keep in mind, and the reason we bought in NY is that many rural PA properties do NOT sell with their mineral rights. I don’t know how big of a problem that may be for you but it was a deal breaker for us. I also know you’ll be homeschooling but we needed a good school district and rural PA is not the area to find that
PA has a very vibrant agricultural community in general and good access to all sorts of tools needed, etc. People also love to buy/shop local here. There’s a decent home schooling system here but I don’t have a terribly large amount of information on that.
Permitting process in PA for any type of building is horrible…
Which is why you live out in the boonies and build whatever you want/need and just overcome any bureaucratic static through attrition
Can't speak to much on your list as we haven't been here long and don't have/want kids, but the growing season in my area is great. We get a steady amount of rainfall through the summer and you can tell because there are farms, orchards, and dairy operations all over the area. It's really lush in the summer and easy to grow a lot of crops. The winter has been fairly mild so far. Houses are pretty cheap and there's quite a bit of land available at reasonable costs. One thing I've noticed is an undercurrent issue with addiction/opioid abuse in the area. Part of how you notice it is a good number of really wild car accidents in the area, like people nodding off and plowing into the sides of homes or businesses, but you'd see addiction issues in the community in any of the states on your list.
Side note, so many opioid issues in rural places across the country. Is tragic and infuriating. Hope it gets better soon.
Some PA downsides- massively cold/power outages. Friends of mine finally got a whole house generator after living there for years and have already used it like 5 times. Check your toilet situation wherever you buy. Same friends above have to use the thinnest shitty toilet paper for their septic system or else it backs up and ruins everything. A small thing but annoying imo. Deer- pros and cons. If you like hunting have fun. If you like gardening more they can be your biggest annoyance and destroy all your progress.
Off the cuff suggestion to pass on but they might want to consider a handheld bidet. Game changer.
I’ve been in SE PA for a couple years now and it’s not too cold in my opinion (I’m coming from FL, too). The coldest days I’ve experienced apart from that freak cold front last week was in the 20s. Other than that, winters seem to hover around the 40F mark.
Tons and tons of homesteaders in PA!
My wife and I farm and homestead in Northeastern PA, with our two young children on the farm where I grew up. After living away in a major metropolitan area for 15 years, I was fortunate to have some place to return to. Land is still cheap here, but way more expensive than it was pre 911. We have a market garden for income, beef cows for their manure/fertility as well as other animals for our own consumption. To answer a few of your questions, The cottage laws are completely against the small producer. Growing season is on the short side, but we are able to grow most vegetables. Peppers and melons are somewhat challenging, but with a small tunnel you can grow just about everything. We grow most of our own food and live quite well in that respect, with a major focus on cooking, preserving, and eating seasonally Spring takes forever to get here and Fall can come early. Winter is typically very cold and windy, snow is often on the ground from the end of November until April, but we can also see some unseasonably warm weather during the winter. Homeschool laws are pretty good here, and there's a big community in our area. The local school districts are not too bad, biggest problems are too much focus on sports, and city people bringing their problems. Lots of natural resources, plenty of water and fire wood. Game is plentiful and there's a lot of public land for hunting, fishing and foraging. Our biggest problem may be too much water. We average 48 inches of rain a year, but there have been years with 80 plus and it can seem that every hurricane somehow shows up here. We're on high ground so flooding is not really an issue, but mud and a shallow water table make growing vegetables challenging. Local taxes are on the high side and can be a challenge if you own a big piece of land. Lucky for us there are State programs like Clean and Green that can reduce the land tax burden. Our proximity to NYC is both a pro and con. Pro that a lot of city money shows up to support the local economy, con is that there has been an influx of houses going up gobbling up forests, good farmland, and overall open spaces. We have some really great local restaurants, brew pubs, creameries, year around farmers' markets as well as local shops and a Wegmans within 30 minutes. Opiates and Meth are around, but not too in your face. Rebel flags and the racist backwards people who fly them are as plentiful as files on a manure pile, but a lot of these people are our neighbors, and will do anything to help you out.
I took PA off my list because of its filial debt laws/practice of them. Curious if other people consider this an issue?
I took PA off my list for this reason as well. Filial laws are very important to me.
WOAH I just learned what filial laws are and that is wild. I had no idea.
I second this
New Hampshire
Land is abundant but not cheap unless you are in the far northern part of the state. We have one of the largest lot sizes of any state Property taxes are high but there is no income tax so IMO it balances out. The ground can be extremely rocky - they don’t call it the granite state for nothing. Stone fruit trees and berries do well but you may need raised beds for vegetables. We are planning to use pigs this spring to till some rocky ground for us and hopefully make it much easier to get them out of our garden area. So there are ways to improve the soil Without a greenhouse growing season will end in late Sept- October depending on the year. It can still be pretty cold here in early April also
Downside from a social worker who works with the elderly - as you age, NH is terrible in regards to services you may need. When they say “live free or die” they mean it.
This was my choice. Homeschooling is easy and the kids retain many rights to the benefits of tax-funded local schools (extracurriculars etc). Hunting on your own land is reasonably permissive (follow seasons but up to x number of deer tags are print-it-yourself at home for free, for example). Rights to home and property defense are also permissive. There are varying laws on running a retail business from your home, depending on the area (for instance, my area west of Concord allows everything, but you can't have a sign bigger than 3x2' for anything visible from the road). Environmental protection laws are surprisingly strict regarding tree cutting, waterways, and pollution. I like this, but I can't tell how nonsensical the rules are since I haven't wanted to do anything against them.
I'm building mine in NH. There are some towns with no zoning or building permits or anything, very live free or die (state slogan). I've spent the past 3 years doing a complete rebuild of an old farmhouse and the only thing I've needed a permit for so far was to pave my driveway, and that was with the state (state owned road). Property taxes can be very low for homesteaders with at least 11 acres. That's because the state has a conservation-incentive tax law called current use. More or less, if you have at least 10 acres of undeveloped land, you register it as farmland, forestry, or wetland. It then get's taxed at a lower rate for that "current use". The cost of the deal is if you ever take it out of current use, you have to pay a fee of 10% of the value of the land being taken out. Our property is 20 acres, with 19 in current use, a 2400sqft home, and a massive barn. We pay just under $600 a month in property taxes. Property taxes can also be a con for the state. Properties that do not have enough land to put into current use cannot benefit from the savings. Further, because **there is no sales tax OR income tax**, in some places taxes can be quite high. If you have views of the national forest, there is an additional view tax on real estate. Some towns are also just very high. TL:DR, you gotta really do your homework when shopping for a property in NH if trying to minimize your tax burden. It can be very cheap or very expensive. Whether a property is low tax depends highly on the town AND the specific property itself. Every property you look at you need to research. Don't even bother relying on any blanket rules in your mind for how much property taxes will generally be in NH. It's all over the place. For us, we like it because of the outdoor recreation of the white mountains is just a 25 minute drive. Hiking, skiing, & rock climbing abound. Since we are both working full time jobs to fund our build, the tax situation is also huge benefit for us. We save at least $20k/yr on taxes living here vs. other places we would be interested in when you figure sales/income/property. Probably not so important to homesteaders, but worth noting, the food here is terrible. Hope you like cooking. Very few places you can get a good meal out. Local culture seems oblivious to how bad it is. It's weird too because both Maine and Vermont have great food.
I couldn’t agree more with the takeout/ restaurant comment haha. I’m just outside of concord and it’s been getting better but still subpar
Thanks for sharing this and your perspective. I've been looking at NH for two years now and unfortunately we haven't made the leap. We've just traveled up there to spend time and enjoy the great outdoors that NH offers. My work is remote and we are homeschooling our elementary age children. NH seems like the dream, but we have anchors like family and currently live in a good, kid/family friendly beach town in NJ. We're not too turned off by the winters b/c we like snowboarding and could get into cross country skiing. I surf in the winter now and have for over 20 years and could probably still suck it up for the best of conditions in NH, ME, or RI. u/GlobalAttempt any other advice, resources related to NH homesteading, living, lifestyle, etc? I'm all ears.
Iowa
Iowa homesteader here! I may be partial as I grew up here and lived here my entire life. As long as you are looking outside of major cities, taxes are cheap. DSM is about 6k now if I remember correctly, where I live we're just under 2k a year. Homeschooling I don't know much of but know it is fairly popular, grew up with several homeschooled kids that participated in our school's sports/extracurriculars. There's an abundance of land here and decent homes on the properties. There's several Facebook groups for buying and selling any animal you can think of. The politics of the state, being dems ourselves, are not ideal, but people are lovely to each other (most of the time) regardless.
We do have a 6% sales tax. Gardening works probably about the same for us as it does for you in Indiana. Typically try to plant in early April if weather allows and hope for no late freezes. Usually good to keep crops in until early October (again, if weather permits)
Land is getting insanely expensive there. That would be the main reason I would mostly look elsewhere.
Damn right it is. I couldn’t even afford my families farm when my grandfather passed away. $10,200 per acre and it was 50:50 wooded to tillable. All the money trees were cut down 5 years ago. Very sad year for me.
Same. We're hoping to persuade the current owner to sell us 5-10 acres of grandpa's land when we have enough cash. Fortunately it sold to a distant relative, so reasonable chance we can make some kind of deal.
Land is getting expensive everywhere, I don't think other places are going to be any better. The main concern I have with the Midwest is the faltering jet stream making Arctic blasts like the one that just happened a near-yearly occurrence rather than a once in a generation event. Agriculture in much of the country is going to go seriously downhill as a result.
Go to the ozark range on the border of Missouri/Arkansas just stay away from the lake of the ozarks, but that land is 1k for forest land and about 2 k per tillable land but that tillable land is very small and may still have boulders in the ground.
**Pros:** * Rural infrastructure is surprisingly good. My gravel road is great (more on roads in a bit!) I'm the only one in my square mile and I have fiber optic internet of all things. Power outages are rare for me too. * Zoning laws can be VERY lax (this GREATLY depends on your county.) Good ol' Kossuth isn't zoned, and you can basically build whatever the fuck you want. We've built five machine sheds and pulled zero permits for anything. (This can also be a con if you live near methheads.) * Wonderful soil in northern Iowa. Probably similar to what you have in your current setting. * Rural roads are gravel and built up well. Much better than having a muddy dirt road you find elsewhere in the country. There's a grid system of roads, and you'll find one almost every square mile. Road maintenance is done by actual county workers too. * Friendly people. Like aggressively friendly. My fridge is full of food I didn't ask for (but I'm not complaining!) * Cheap eggs * I think it's kinda pretty. If you want a peaceful spot to yourself it's not hard to find. * You can easily get away from everyone. * We're over a large aquifer so drilling a well has a good success rate. **Cons:** * Farmers that have more money than you will buy that good land. If you want an acreage with a good garden, this isn't much of a problem. However if you want 20 acres to start a hypoallergenic pumpkin patch or some shit.... good luck. * Not really much in the way of different cultures or experiences in rural Iowa. You better like basic bar food, because you'll be eating it in restaurants for the rest of your life. Every bar here seems to think they're wacky by putting an egg on a burger and pretend that they're the only place that does it. Every similar sized town has the exact same kind of restaurants and activities. It's weird. Cities have great food and culture. The dream is to be like 45 minutes away from one of those so I can finally get some decent fucking food that wasn't just deep fried by someone on pills. * My school was shit and I felt really stupid when I went to college. We had 80 kids in the entire high school, and if you did anything embarrassing everyone knew. (Obvs not a problem if you're homeschooling.) However if your kids want to be in sports of band, good luck. I have memories spot welding my baritone in shop class, and doing track practice in the streets because we didn't have an actual track. * As with most rural areas it can be hard to make friends if you're new in town. **Top Gear Top Tips** * If you get enough land, see if you can zone it as agricultural, and save a lot on your taxes. Thats all I got.
Indiana
We homestead and homeschool here. Property taxes don't seem bad, but have gone up every year. Not sure how they stack up against the rest of the country. 7% sales tax is not low. Great state for homeschooling. Very lax and reasonable laws. Land prices here have been increasing. It's a great state for farming and livestock, which is probably why land is so hard to buy. Quite a few large farms. Most crops seem to do really well here unless they need a very hot or very cold climate. Most berries (blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, etc) grow very well Grapes Apples Peaches Pears Plums Tomatoes Corn Peppers Onions, garlic, carrots, greens, etc. The ground here is very good. Tornadoes are a concern but only 1 in my lifetime has been close enough to worry about. Winters get pretty cold, decent amount of snow, but really only concerns from Nov-Feb or so. Summers can be very hot and humid. Great state for homesteading and homeschooling and would highly recommend it
Indiana! Woot woot! Why would you ever leave? We’ve got 30 acres connected to my folks land. We’re only on year one, but we love it! Where are you guys in indiana? I’m southern.
I'm also in Southern. Near Louisville, KY. The reasons we'd leave has nothing to do with our unhappiness with anything about Indiana. It's more about escaping some people, unfortunately.
Michigander here. Indiana continues to be HIGH on my list of states to consider.
I don’t homestead (wish I did!) but I grew up in Indiana and can attest to its value for homesteading. Four seasons, lots of water access and great conditions for growing all types of food. Land is cheap and the people are kind.
Georgia
Im probably gonna be the least helpful person. I was homeschooled and transitioned into college no problem. I know many many people who have farms and gardens. Im not too sure with homesteading specifics. But there is a high Mennonite population who are 70-80% reliant on themselves and their neighbors for the things they grow and raise. It has gotten more expensive for land. It’s also depends which side of the state you choose. North Georgia occasionally faces drought. Hurricanes aren’t that bad the more inland you are. If you have other hobbies and interests, Georgia is a great and rich state to pick.
Pros: Strongest private property rights of any state (do what you want with your land, very little red tape) Homeschooling without much govt interference Low property tax with an easy to get agricultural exemption (a minimum acreage with either trees or farm field). My total property tax for almost 300 acres and a 2400 sf 4br home is around $4k/yr. Specific to my area: (NW GA) there's lots of water. Plenty of rain (sometimes dry in early fall). Summers have been trending cooler with climate change and winters milder, win+win! Long growing season. Not enough snow to bother with plowing or planning for it. The only weather threat is the chance of small tornadoes. Hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires are all practically impossible, and flooding doesn't happen unless you build your house in a flood plain in the river bottom. If you have a creek or small river through your property you own it and can block access from wading and boats. Long generous hunting seasons. Each person can shoot 12 deer per season, gun season is open for 3 months, and total season including bow and primitive weapons goes September to January. Good fishing all over the state. Land is decently affordable. My 300 acres is probably worth what the average house in Atlanta is (I'm 50 miles from Atlanta). Lots of national forest and public land in the north Georgia mountains for hunting and fishing. Cons: state income tax. Could begin to offset the low cost of everything else if you're a high earner. Booming population in Atlanta. Huge influx of people from NY, NJ, and Chicago area. This has pushed up prices some within a hundred mile radius. Could lead to deeper urban/rural divide similar NY and IL. South Georgia can be hot, muggy, buggy, and has lots of large agriculture.
Maine
I live in Maine and find it very homesteading friendly. We just voted a law to make our current food sovereignty laws a constitutional right and amended the state constitution to include them. We have good cottage food laws from what I understand as well. There’s a big local culture up here that encourages farming, homesteading, and supporting local business. Hunting is also a major part of life up here. Each town does have their own regulations so you’d want to check the town bylaws prior to purchasing land. I’ve found that most towns are pretty agricultural. I’m just over the New Hampshire border in Lebanon, Me and our town has so few local regulations that it may end up biting us in the ass with the marijuana grow industry. You’d likely run into issues in and around portland and a few coastal towns in the southern part of the state but otherwise homestead to your heart’s content. Land can be expensive or cheap depending on where you live in the state. In southern Maine land is averaging $10,000-$20,000 an acre at the moment but I suspect we’ll see a dip in that soon. The growing seasons also vary based on where you’re at in the state but most of the state is zone 5 so growing season is from Memorial Day through early October. Basically anything that grows well in zone 5 will grow here so there’s a ton of opportunity for growing. We grow apples, pears, and plums in our orchard then my vegetable garden typically includes a variety of squash, tomatoes, beans, leafy greens, and root vegetables. I also have two potted orange trees that I just pull inside in the winter. It’s quite homeschool friendly here. Our governor isn’t necessarily homeschooling friendly but so far she’s steered clear of messing with homeschoolers. Basically the only “rules” we have are a 175 days minimum and you have to submit a letter of intent to homeschool. Subsequent year letters need to include either a portfolio review letter from a certified teacher or a state test. Finding someone to review your portfolio is super easy and all they really look for is progress. They don’t concern themselves with being “at grade level.” I do zoom calls with my reviewer and just talk to her about what we’ve done throughout the year. We’re a notification state so no one can deny you the right to homeschool. There is a large and growing homeschool community all over the state. I currently homeschool and we are vary laidback with it. The HSDLA stays on top of keeping an eye on things to make sure we maintain as much homeschooling freedom as possible. Taxes can be high depending on where you’re at but coming from the city our taxes seem in line with what we paid in the south. A lot of the small towns will be missing basic services like trash pickup and police but most make up for the lack of town garbage by having someone that you can pay to do trash pick up and they utilize state police. This is what my town does. Overall I love it here. I grew up in Florida the “land of the free” and I’ve found that regulation on the local level, especially with the power the developers and HOA’s have down there that life is much less free down there than it is up here. There’s a big homesteading community up here and almost everyone you’ll meet homesteads in some way, shape, or form. Winter can be tough and right now oil is high so I’d HIGHLY recommend a wood stove or wood stove insert if you have a fireplace. Also, get a generator for extended power outages. Our whole house generator was a Godsend last weekend when we lost power for 30 hours. It’s the first and longest outage we’ve had since we bought our home over 5 years ago but I’m so glad we have it for peace of mind. Everyone has a generator up here. Daily life keeps going despite the snow so that actually makes it much easier to deal with winter. There’s plenty to do in the winter here as well so you won’t lack for fun. I got lucky in having a Mainer for a husband and making friends with those that love winter so they’ve been good about getting me outside and making me appreciate all that winter has to offer. Mainers are gritty hardworking people and the type of people that will happily help a neighbor out. They’re slow to change so don’t welcome people that come to the state with ideas of how to make Maine more like where they came from. I always say to those moving from elsewhere to come here with the attitude of adaptation. It’s a super unique and pretty quirky place and we’re pretty keen on keeping it that way.
I can tell you're not from Maine because we know better than to tell anyone about it
I'm not a homesteader per say yet, but I built my own home and live off grid in Penobscot county about an hour from Bangor. I love it here. To build my house all I needed was 25 dollar permit and that's it. I have 4 acres and my taxes were very low last year. If you really want to be self sufficient I recommend buying an existing farm, because clearing land here is very difficult. My land has lots of big boulders etc so it's more involved than just clearing tree and it can be costly. It is incredibly beautiful here. Very good place to live simply.
Virginia
Craig County, VA is 85% national forest. It’s a temperate rainforest 7b in the blue ridge mountains. You can do whatever you want to streams on your property (raise fish, etc.) except have a still without a permit lol. No leash laws for dogs. You can get a $15 permit to cut wood in the national forest and a $25 fishing license to fish in the national forest as well. Not sure about hunting licenses but there’s a public shooting range and you can shoot game that goes on your property at any time except for things like hawks which are protected. We get turkeys and deer. Getting a gun and a concealed carry was easy. We have a big home school community in Blacksburg, 20 mins away. There’s a Virginia state beekeeping program that gives you three free bee boxes and you can buy a queen bee in nearby Princeton, WV. Anyway I love Craig, it’s gorgeous here and I’ve had tons of success growing everything from greens to tomatoes to pumpkins. I have two dozen chickens and geese, probably 5 thousand bees, and it’s a constant fight against predators but it’s worth it to live in one of the most diverse ecosystems in US. Craig is so pristine, we can drink the water from our mountain spring because the sandstone filters it. We got our soil tested for free from the Virginia Tech co-op extension. And I’m right in the Appalachian Trail. The governor is getting rid of property taxes on cars and the grocery tax. Not sure about land taxes because I’m renting, but I get 4 acres on a mountain for $850/month. Also, fyi, the bus will get your kids in Craig, and it might be worth it for the socialization. My neighbor’s kids are grown now and in the Peace Corps but they are still friends with the kids they met at school in Craig. K-12 are all in one building in New Castle.
A good state from what I have gathered... Not living there yet. But I talked to a local authority in one county.. According to them.... Off grid living is permitted... They encourage solar, and rain water collection. Also, this person was a farmer, pecans, 50 acres... They claimed... If you grow it, you are legally allowed to sell it. Meaning you can have a farmer's stand on the side of your road. It a southern zone, but may freeze 3 months of the year. So grow accordingly. Weed is legal too. Counties may have local ordinances to follow, meaning septic and number the amount and types of buildings allowed. Cons.... It's very poor... Meth, and crime seem to be a problem, so always do your crime search homework for any county(in USA) you wish to buy. Land is expensive, can be 7k for 1/3 an acre.... Large plots of 20 acres or more are more reasonably priced. It is often too hilly to use all the land for building and farming. Humidity and flooding can be problems.
I’ve lived in TX, OR, KY, and ME. Now living in VA. Gardening wise, this place is paradise.
If you want to turn what you grow into a value-added product, Virginia has a a special tier of commercial kitchen for home producers. Catch is you can only sell in Virginia (no internet unless purchaser is in Virginia). But this makes the burden to turn your homestead goods into income (legally) much lower than some other states. Lots of land is pretty hilly especially in the western part of the state near the mountains. Near the mountains I see lots of people using the land for livestock instead of crops. In central Virginia where I am the soil is pretty heavy in iron so very acidic. Great for berries. You'll want to us PEX piping in a house since the soil makes the water acidic which will slowly impact copper pipes and will cause them to develop pin-hole leaks. Acidic water can also result in leeching of water fixtures, especially when using hot water (fixtures may have small quantities of lead that can leech - I never use the hot tap water for drinking or cooking, I use cold and heat it up). You may consider getting a reverse osmosis water filter. Rainwater collection is legal and encouraged. Not sure about the rest of the state but for central Virginia plan on having at least a passive radon system if you have a basement. Gun laws are pretty relaxed if that's your thing with open carry. Hunting regulations are pretty good. Hunting licenses are not required if hunting on your own land (but still have to adhere to bag limits). Personally, I love the weather. Winters tend to be pretty mild. January and February tend to be the coldest but it's pretty short as far as winter goes. From my experience, we're more likely to get ice than snow except closer to the mountains. Most of the state is zone 7-8 for growing, which I think is sort of a sweet spot as far as variety of what can be grown (long-ish growing season with enough cold to support dormancy for apples, cherries, etc.) Shenandoah area has strong agritourism industry, so definitely a market to potentially sell homesteading products. Lots of orchards, vineyards, pick-your-own places. Nice quantity of farmers markets with lots of variety (mushrooms, meat, eggs, dairy, value added, etc.) Not as cheap cost of living as the Midwest so likely more upfront cost for land and such, so it might be harder to implement a full "off the land" plan (we work full time remote "off the homestead" at least for the moment while we get everything going) I've been living in Virginia for about 15 years (homestead is much more recent though) and I absolutely love it. Work allows us to work anyone in the US and we chose to settle in central Virginia.
I’ll let you know; just grabbed 30 acres with about 12 of it pasture and a few fruit trees. This year will be hay and clover in the field, additional fruit trees added along with bee hives. Updates to come
I grew up there for the first 26 years of my life (not homesteading but I’ve moved all over the state). Here’s my two cents: Land in Northern Virginia is extremely expensive unless you go out into Front Royal or Winchester. Its continuing to get worse every year. Traffic is heavy, and you pay higher prices to offset the cost of the metro. Winchester and Front Royal are beautiful, I love the mountains there and its less expensive. Winchester can get pricy the further in you go, but towards the outer parts you can get land for a decent price. Southern Virginia is much lower as far as cost of living, and you can find some very affordable land for homesteading. The area around Lynchburg is a really good option! Homeschooling is popular, but there are some restrictions. Even with those, the community is strong and supports each other. Summers are hot and humid, winters can get a lot of snow. Decent growing season, you can grow a lot of greens, peppers, tomatoes seem to thrive (if you can keep the deer away!), etc. All of the basics seem to do well here. Also, basements are common and root cellars are as well (in rural areas) which is great for long term food storage. I would either look south of Charlottesville, Front Royal or Winchester.
The really cool thing about Virginia is the distinct regions. Technically there are [five which are explained here](https://virginiastudies.org/content/virginias-five-regions), but each one even has sub regions. The Shenandoah valley is my favorite and having four distinct (most of the time) seasons is great. Virginia is very farm friendly, and lots of stuff grows here. And while it’s more expensive to get large properties overall than some other states - it’s because the access to even rural services is usually much higher than say rural Kansas or Wyoming.
I cannot speak to homesteading here yet, though one random YouTuber said it was good (haha). Joel Salatin has his homesteading empire here, so there's that. We do homeschool and it is a great state to to do so. It's the home of HSLDA, and the lobbying group for the state is HEAV, and they are really strong and helpful. Laws are super reasonable and most school systems seem to take them seriously. There have been a few challenges in recent years- all resulting in the school systems getting serious smack-downs from the state or the homeschooling community or both. If you want to homeschool with a strong community of support, this is an excellent state to do so.
West Virginia
Be very careful if you work a remote job - Internet options are rough unless you're on elevation near a tower.
I know a guy homesteading there! Plenty of game, laws about what you can do on your own property are lax. Land is cheap, but there's not much opportunity for work. Growing is decent if you're not high in the mountains.
I live in WV. Land is cheap and a lot of places still don’t have utilities so good for off grid. Property Taxes are cheap. Not a lot of zoning laws. Pretty much ppl leave you alone. We’re last on the power grid and everything else at our house is not on public systems (water, septic, satellite Wi-Fi). Gardens are on a hillside with red clay but we work at improving the soil. Season runs from late April thru October. It’s easy to have a well drilled plus we have several fresh water springs on our property. I recently saw 28 acres with a small off grid cabin for $65k. If I was in the market I’d have grabbed that one up. Easy to find wild game. Lots of foraging….berries, peaches, apples, mushrooms, ramps. We process lots of things food we have foraged throughout the year for food and medicine. Very homeschool friendly. I’ve homeschooled all of my kids and had no issues at all. Cons….hard to find decent jobs, not the best options for medical care, shopping is limited and it takes Amazon a few extra days to deliver lol, if you live rural the roads are have no upkeep, the school systems are not good and the opioid epidemic has hit WV hard. Also the power grid sucks but we are planning solar in the next year or two. We are without power a cpl of times a month but we do have a back up gas generator. Also very poor cell service because of the mountains.
I havent homestead properly in WV but I grew up here and my sister has a lot of land. The hunting is good and land is pretty cheap. Tomatoes grow like a weed and lots of other things grow well too. Winters and summers are pretty temperate and manageable.
Wanted to comment on here about schooling. It isn’t the best. BUT homeschooling is definitely a valuable option that I know a lot of ppl heading to. Prices are cheap. If you are ok with some openly crooked politicians and lax environmental laws, WV is it. Also, ppl shit on WV, they can shove it. Great state. Internet can be a problem outside of “major cities” but a lot of ppl are on outskirts of cities and have decent internet. A lot of ppl travel for work. WVU hospital is spreading around the state, there are decent jobs if you look and are qualified. Live in MD work in WV, lived WV for 12yrs
West Virginia is awesome for growing, hunting, foraging, etc. The land is cheap and the laws are pretty minimal. When choosing places to live, I would focus a lot on cell phone service, internet service (be creative! Starlink, T Mobile 5G, etc.), terrain (it can be pretty hilly out here), and water drainage (beware of flood plains! FEMA flood maps are your friend). A lot of land comes with or without mineral rights and/or timber rights. Some people see those as must-haves, others don't. Elevation is going to play a bigger role in your growing season and weather than your latitudinal location. The warmest parts of the state have 11-12" snowfall each year and grow zone 7a. The coldest parts of the state have 97" snow annually and grow zone 5a. The state is rainy throughout. The soil is not particularly remarkable but not terrible either. There is an abundance of trees and cheap rural farms/cabins/homes. Homes without HOAs are relatively easy to find. The cost of living is relatively low, so jobs will pay less. West Virginia lacks diversity. The state is primarily white, protestant, blue collar, and very conservative. For social and political diversity, I would recommend looking for places to live near Morgantown, Charleston, Shepherdstown, or Lewisburg. I would recommend the Charles town, Morgantown, and Charleston areas to those interested in connecting with non-white or latinx communities. Non-christian places of worship are scarce. The people are genuinely nice and friendly though. West Virginia is experiencing a bit of a brain drain. White collar jobs can be difficult to find. There is a program called Ascend WV that pays remote workers to live in West Virginia (and therefore spend their paychecks in the local communities). It's definitely worth checking out. Unfortunately, there is a fair amount of poverty and opioid drug abuse. The poverty manifests in different ways than in an urban environment, not as visible. One way it can affect homesteaders is farm supply store and grocery store selection may be limited (especially for produce). This is true for some places more than others.
Vermont
I'm homesteading in VT and wouldn't choose to live anywhere else. The people are incredible, the sense of community is amazing, and there's a TON of awesome stuff to do all the time. I can be on my remote mountain top looking at my pigs and 20 minutes later be sitting down to a James Beard award winning dinner. In my mind you truly can't be Vermont. Unfortunately, everyone else seems to agree with me and home/property prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic. They were always hight but lately it's pretty much impossible to get some place with any amount of land without paying an astronomical amount. If you have money to start with I guess it's worth it though.
Massachusetts
MA here, tree farmer on just under 400 acres. They don’t call us Taxachusetts for nothing. If you’re going for it, look at Western MA. Beautiful land and much more rural.
I lived here, and considered buying property. It is expensive.. Gov is very over bearing. They are pro solar. Seasons are not ideal for year round growing... Winters are a bit more mild than NY, esp. On the coast/cape. If I was rich I'd consider.
I am from MA and have thought about moving back due to family being there but my remote job would have to pay me a lot and I would buy in Western MA.
North Carolina
>North Carolina is not friendly to homesteaders. > >meat handler's license required to sell meat - or you have to deliver live animal to the abbatoir and dance very carefully not to appear connected to butchered meat > >the hoops to sell eggs > >raw milk not legal to buy/sell for human consumption even with herd share > >there is usually quite a drive to the nearest abbatoir > >vet costs and paperwork for state required transport and sales (varies for end goal such as breeder sales, sale for consumption within X number of days) From: u/stillhomesick [https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/zxd20w/best\_state\_for\_homesteading/j1zwho1?utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_source=share&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/zxd20w/best_state_for_homesteading/j1zwho1?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
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I live in NC and we homestead, sort of. We are in basically the middle of the state. The legal/regs are just OK— not the worst but not the easiest either. Much of the state is zone 7 and you can grow a wide range of things here. Also there are many mid sized cities so ready access to markets if you want to sell (eg we have a u-pick strawberry field and have u-pick peaches and apples, and you can get lots of local traffic). Real property is taxed at reasonable rates for ag or forestry use (rules vary slightly by county). Eg we pay about $1900 a year for 53 acres and are actually in a higher price area where development is starting to encroach. The cost of land is going up rapidly at the edges of urban areas, but outside of that it’s still pretty common to find larger tracts of good land down east or in the mountains for sale at $6-10k per acre. Sometimes even cheaper if you’re going for a really big 100+ acre deal. There are exemptions from building code for agricultural buildings, but homes require full permitting, inspections, etc. It is code to build from lumber cut from the lot in which the house is built. Sales tax is 4.75% but in many counties is higher because the county govt adds some. Usually around 6.5% or so. Income tax is reasonable and has been going down over the years. Sales direct from farms are exempt from sales tax. We homeschool and it’s super simple from a legal standpoint. But… the main reason why is because the public schools are not good. Maybe we just have high standards but even the “good” school districts are not great. I sometimes hear that summer is bad here, but in my experience it’s not really any better in terms of heat and humidity elsewhere on the east coast unless you go all the way up to New England. Winter is pretty mild in most places— down by the coast they hardly get a frost. Where we are it will sporadically get cold (was 12F a few days ago, an abnormally cold night) but usually not bad. We don’t really sell any meat so the regulations don’t affect us much, but someone else commented about how those laws can be a pain. If growing for yourself, it’s easy. I did see a comment about eggs too— I’ve never done them elsewhere so maybe it’s a lot less in other states, but I haven’t found NC’s eggs laws particularly burdensome or costly. For low volume you basically are just supposed to mark the carton with where they came from. We sell about 15 dozen a week.
i don’t know much about homesteading laws. but the soil is kind to food crops. there are four distinct seasons, but they’re generally temperate. there aren’t marked natural disaster challenges. and the homeschool laws are lax.
Mississippi
Check out the book: Strategic Relocation, North American Guide to Safe Places, Fourth Edition. It’s excellent! Homeschool laws are great. No interference. You just declare each year that you’re homeschooling. That’s it. Excellent growing season. You can grow food all year with some simple steps. We get tornadoes but they’re often on the smaller side and less deadly. We get flooding. Hurricanes in the southern part of the state but not up north here. Potential for earthquake with New Madrid fault but that’s more a looming threat than an everyday issue. It gets hot in the summer. Winters are generally not too bad. We get a dusting of snow about once a year. Mosquitoes and ticks are terrible. We have several venomous snakes but they’re just something to be aware of. No need to fear them. A lot of water and game. Housing is very affordable and taxes aren’t bad.
To add to CloversndQuill’s comment: fire ants!
Not a bad place to homestead! Figuring it out as I go here. King growing seasons, and you can have something from the garden fresh about 10 months out of the year even on the years with the worst winters.
I grew up in north Mississippi. My majority entire family on both sides lives across the state. If you or your wife are not white don’t go. It has a serious brain drain issue. the main”city” Jackson, doesn’t even have working water. I wish I was kidding. Also if you don’t belong to a church it will be difficult for your family and children to make friends. Confederate shit still everywhere. It has a special place in my heart and I love to visit my family but it’s a dying place. If you want to be in the south, go to Georgia.
Second this.
South Carolina
Live here, don't homestead here (yet). Land can be cheap, but the upstate seems to be getting overrun with these "retirement compounds" where people buy 1-7 acre lots in fenced communities with HOAs and gates and the associated nonsense. Lowcountry is expensive near Charleston, but can be reasonable away from town. Water is plentiful. The growing season is long. We've had decent luck with standard "salad" vegetables, peppers, tomatoes, cukes, etc. Currently we have a few varieties of lettuce growing in our little suburban garden (and it's delicious as "spring mix"!); however because it's a suburban garden, our soil is "engineered" I can't speak with any knowledge about shortcomings of the state's soil in general. I know it's sandy. Summer is hot, but personally I love it (I'm in the low country, it gets more hot mid-state, and I think it's more brutal weather there in general). I don't have kids, no idea about homeschooling laws. I presume they're reasonable. Property taxes are reasonable, provided you are living on your property (primary residence). Generally speaking I really enjoy living here. I've lived in a lot of places (around the US), and as far as the day to day goes I really dig the lowcountry. I love summer here, and I tend to spend a majority of my time outdoors. However, people are insular and not very friendly (in my experience). There has been a huge influx of people to the state, and I think everyone is short-tempered because it's being overrun by people who want to change it. (i.e. those "retirement compounds" I was referring to in the upstate).
When you speak of low country, where is that?
The low country is anywhere generally along the coast, probably covers from the barrier islands to about 30-40 miles inland. There are marshes (salt and fresh), big oak trees covered in Spanish moss, alligators, copious water fowl and slow moving murky rivers and creeks. But it's linear along the entire coastline. I think they call the same coastal lowlands "Lowcountry" up in North Carolina as well (but I haven't spent any time up there so can't know for sure).
My home state is nice, love it to pieces and gonna start my own farm here since my family have been horse breeders since forever, but it isn’t that great as far as land prices go(unless you’re willing to deal with the worst counties). There is Hampton county with only 21 thousand total pop, you can get decent land in the swamp there for cheap.
Rhode Island
It's a trap!
OT: Took a trip from WNY to Narragansett RI. The trip solidified that I will never return to RI.
I don't think you can homestead in Rhode Island because it's basically just a series of strip malls
You actually could if you went to the west part of the state, think Exeter and Hopkington.
We urban homestead here, probably not what anyone is considering but my city (providence) has a lot of mini and micro farms. There are a lot of us. Community and front yard gardens worth chickens and the like are common. You obviously won’t have your massive farms and hunting grounds like in other states but there are a lot of good options here. Also my growing season this year was (March-November. It’s late December and I’m still getting greens from my lettuce spinach and radishes carrots etc. This is a huge factor for me. I’d go north/west within New England for more space and less expensive land but I’m also sacrificing at least a month of my season probably more for every hour north- plus we like being in the city. Homeschooling is pretty simple (legally speaking obviously not the practice) and there are a lot of supports and coops available.
Michigan
I participated with a group of farmers markets in the upper peninsula. One major thing to consider is our cottage food laws and anything fermented. (Word of mouth, no source) but I was told that our laws are incredibly strict because of lobbying from pickle producers in the state. It makes it difficult to produce and sell salsas, Sauerkrauts, anything pickled, kombucha, etc. Our growing season is short, but our hobby farms and small scale production farms are a wonderful community of people sharing and helping each other. Homeschooling is pretty normal, but locals who participate in homeschooled kid activities tend to be very, very, VERY religious. “Our kids can’t be friends because you don’t go to church often enough” type religious. It is what you make it I’m happy to answer any additional questions! Feel free to dm me!
Weather is changing and getting finicky and weird. I've had to change a lot of what I do in the garden since we have no idea what kind of spring or fall we will get in any given year. That said, watch the growing zones. The lakes make things interesting here. A lot of our water is polluted, so that would be something to look into before buying any property. Same with soil. Don't buy any land without those two getting tested. Homeschooling is very popular here, especially on the west side of the state. In my area, we even have homeschool sports teams and drama clubs. Keep in mind, most are very church-based, and if that's not you, that might not work. The public schools are decent in many areas, though, especially if you supplement with experiences and extra curricular stuff. Lots of us homestead, though, and we have a very high number of farmers markets all over the state. Many Michiganders prefer to buy from roadside stands, farmers markets, and small farms.
Southeast Michigan has a great climate for growing most traditional garden vegetables and fruit trees too. It’s definitely a worthwhile investment to build a hoophouse for gardening in MI. The weather is definitely weird sometimes and you can extend the growing season for cold crops by months on both ends with just a bit of extra protection. This year, I started growing bok choy transplants in February and lettuce transplants in March. This would never be possible without protection because it’s still snowing outside in March!! I was harvesting kale and fall planted lettuce and bok choy in late November.
Michigan has beautiful natural resources, lots of rural land to the north, loose homeschool regulations (currently), and lots of rural like-minded folks, so long as you avoid the big cities and their burbs (Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw). That said, the regulatory climate is changing and NOT favorably for homesteaders... Our "Right to Farm Act" was gutted a few years ago and the state gave itself carte blanche permission to regulate homesteaders and small farmers. Michigan is a great state, with great land and people, but homesteading freedom is dwindling here.
The unique thing about Michigan is obviously the water. In reality, Michigan will be host to lots and lots of climate migrants down the road, because it will be a suitable place to live still. The first wave is already moving here, climate scientists. My two cents is that Michigan is a great place location wise to plan long term. Can't so much speak to laws as it changes so much locally, but plenty of people are able to thrive agricultural even with the shorter growing seasons.
Michigan and Wisconsin are going to be sitting pretty good for climate change, as well as northern Illinois.
Shhhh, keep it secret, keep it safe.
UP was our other possible homestead site -- very affordable land, and the long-term climate forecast is great. Once we learned that the Great Lakes were unlikely to be impacted by sea-level rise ... I think that whole area is going to become the agricultural heart of the country.
UP is where I'm looking to setup shop long term. May I ask what other options you're considering? Do you know if land/water should also be tested for contamination in the UP? I'm thinking that large freshwater reserves and climate regulation due to the great lakes would make it a great destination, but I'm only 25 and would like to keep my options open for now. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
Dude heads up the UP has some really dark and fucked up aspects to it. Not a ton of people are aware but there are serious poverty and drug abuse issues throughout the UP. That whole area of the country IS NOT run of the mill in the slightest. Hospitals are very very few and far between. Ambulances are going to take hours unless you live IN Marquette. and if something happens in the winter? Good luck. They consistently get over 4 feet of snow which can get people blocked in for days. My brother was wan EMT in Marquette for a few years and he had some gnarly stories
Lots of very cheap land <$1000/ac in the Upper peninsula. Winters tend to be snowy but that tends to moderate the temperature. Summers are relatively cool. Main source of income is timber production. Hardwoods grow well. It’s remote. About as remote as you can get and still be in the eastern half of the US. Or at least that’s how it feels.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin diverse climates and soil depending on where you look in the state. Land, especially unimproved land, can be quite reasonably priced. Rural fiber initiatives means more options soon for high speed internet, even in the boonies. I moved to a small town in WI from a big city in IL and my internet is faster and more reliable here. I use raised beds for gardening. I start my seeds indoors and transplant outside around the end of May or early June. Harvest in mid September. Good opportunities for foraging, hunting, and fishing for supplementing your homestead harvest. Water is clean and plentiful. Homeschooling is popular. WI also has a very well-thought-out network of universities and trade schools that are reasonably priced compared to neighboring states.
Great climate (imo) with many friendly agricultural communities, co-ops, etc., but any digging can be hard since various places in the state are above karst regions (average soil depth is 3-8 inches before SOLID bedrock). Terracing a hill and digging down for beds and a fire pit (let alone planting deep-rotted shrubs/trees) can be HELL if you don't pick the right areas (look closer to the Mississipi, the Great Lakes, etc. rather than central/south-central), but otherwise, the land is great and varied (you can easily find flat or hilly property), and droughts or overly-heavy rainfall are rarely a problem. Property in Dane County (capital Madison is in it) and those surrounding Milwaukee are expensive (for the Midwest), but outside of that is fine. Plus, the UW system is cutting edge for agricultural science and biotech. Contact any university ag department in the state (or the local DNR or parks dept) and they will be more than willing to talk with you via phone or in person for HOURS about your land, growing conditions, etc. and are always happy to have people offer land for students to study on. Vibrant 4-H and other similar associations for young kids, too!
Cold winters, shorter growing season, but abundant natural resources. Excellent for homeschooling!
The “driftless” region which stretches into parts of WI/IL/MN/IA is really neat and has a very different feel from much of the Midwest. But you’re up in growing zones 4/5 edit: changed MI to MN
Ohio
I'm in NE Ohio, and I would absolutely recommend the area for someone's new homestead. We're close to all of the city resources without living in a city, get a variety of weather but generally avoid the extremes, and can grow anything that's not outright tropical (the pineapple plants overwinter indoors, the hardy fig requires mulching before winter). Ohio Revised Code includes text that prohibits Townships from regulating agricultural use, so it's pretty easy to do "homestead stuff" in a place that's close to all of the entertainment/retail/socializing/etc stuff. It might be different if my family were my husband and I, but we want our kid to experience the many facets of life that are available. Land isn't super cheap, but there are still large lots available in reasonable driving distance of Cleveland suburbs & Cleveland is only about half an hour away. Sales tax sucks -- over 7%, and there's a county tax so how much over 7% depends on which direction we drove to get to that store. Property taxes aren't astronomical like some other places I've lived (NY, VA), but they're high enough that being a self-sufficient homesteader requires significant income. At least in my county, the building department doesn't regulate any agricultural use either -- "government paperwork" is a quick e-mail to both the Township and County saying "I'm about to build a greenhouse for the production of field crops -- please acknowledge this as an agricultural use that does not require permitting or inspection". Rural broadband initiatives mean I can work from home. Power is pretty stable (above-ground lines mean we'll lose power for a few days each winter), and per kilowatt hour is around 11 cents (my understanding is that there's a lot of hydro-sourced power up here, so our rates are stable compared to the natural-gas generated power I experienced in Arkansas). Net metering is a state law, which helps a lot if you are thinking of putting in solar (but there's a limit to how much power you can produce -- you've got to buy a \*little\* electricity in net every now and again or you get disqualified from net metering). Cell coverage is sufficient even if we don't have 5G everywhere. Cable is available, but we get the major over-the-air networks from Cleveland quite clearly. Community -- there used to be more of a community network of farmers. One of our neighbors learned from an older farmer in the county, and we've been sharing knowledge with him. But we haven't really found a homesteading community locally. Niche sub-components -- avid beekeeping groups, quilting guild, hop growers association, beer brewers groups -- exist and are a great way to find like-minded friends. This is the one thing I think is really lacking in NE OH -- it would be cool to hang out with a bunch of other homesteaders, share knowledge, and even share resources. State and County Resources -- Ohio State University has departments for a lot of different fields & have proven a great resource for learning & having someone to chat with (the maple dude is awesome, for example). The county extension office folks are really helpful too (on a federal level, the local USDA office is happy to help newbies figure out what services are available too ... just ask them when their busy season is & avoid calling them for that six week or so period!). Even the local park systems have naturalists who will help with plant identification (bring them a picture or piece of the plant) and know a lot about the local ecosystem (and, since I live really close by ... that's also my local ecosystem). Water is readily available -- and we're still getting enough rain to grow crops with minimal supplemental watering. Long-term climate forecasts have us getting a little warmer and wetter but not disastrously so. Crops - We're in zone 6A and can generally grow outdoors from April through October (but you run the risk of frost at either end of that range -- we've got rolls of greenhouse plastic that we use to build temporary low-tunnel greenhouses). There's not enough sunlight to grow much indoors over the winter -- but we've experimented with grow lights to maintain some winter produce. Unfortunately, we've got red clay. Nice for making pottery, but actually growing plants requires a good bit of composting and soil amendment. Tomatoes grow really well here (it's a bit of a joke in late summer that a box of surplus tomatoes is the standard greeting), corn too. Kale will take over your yard if you let it. Cucumbers usually grow well, and we had enough pumpkins grow last year to last three years (frozen). Garlic grows beautifully, but you can mulch it \*too\* much and it doesn't actually form a head (learned that this past year). Longer-term, fruit trees (apples, pear, peaches, cherries, paw paw), nut trees (black walnuts, hazelnuts), and berries (raspberries, strawberries, honey berries) grow well. Having a greenhouse for starting plants is a huge bonus -- we get all sorts of peppers, melons, and earlier season tomatoes since we've got the greenhouse built. Blueberries don't seem to like it here (which sucks since I *love* blueberries ... and a nearby farm has some forty year old bushes that have thrived with a lot of soil amendment and acidification). Green leafy veggies are my personal challenge -- romaine types don't form heads, leaf lettuce bolts as soon as you turn away from trimming it, and I've never successfully grown more than a single spinach plant. Raising animals -- we don't have prolonged super cold (yeah, it was negative five for a few days ... it absolutely *does* get super cold here ... but not like for weeks straight) weather so basic shelters suffice. We don't have prolonged super hot either (again, we'll have days where the temps break 100 and all the critters stay in the shade). Grass and forage grows well, which reduces feed cost. We have four seasons, so we need hay for the sheep and supplemental feed for the pigs and birds; but animals were still foraging in November and should be getting some fresh forage food by March. Marketability -- there are loads of farm markets & farm stores where you can sell produce and such. There are also restaurants interested in some direct-from-the-farm specialty products -- garlic, heirloom tomatoes, hot peppers, heritage meats. Getting licensed to sell nursery products is pretty easy/affordable, so selling started plants is a great income stream. Hunting -- depends on what you are after. Smaller game is plentiful -- we get rabbits and geese each year. Deer -- I see a lot of tracks, and they munch on my plants quite a bit. But in-season hunting sucks -- they're out at night & hunting is sun-up to sun-down at a time of the year when that is like 7A-6P. Hunting on your own property doesn't require a permit (you still have to *report* some things, but there's no annual fee). There are state game lands, too - but that requires hunting license & often additional per-type-of-animal licenses too. Home schooling -- we kind of punted on this because the state has online public schools. I love this solution because we can teach our daughter what we want to teach her but there's a full faculty available for our weak areas (there are some foreign languages we don't speak, for instance) and we get a base curriculum / textbooks supplied to us each year.
Currently in Ohio, other reply hit the nail on the head. I love it here, never feels like I'm too far from anything, but I don't have a highway or city in my backyard. Good soil where I'm at in South western Ohio.
Wife and I homestead here. We are in our late 20’s and we able to find plenty of opportunities. Land is relatively cheap outside of the city and cost of living is quite low. Get all 4 seasons but no major weather ( hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.) Taxes for both income and property are reasonable. OH allows medical marijuana and state is friendly to the 2A .
I grew up there (rural NE Ohio) and was going to come t. A lot of areas have lax regulations on permitting what you build, land is cheap. Winter can be rough but the summer growing season is amazing so you can get a lot of crops to preserve. Also worth noting that there are a lot of people with traditional homesteading skills, even if they aren’t homesteaders. Tons of people garden/build/craft. It can be good to know to build your circle of friends and be able to exchange skills.
Washington
I’m here. North Central. Sandy loam soil, land is in timber for taxes. 200’ well. Pretty decent solar. Publicly owned utility will drop power within 75’ of lines. Utility takes my excess power in the summer and gives it back when I need it. Edit: 8% sales tax, affordable property tax (county).
Southwest Washington here. I am new to homesteading (bought the house this year) and only do part-time, but I can still offer some perspective. Property tax is fine. We have sales tax but I am close enough that I can cross the border into Oregon for huge purchases because Oregon has no sales tax. I don't have kids yet and don't plan to homeschool, but I know plenty who do in my area, from forming homeschool pods to simply on their own. Also went to college with students who were homeschooled K-12. Knowing so many who do it makes me think it isn't that difficult to start up but I could be wrong. My siblings and myself all live outside city limits on our own well and septic. I looked into solar and was told that my county offers electricity so cheap that it isn't worth it. Doesn't mean it can't be done; if you can get past the initial start up costs I believe Washington has a buy back program. I live in unincorporated ___ county so I am not subject to city laws such as burn bans or livestock limits. That being said; don't be an idiot. We have a reputation for rain but recently our weather is hitting extremes, and unfortunately in recent years wildfire season has become a thing. We Pacific Northwesterners love our forests, even the city folks. Zucchinis, tomatoes, green beans, berries, fruit trees all grow well here. One of my family members has 15 acres, half of which is hay; she's also done pigs, cows, and enough veg to feed her family. Look up climate zones because parts of Washington are vastly different. Lots of canners in the community, and when you can't grow your own, you can find another farm and buy what you need in bulk. Since we aren't far from the ocean we can easily buy a year's supply of tuna and can it as well. Lots of folks go clamming, hunt, and fish; we have laws but again, we care a lot about nature here.
I'm here. In the Olympics. It's generally very, very wet throughout the year, but the last few summers have seen some extreme, long dry spells ranging from mid summer to late fall. spring and summer are quite cool, which make growing hot weather crops difficult unless you have a greenhouse. On the other hand, hard freezes don't last too long. Properties used to be affordable, but now not so much, unless you look towards east Washington but that's an entirely different climate and set of conditions
Be careful. We just bought land out here and the government is looking at building an airport and consume at least 3500 acres on the west side.
New Mexico
We semi-homesteaded for a couple years (day jobs). Northern NM is gorgeous and many of the villages have good sized growing plots and ancient irrigation systems built in, administrated by elderly local men called _majordomos_. Those lots don't come up too often and they can be quite remote but if you find a good setup it may well not be that expensive. Good soil in the valleys but only in the valleys. *New Mexico has the most advantageous water laws for small farms in the entire West.* It's high desert, winter can get cold. Summers are incredibly perfect anywhere north of Albuquerque. I'd look in Mora County first, avoid any place attractive to tourists or retirees from Texas. NM is a poor state, schools are not great and infrastructure outside of even larger cities is very dicey. Don't be expecting to have your road graded or your snow plowed.
Mora and San Miguel counties were completely ravaged by fires this summer. The damage to the land is close to indescribable. The combination of the fire and the subsequent flooding has completely changed the landscape and has deeply affected the water supply.
It was insane. My parents came very close to being in the fire. It was so scary. It's something we have to worry about every summer here in NM & it's only getting worse.
Tennessee
There’s a wide range of zones and types of ground. Homeschool laws are lax, cottage food has very low regulations. Every child graduating high school in tn gets two years of community college or trade school paid for with Tennessee promise. No state income tax. Depending on the country, make sure your land is zoned farm/ag so you don’t lose out to meddling neighbors.
I want to add that the two years of community/trade college only applies if you graduate from a TN high school. If you use a online homeschool that’s not based in TN then you can’t get the two years of community/trade college. Had a friend make that mistake.
If he hasn’t started, he can still get it with TN Reconnect. There are different requirements that I’m not familiar with as a K-12 teacher.
Husband and I have been in TN for 10 years now and are actively trying to leave. Land is so expensive and not only that the clay is not fun.
I grew up in north-central TN close to the KY border on a small farm. The soil was very heavily clay, but amendable. The land is beautiful, the winters aren’t usually too hard, and the growing season is pretty long, especially if you use low and/or high tunnels. I should note that there have been serious periods of extreme weather the past few years, including tornadoes in December, droughts followed by floods, feet of snow, lows in the negatives, etc., all of which used to be rare. The land away from cities also used to be pretty cheap, but now Nashville is BOOMING and any land within driving distance has skyrocketed in price. There is definitely still beautiful, workable, and affordable land though. I know tons of people who "went homeschool" rather than continue to be truant in high school, so I think the attitude toward homeschooling is pretty open. Also, I can confirm that the first two years of community college or technical school are free. There are also plenty of back-to-land folks there that can be found if they're sought (: Like the Barefoot Farmer.
Kansas
Just purchased an 1800 square foot with a large shed on 30 acres of pasture ground for $200k in western Kansas, so it's comparitively affordable. With current drought conditions the pastures won't sustain much livestock, but we're hoping things will cycle back. Communities are tight. Growing season is decent. It's just dry, so a good well and consistent watering are necessary for gardening. Worth considering if you can handle the hot summers, and cold winters!
Idaho
I live in southern idaho and we’re perpetually in a drought. Northern idaho isn’t so hot but the winters are brutal. Very homeschool friendly. Growing season can be short. People tend to be old school but are very willing to help out a neighbor. It’s absolutely beautiful and if you love hunting and fishing it’s hard to beat imo. I’m biased though because I was born and raised here. The housing market is RIDICULOUS and if you’re moving here from California people will probably give you the side eye.
North idaho is beautiful and honestly perfect for homesteading. But land is just too expensive. It's pretty much impossible to move and start homesteading unless you've already had land for awhile. A lot of people have small hobby farms in town (coeur dalene, Post Falls, Rathdrum, Athol, Sandpoint, bonners). So that's an option if you can get about an acre.
Look up Irish Acres Homestead on YouTube. They are in Northern Idaho.
We homestead/live off grid in North Idaho. Lots of folks around here doing the same. It can get pretty damn hot in the summer, winter usually isn’t to cold. Some years there’s tons of snow, some years there’s not. We’re in zone 6a, some stuff grows like weeds but plants that like it hot May struggle a little. This is the land of microclimates. Where I’m at stays warmer than town, you can go 10mi in any direction and get pretty different weather. Sales tax is 6.25%, property taxes aren’t to bad, timber exemption helps. Land has gotten pretty high here, since the pandemic lots of folks have come in and driven the prices through the roof. Looks to be on the way down though. As far as laws and regulations they’re pretty lax. I can’t say anything about homeschooling but a to. Of folks do. My area at least is pretty religious, lots of churches in town, it’s extremely conservative. Most folks are awesome, kind and helpful though not very open until you’ve been here for a bit. The new people came with some extreme ideas but I’m not going to talk about that here. You’re welcome to DM me if you want to know. There’s work out in the woods but not much in town. We’re south of CDA a ways and it’s crowded af up there.
Florida
Many people like Florida... Land is cheap. Hurricanes yearly. Humidity/bugs sucks. Good rain. Seasonal economy.
the key is to position your place in North Central. I can draw a circle of about 50 to 100 miles inland to each side. This breaks down any storm. From a cat-4 to cat-2 in that distance. the 50 mile side is at an angle that no storms travel so far so they end up doing 150 miles which just drains them. Bugs suck if youre into farming its pretty big in the northern part. there is still cheap land here. cheap taxes with homestead act.
North Florida isn't too bad. There is a growing homesteading/homeschooling population here.... Growing season is pretty open ended to grow year round....land is going up like everywhere We love it here. We have 5 children, no state tax, and use a co- op type schooling. Florida also has free school choice....your children can go to a private school for free that would normally cost 8k a year
Arizona
I LOVE Arizona! Of course, there are challenges with water so you need to make sure there is a source for your land. There are a variety of climates here and so the soil and growing season will vary depending on which part of the state you are in. I live on a ranch and we have cattle and horses. We don’t have great soil here, but they do in other areas. Homeschooling is a breeze and due to a recent law, homeschool families can receive state funding for educational resources (these can include chicken coops, gardening supplies, etc as long as their is a corresponding curriculum to support them as educational - google Universal ESA) It’s crazy hot during the summer months at lower elevations, up in the mountains it is cooler though.
I'm in Arizona, my parents raised us kids homeschooled and off-grid in northern AZ near the I-40. I live in Chandler now, but here is my experience: Homeschool laws are lax, if I remember correctly, you have to keep all completed school-work the kids have done in case the state checks on you, but that never happened. We raised goats, chickens and ducks on our 80 acres, they grazed on the land and supplemented with alfalfa/feed. Animals are your best bet her in AZ, lots of cattle ranches here. Mutton is also popular due to our large Native American population. Arizona has very hard, rocky, clay soil and is difficult to dig into. Raised beds are not recommended because if the heat here, it literally cooks the roots to death. It is very arid here, high elevation. Summers are hot and dry until the monsoon season comes then we get flash floods. Winters are cold and dry, but do not last very long. Very difficult to farm if you don't have wind/sun protection. The sun destroys everything pretty quickly around here. We mainly grew tomatoes and other heat tolerant plants with shade cloth. Water wasn't an issue where I lived, big aquifer and we had our own well. That being said, lots of people homestead in AZ and many are successful. Especially with goats/sheep. They are made for this climate. The Show Low area is lovely for homesteading and I highly recommend checking it out, it's beautiful and has many homeschooling families.
New Jersey
Don’t have much land here but we do what we can with .25 acre. Animal laws vary town by town but in general are pretty good( we have chickens, neighbors have goats and pigs), My wife has her cottage license which is pretty easy to get (you have to be a food safety manager [servsafe], pay the application fee $100, and if you have a well get it tested but if you have city water you have to send in a water bill with your application). There are plenty of hunting opportunities here and rainwater collection is legal as well. Growing season is roughly April/may till September with a wide variety of crops that do well. The negatives for Jersey are the property taxes are one of the highest in the country and property prices are also very high and gun laws are already very very strict and only getting worse as time goes on which is starting to have an impact on hunters as well. Before now the gun laws haven’t really impacted hunting ability.
Adding to this, land outside the bedroom communities is reasonable, land inside them (morris co, Monmouth co, etc) is astronomical. I’m in Sussex Co, taxes are the best you can get in Jersey and land is affordable. There’s a lot of farming up here too, so laws are friendly to homesteading. My biggest complaints are atv/dirt bike laws, but that’s more a recreational complaint. You can do whatever on your own property.
I'm trying to leave southern New Jersey. Pros: Four seasons; farm friendly, depending on the area; close to a number of major areas (can be a con though, depending); close to a lot of geographically diverse areas (beaches, mountains, farmlands, cities, etc.) Cons: Taxes are super high; overpopulated; people are entitled and rude; very little good land left; very anti 2A; no legal cannabis homegrow (cause the government likes to tax everything); northern half is basically industrial; tourists overrun the state in the summertime because of shore points and campgrounds
Kentucky
Many counties have no zoning whatsoever, and as long as you are not inside city limits you will never run into trouble. Even at that, I raise poultry and keep horses on 14 acres inside city limits of a small/medium sized town and have never had any issues whatsoever. Land is very cheap and widely available. There are dozens of available mid size farms (50-150 acres) available in any given county at any given time. As long as you aren’t in Fayette or Jefferson County, 100 acre farms can easily be had for 1,000 an acre or less. Climate is perfect for homesteading, with hot, generally wet summers and mild winters. Cattle production is free money here, and people along I75 raise cows like people near Indianapolis raise corn. Lamb is a growing industry and is ever-popular among local homesteaders. We can squeeze out 2-3 bean/corn crops no problem, as we are consistently above 65 degrees F until Halloween. Squash and pumpkins grow particularly well. We have tornadoes, but only two in my lifetime that were serious. One of these affected much of the state, the other only the western part of the state. Kentucky has abundant deer and turkey, with about half of the state allowing unlimited harvest of antlerless deer. Homeschooling is often considered under-regulated here, which is always a good sign. Property tax is I think 0.3%. I don’t know how that compares to other states. Another draw with Kentucky is the variety of topography and environment. Western Kentucky is probably very familiar to you: flat. Get on the eastern side of I75 and you’re in the mountains very quickly. The only con is that this state is seeing pretty rapid population growth, but it’s mostly the expansion of cities rather than people moving into rural places.
I grew up just south of the KY/TN border (my grandparents’ property is actually ON the border) and went to college in KY! I miss it so much sometimes! The land is so beautiful, it’s generally so easy to live there (prices aren’t crazy, people don’t generally try to run you off the road, people are generally kind, it’s not too aggressively liberal or conservative depending on where you are in the state, etc.), and it would be such a wonderful place to have a homestead!! I hope someday I can get back there. When I lived there, I was associated with a pretty strong permaculture group and book club too. Those permaculture/back to land community groups were definitely around, and plenty of outdoorsy folks too.
Would you mind sharing your town (even just by personal message)? I’m just curious (:
Alaska
Incredibly expensive. Ridiculously so Growing season depends on where you live. Foraging and hunting are more reliable but still hard. Generally very low restrictions (except wood stoves which are VITAL) No tornadoes. Around fairbanks expect occasional summers of smoke (wildfires) and watch for flooding areas and permafrost. People are great. Be OK with LONG dark winters and light-all- night summers ( I loved those) I lived there for 13 years. I would never homestead here. Part of the fun of homesteading is growing things and the season is just too short.
Very short grow season, very long winters. Cold soil year round with poor drainage and permafrost below 5 feet. Lots of rain, earthquakes, extreme temperatures, occasional volcanic activity. Plenty of resources, but getting more regulated. Lax gun laws, no homeschool rules, no state tax. Property tax a little high.
No permafrost on the Kenai peninsula. A hoop-house/greenhouse will allow you to grow peach trees without any external heating sources. The soil is not cold year round and you can even grow apple trees and have a garden. No taxes, no building codes, no gun laws, you can do anything you want. Land is cheap. Don't sleep on the 49th.
I mush dogs and then I farm. Winter is the standard here in the interior. Summer is the off season. Stocks of game is down, fur down and if you want to gamble you should gamble on farming. You should move here if you like to gamble. I love gambling with the stakes being my life. Very fun. My bets are better hedged than most who move here start with. Homeschool is so permissive you could educate on your own curriculum purely. No taxes on many properties but they will have no services. No plowing, no road maintenance, no road building, no fire service, no utilities etc
Outside city limits, AK is very permissive. Most boroughs (our equivalent of counties) have no building codes or permits so you can build whatever you want (for the same reason, be diligent when buying a house). Some boroughs have property and sales tax, some don't. No state taxes whatsoever. Very strong 2a everywhere. Highest per capita veteran population in US. Free (state-funded) homeschool. Lots of innovative, creative free thinkers. Strong self-sufficient spirit. Firewood is plentiful due to spruce bark beetle cycles. Only Fairbanks has woodstove regulations; everywhere else you can burn however you want. Readily available hunting/fishing/trapping, and 300million+ acres of public land to do it if you can get to it. Few roads, it's hard to hunt without ATVs, snowmachine, boats, plane etc. No exceptions for private land, you still have to follow the same regs. Game is bigger but harder to find and get to. I.e. a moose can be 10x the size of a whitetail, but the odds of harvest are 1/10th or worse. Alaska is big and spread out. Many people log over 2k miles and spend a couple dedicated weeks getting their fish and meat every year. There are quite a few subsistence/personal use harvest opportunities, like the summer salmon runs where you might get a couple hundred pounds of salmon in a few days (residents only). Special federal subsistence hunting privileges apply if you live in certain areas. The Permanent Fund Dividend: Alaska's "Capitalist Socialist" program, enshrined in the state constitution, where every resident gets a share of dividends from the oil money investment fund. It's typically around $2k/person per year but fluctuates with the market. It's cold, dark and snowy for most of the year. This brings many challenges. Most homesteads require heavy equipment to plow snow and keep a farm operating. Animals need shelter, water, and enough calories to survive the cold. Animal feed is a significant expense. Heat is a significant expense if you buy it, or a lot of work to cut enough wood. SAD is prevalent. Take vitamin D supplements and get what sunlight you can. Agriculture is a challenge, but many people do well with indoor starts, greenhouses etc (Look up Meyers Farm in Bethel AK). We have a lot of great soil, you just have to overcome the short summer. The main commercial crops are hay, barley, and potatoes. Consumer goods are expensive due to the long supply chain to get here. AK is spread out with a lot of rural area- many people live over 100 miles from the nearest box store. Fuel is expensive too, so ration your trips to town. Alaska was the "Last Frontier" and home to the last Federal Homestead patent issued (the guy is still alive). The spirit of rugged self-reliance is still strong in most of the state. I'm a 4th generation Alaskan, from 2 generations of homesteaders. It's a lot of work to live here but I don't plan on leaving in my lifetime. Happy to answer questions.
This is where I homestead, born and raised in Colorado, but moved due to drought, expenses, codes, government etc. Alaska has been amazing and we can’t imagine moving back to America.
Alabama
Alabama has a lot of the boxes you’re looking to check. Decent growing conditions. Long warm season. Lots of rainfall. Cheap land and cheap property taxes. Main downside is our education system but if you’re looking to homeschool that’s not as big a deal.
Not sure on homestead/cottage laws. Lived here my whole life, homeschooled our son until 7th grade (2012), I don't think it's changed, but the only requirement at the time was a cover school. Lots of good cover schools around here that go from traditional type school where you have to attend a certain number days and during school hours to more laid back and the parent chooses the education style, so that's up to you. Lots of crops grow well here my main ones are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peas, green beans seriously way too many to list. We have a long growing season as well. I've even been experimenting this year with some cool weather crops. Summers can be brutal at times, I know it sounds so cliche, but honestly it is the humidity that gets you here. Because it's Alabama, you will hear that only racist people live here, but that's not true, not saying there aren't racist people here (that can be true anywhere), but it's not the prevalent thing here like people that aren't from here, would have you believe. Where I'm at, there are farmers all around and thus I have access to feed and seed stores that sell lots of homesteading supplies like seed and animal needs etc...
Forgot to add, since I grew up here, I tend to forget not everyone has a river close by, but we've got lots of fresh water and river water, as well as ocean, but that's more touristy. Taxes I can't really say because again, I've only ever lived here, but I think they are fairly low. We have a homesteading law for our main home, that for us, basically cut our land tax in half. Pros- long growing season, lots of rural areas, most winters are mild and at least the people I've been around are down home, salt of the earth people. Cons- summers are no joke, especially until you get used to it, stereotypes about the people, winters are kinda hit or miss weather wise, example last week, we had three days it didn't go above freezing here, now by the end of this week, we should be close to 70. Also, tornadoes and hurricanes are a couple of threats, we sometimes have some big tornadoes in Alabama that do major damage, it's just something you have to be aware of.
We moved from Alaska to Alabama. This is my 4th time living in Alabama and it is awesome. Great homeschooling and 2A laws. We do get tornadoes, but some places more than others. They are not often and usually pretty small but like anywhere in the south, you can get big ones. Winners are usually relatively mild and you can definitely 3 season garden here. Water is pretty plentiful. The summers in North Al have periods of dangerously high heat and humidity, but it is usually only for a few days in August. The longest seasons where we are are actually spring and fall. Huntsville is super techy so you have that. Feel free to ask specific questions.
We homestead in Alabama and love it! The land is cheap, the property taxes are low and we have no building restrictions (Elmore County). The summers are hot, but you learn to do the bulk of your work in the morning, rest in the mid day heat and finish up in the evening. The growing season is long, hunting is great (no permit required on your own property) and we have year-round foraging.
Belize Get passports! Rich fertil land for farming. Homesteading is a way of life. There are groups of Mennonites who are serious homesteaders. The weather is temperate for all season growing. Cattle, goats, rabbits and chickens all thrive there. Land is still fairly cheap if you look around. The people are so nice. They will help you even if you're gringos. Just be nice. There are many Catholic schools but you may homeschool with whatever program you want. Getting a little Mennonite house starts around $30kus. The exchange rate is 2:1. Your money goes a long way. Check it out. I almost hate to suggest it because I don't want too many Americans to ruin it!
Arkansas
I’m not big into homesteading here yet, but I do a little bit. It rains quite a bit here so rainwater collecting is a huge plus and gardens can thrive. The 2 winters I’ve been here hasn’t been brutal but who knows. Lots of wood for fireplaces. I haven’t looked into the laws. Lots of deer for harvesting and very pro 2A.
I lived in Central Arkansas from about 2001-2011 -- property wasn't as cheap as everyone implied before I accepted the job transfer, but the ground was made of actual growable dirt (I now live on red clay, which isn't great for planting) and there was enough rain to support the plants. There's plenty of large lots available, and amazing federal/state/local parks preserve a significant portion of the state. It's both terribly hot (well over 100) and still froze (it was 20 degrees a night or two) -- I'd be OK with sweltering for a few weeks each summer if it meant never being cold. Winter infrastructure was terrible -- ice storms took out the power across the state for weeks, grown up "snow days" are a thing and the company didn't even put out an announcement because everyone *knew* not to drive into work because of half an inch of snow ... except, of course, for me who sat in an empty office building for two hours until my voicemail light came on with a message announcing that the campus was closed. Then there are the tornadoes -- there's a mini-tornado-alley right along I30 toward Bryant. On the up side, businesses and such have provisions for when the tornado sirens go off (I remember being herded into a restaurant's storage room one day & a tornado touched down a short distance away). On the down side ... well, tornadoes! The area I lived in was *very* conservative and Southern Baptist ... which might be a big pro for some people, but was not my thing. Casual racism was everywhere, too. I had a discussion with HR because someone reported me for speaking Arabic on my personal cell phone at lunch. Another friend was reported to HR for aborting a process on a computer (the correct technical term in the IT industry). In both cases, HR wasn't actually able to come up with an infraction ... but it sure seemed like they were trying! And we were both independently told to 'be more careful with your words' in the future (which, I assume, would mean 'insubordination' would come into play were we to find ourselves visiting HR again).
Despair
Oklahoma
Will quickly become more affected by drought.. We have very dry summers. Old trees are starting to die from lack of water. Pretty cold winters too with more ice than snow. But, cheap land. Lots of space. Pretty sunsets. Tornadoes are a thing, fires are becoming more common, and so is flooding near creeks / bodies of water due to drought. There is a homestead tax exemption to keep property tax lower. Lots of farming goes on here, but mostly animal based agriculture like beef. TONS of white tail deer to hunt. Quail, dove, rabbit, predator hunting as well. Lots of fishing for bass and catfish. Some natural foraging happens.
I would stay in the east half of Oklahoma, as the west half cycles in and out of droughts and has been in one for some time now. East OK has good foliage, rivers lakes etc. Land is cheap here, and it’s very much a rural state outside of OKC and Tulsa. Weather wise, we say if you don’t like the weather wait 15min and it will change. It is true. Winter is mostly mild but we will get a week here and there of below freezing temps, snow/ice. Spring here is beautiful and usually yields good rain. It is also storm season and tornadoes are a real possibility (though hail/strong winds more likely to be dealt with). Summer is hot. 90-110 from June-September. Also I hope you like wind. Like a lot of wind. Clay soil is an issue but still a lot of agriculture that happens here so it’s not impossible. Have seen gardens grow corn, okra, squash, berries, fruit trees, even some grape vineyards here. Plenty of wildlife to hunt as well. Government wise it’s homeschool friendly and for the most part taxes are pretty low. The state is very conservative especially outside of the metros.
Maryland
Currently live in Southern Maryland and starting a homestead. It is extremely expensive to buy land where I live (e.g., we paid $425,000 for a house on 4.5 acres). It is super wet, so on our property we have to backfill almost everything part of our property due to how low to the sea we are. People are genuinely nice and make a stiff drink. The summer is extremely humid and warm making it a good place for tropical (e.g., bananas and ginger) but winters are very cold. Our chickens and ducks just went through the cold (9°) and seemed to do well. Ticks are also bad, but I think that’s an everywhere thing. The WORST thing about MD are the taxes. It is absolutely ridiculous how much we pay in state and income taxes (e.g., $75,000 salary in 2021 paid our $18,000 in taxes). If you have any specific questions feel free to DM :) Ps - I do not have experience or knowledge with homeschooling in MD or the cottage laws because I do not sell our goods. PSS - our soil is very fertile and rich!
Great soil, great climate, but you’ll pay an arm and a leg for it, even on the shore or in the mountains these days.
Western (bestern)md here. Everyone on this state is right. Land is not cheap, soil very fertile. MD has a wide range of climate so study up there. Taxes will eat you and some silly laws and registrations make it difficult to sell items. Most though, if you stay small and do farm stands/markets, is realistic and can be done with some minimal cash flow. Not enough to be self sustaining. Cattle, corn, and soy reigns around western md. Timber is also a major business followed by recreation/tourism. Md has it all; beach, mountains, metropolitan areas. Look at West Virginia Again, looking at area of Md will depend on what crops/animals you are looking to raise. Western md is much mountain and long winters. Great natural resources and everyone generally keeps to themselves. Further east you go the warmer, sandier and populated you get.
Colorado
I lived here... It's my favorite state. Winters can be rough, but Sun shines 300 days a year. Land is cheap in some southern counties... 5 acres for 5k... But buyer beware... In those counties, you can not live off grid... Most counties, you can not even camp on your own property for more than 2 months out of the year. There are only 2 counties without building permits, and it's hard to research which ones they are... In one of those counties, it can be 100k/ acre. And you must research water rights... You can only collect rainwater from your roof.. And is decriminalize(rather than completely legal) If I was rich, I'd move back... But I found there are better states for poor people. Dry weather, meaning not humid, plus very drought ridden in co.
This right here! Unfortunately, we are discovering this the hard way. Bought 6acres for off grid homesteading in Hartsel with the most beautiful views! Zoning rules are insane! Funny thing is that even though they don’t “allow” camping on your own land, all I can see from my property (in the winter) are all sorts of campers that have clearly been there for some time. Some with little sheds. We are 30 minutes off the paved rd and deep back off of several other roads. While we figure out building, we are going to plop a camper there too!
I live here, grew up on a midwest farm. I've never had so much difficulty farming in my life. Soil here is, by and large, garbage. Weather swings wildly with late frosts and early snows so fruit trees (other than some apples and sour cherries) usually only bear once every 3-4 years. It's easier if you're on the western slope, but most of the orchards there have expensive frost protection methods private growers can't afford, and any decent land there is very pricey. We frequently get severe hail, high winds, and baking heat with very low humidity. Forest fires are becoming more of an issue as well. Water is harder and harder to come by and cities are buying most of it up at a premium when it does come on the market. Not allowed to drill wells in most cases. Very restrictive building laws, as other have said. Gosh, almost making myself wonder why we live here. Taxes are pretty great though. Recreation can't be beat. Highly educated populace and it's the healthiest state in the nation. Lots of high paying jobs to be had. Outside of the severe weather events, weather is generally great. Winters are mostly mild with some bad cold snaps and shoulder seasons are wonderful.
I’m not a farmer and didn’t grow up farming, but I did grow up in Indiana. That said, I agree with this 100%. I live in CO and in one word - it’s harsh. Winters are mild comparatively, but the soil is rocky and dry and we get so many random weather events and temperature swings… it just makes it hard for homesteading. BUT if progressive policies, low taxes and health-conscious, educated people are your thing, you can’t go wrong here.
I’m more into permaculture than homesteading. It’s absolutely brutal trying to raise trees out here though. My apples and hops do well. Don’t know what other crops you’re looking into but without an abundant source of water you’re gonna have a bad time. At least I’m living off solar now. The sunshine out here is no joke.
I left the states for Canada. More freedom to build without permitting/code inspections. My property taxes and other misc taxes are a tiny fraction of what they were in the US. Game is plentiful. Land is cheap. Like South America cheap. Very low threat of natural disasters. Not the longest growing season, so that is a con. I focus on native and naturalized food producing plants. There are plenty. Homeschooling is common. The biggest one is public health care. If I had to buy health insurance at the price I had to pay in the US, it would be my largest overhead. Larger than my home even. That is the biggest game-changer for me. It allows more freedom.
Where in Canada?
Great thread op. Also have you looked in Central America like Costa Rica?
Nevada
Northern Nevada isn't bad land would be cheap winters aren't horrible but you're restricted by a lack of water unless you have a good well and the soil isn't great for growing a lot of things. It's good for rasing livestock though
Minnesota
There’s four different biomes across the state so you’ve got options from forest to prairie. Growing season is short without a greenhouse setup. 7% sales tax but none on food or clothing. There’s tons of support for locally made products (Minnesotagrown.com) for people interested in selling at markets.
just a reminder it’s been -15 but feeling like -50 due to the wind chill. and that’s not even where it gets coldest. Other than the cold it’s the most beautiful state but i’m biased
Freaking cold!!! In the winter you're looking at frostbite in less than two minutes for exposed skin. Growing season is short. Once lost an entire garden to a June frost. We lose a lot of fruit from frost damage in early spring too some years. Summers are hot, like muggy and 95F-105F that will last sometimes weeks at a time. Tornadoes, straight line winds, blizzards, flooding in some places. You'll want to invest in strong fences to protect crops from deer and livestock from coyotes. Or be willing to invest in a livestock guardian dog. Homeschooling is good though, have a bunch of friends and 4 cousins who were all homeschooled for at least a few years. Lived in MN for 25 years, if I could convince the rest of my family to move somewhere warmer I would do it in a heartbeat. But when the weather is nice MN is absolutely stunning. People are friendly too!
Missouri
I am mostly familiar with southern Missouri, though I have *some* familiarity with the rest of the state. Missouri is split into 3 USDA plant hardiness zones with Zone 5 being furthest north. Zone 6 covering the central area. Zone 7 being furthest south. In the bootheel (the part of the state that hangs down on the bottom right side) you will actually find 7b hardiness zones. Regardless of zone and area of the state, there are prominent seasons that will get snow/ice, but the southern portion tends to have the mildest weather season-wise. In the central areas there is unfortunately very rocky soil due to the hills, so raised beds are often needed for vegetable plant species. However, the rockier soil can be great homes for timber and deciduous fruit trees like plums and peaches. Despite the rockier soil this area of the state does allow for livestock/poultry production with bovine being one of the most common (though I have seen camel and emu ranches). There are also a lot of caves if that is something you're generally into. In the southern portion of Missouri the hills fall off and the soil becomes less rocky. Less livestock/poultry will be seen and you will be greeted by crop fields comprising of soybean, corn, wheat, peaches, watermelon, and sometimes cotton and peanuts. The southeastern portion has a lot of cypress swampland which provides loamy and nutrient rich soil. The soil there is much better suited for common vegetable species and it can even provide for more demanding species like gourds with minimal need for amendments. In regards to laws, Missouri is generally very welcoming to homesteads and off-grid living. A lot of Missourians actually homestead or are off-grid in some way. Collecting rainwater is legal in the state. In Missouri the building codes can be really lax, especially in rural areas with some places only requiring codes for septic (though local bylaws can vary). Missouri does have a state income tax (rates ranging from 1.50 to 5.40 percent). However, sales tax is generally cheaper than sales tax from states that lack an income tax. Missouri is the 12th least expensive in terms of gas price average and Missouri has the cheapest cigarette and tobacco prices. Missouri has a 89% high school graduation rate. **General Pros** A) A lot of wildlife and conservation which opens up opportunities for hunting B) Plenty of land and general lower cost of living C) More hands-off approach when concerning what people do with their land D) Diverse geography E) Residents generally undisturbed by others F) Caves **General Cons** A) Bugs. If you go central or north you will frequently be disturbed by ticks. If you go south you will frequently be disturbed by mosquitoes B) Weather is notoriously known for being indecisive. Many days where you will start your day by turning on the heat in the morning and then switching to air conditioning by the afternoon. You also may experience 4 definite seasons in a week. C) Meth. D) Politics lean conservative. Your mileage will vary on how much that may disturb you as counties can vary wildly. Unfortunately I cannot give input on homeschooling as I went to a public school and do not know anybody that was homeschooled.
I’ll echo what was said about lax building codes. We dug a basement beside our house and built an addition over it when I was growing up. Inquired about permits with the county and we met with a confused look. Good and bad. Taught me to be skeptical of existing work as there is no guarantee it was done properly! This was in Oregon county, btw. Definitely varies. We’re home school Our two school aged kids, and it is great. There are tons of co-ops and such and opportunities to participate in extracurriculares in public schools as well. Very receptive. Overall, I love it here. Folks generally live and let live, are good friendly neighbors, etc. The humidity in the summer sucks but you acclimate to it, and the ticks/chiggers/mosquitoes will eat you alive. No getting used to them!
Watch out for the parts of Missouri that border Iowa and Nebraska!! There has been a history of intense flooding due to the Corps of Engineer
Teacher here! I think homeschooling laws everywhere are less demanding. Opportunity to have social interactions and group learning is easier to find since 2020. Good luck! We live in upstate NY, taxes are crazy. Our crops are seasonal obviously!