60+ year old thread.

What part of Siberia do you live in?

A friend moved to Duluth, MN. Cheap housing but paid for it in heating oil. He bought a duplex, rented the other side to cover taxes and upkeep. I'm pretty happy where I lived (my first place out of college was a converted chicken coop. 16' x 20' with kitchen and bathroom. The door frame was 5'6"; the ceiling was 6' and I'm 6'3". It was cheap. I lived there and saved money like crazy ($250 a month vs. $1500 apartment).

I'm still working (great medical insurance), but we need to get out of the area with our property tax bill. Kids are here (Three in the Area, one moved to San Diego).

 

LOL... A hundred sixty miles from Moab on I-70 west. I lived in Minnesota a long time ago and had great fun building forts in the six foot drifts... but that's not for me anymore. It'll be fifty today or more and in the ten years we've been here the most snow I've seen on the ground is about a foot. The only downside is the Mormon influence, but the more normal people that move here the better it is.

 

If you like high taxes, high cost of living and astronomical housing prices then California is the state for you. In 1975, in my late 20’s I bought my first house in Fremont,California.
3 bedroom, 2 bath rancher at the end of a court, 1200 sq. Ft. I paid 36,000. I found out that same old house sold for $1,000,000+ 2 years ago. We had our current home built 8 years ago and it is now worth a little more than twice what we paid.
When we sold our prior home we had 8 offers in 2 days all over asking price. We took the highest cash offer.
As far as taxes we’ve used a CPA for 15 years. Our taxes are kind of complex especially with our investment portfolio. It only costs a couple hundred a year and I feel confident that the taxes are being done correctly and no worries should we be audited.
Travir - sounds like you live in Utah. We really like everything about Utah. We have good friends who moved from California to Dammeron Valley in southern Ut. Beautiful area. We’re heading there in 2 weeks to visit. Love that area. The main problem with Utah especially S. Ut. Is there are thousands of people moving to that area and they don’t have the water to support the population. And it will get worse as more move there. In fact St. George Ut. is or was the fastest growing area in the US. There are more that 10000 new homes planned to be built in that area.

 

Yeah, the water issues will hit the fan someday and I'm actually surprised they haven't already. Lake Mead is a hundred feet lower than it was twenty years ago, and Powell is drying up too. Las Vegas has been trying to buy up every drop of water in the west desert. Central Utah has more water as long as there is a snow pack in the mountains, but that fluctuates quite a bit at times. It's all a crap shoot no matter where you choose to live now.

 

I had to google Dammeron Valley. That's some remote stuff out there, I would think. West Utah is pretty empty.

 

The last time I was in SLC, I was impressed with the number of brewpubs. That was in 2018. Before that, having a beer with dinner was impossible.

Pretty countryside. My biggest challenge is my health. I have a great medical team, but things keep going south. I bounce back, keep working out, and giving it my best. When I lived in Germany, I loved cross-country skiing. I can not tolerate cold weather, so I prefer Texas. I'll head north for summertime camping.

It's funny; we are on a well. This last time with no power and using up our 5-gallon jugs just to flush a toilet, you really start to think of water conservation. Our well water is 1800 ppm salt, very hard on the kidneys. So bottled water is delivered in 5-gallon jugs. We had five dogs and two people, so about 15 gallons of drinking water a week. Down to three dogs but still vary 10 to 12 gallons a week. Reserve is always 25 gallons, but when you need 2.5 gallons to flush, that goes fast (we used two toilets, one flush a day). His and Hers.

Weight and Balance. Too many years of flying. So well aware of how easy it is to eat up a 955-pound payload in the truck. The rubber mat for the truck arrived (maybe 40 pounds? need to weigh). Aluminum RCI skid plate on order (mainly to keep meth heads away from the cat). 68 pounds? 840 payload off. Suppose both dogs go with me camping, down to under 500 pounds. All adds up quickly. I have silly running boards (26 pounds) but would like to add real 120 wall DOM sliders. Typically matching, I'd go up 50% and fab something in aluminum for about the same strength but save 50% of the weight. Sliders are cheap insurance for off-roading to prevent crushing a rocker panel and having a door no longer fit. DCLB already has a long wheelbase, so sliders make a little more sense.

Getting late, need lunch, and get in a 45-minute walk. Too much dopamine, and boy, I get verbose. Too little; I don't move.

 

Actually it’s only about 15 miles from st George. Friends have horses so they needed some land

 

Afternoon all:

 

It's kind of funny... SLC is an oasis inside the vast desert of alcohol free zones in Utah. We just had a bar reopen here in Salina after being closed for a couple of years. We have one open in Richfield up the road. In the early 1900s there were almost thirty bars in Salina, and several cat houses. Mormons were once normal people.

 

Funny Salt Lake story. I believe it was in the 80’s a friend and I were driving to Montana for a backpacking and trout fishing trip. We stopped in SLC to spend the night. We went out to a nice steak house for dinner. When ever it was it was just after they had allowed alcohol to be sold in restaurants. My friend and I each ordered a Jack Daniels over ice. As we found out they clearly had no idea what they were doing pouring drinks. When they brought us the JD the drinks were in water glasses , big water glasses. A few pieces of ice and filled the rest of the way to the top with JD. I’d estimate it was the equivalent of about 10 drinks. We just sat and stared at these giant drinks. As I recall they were under $4 each. We finished about half (we didn’t want to drink any more) when the waitress asked us if we wanted another. We looked at her and then at each other and fell out in uncontrollable laughter. She thought we were nuts. The following year we stopped at the same place.The drinks were double the price and we got maybe one shot in the glass.

 

Found it Sir

Hope all the cool old dudes (and Susan ) here are well.

 

All this talk about property values...try buying a house in my neighborhood.

 

Nope.

 

Gentlemen

 

LOL, that's funny...Yeah, Utah has some pretty interesting laws and foibles due to the church having political control, even with roughly half the population not members. Last year there was a big flap about the "Zion curtain" law where they didn't want children to be able to see alcohol being poured. People with expensive bottles of wine couldn't have them opened at the table but they were still charged for "corkage". And then there are the required signs that say, "This is a bar, and we serve food." or "This is a restaurant and we serve alcohol."

 

Hey, milk is only about $6/gal.

 

Hmmm...seems reasonable.

 

Evening all:
About time you got back to us MQQSE, how's it going and miss your posts.

Recently saw an article about real estate in the Poconos of Pa, it stated that on average they had 30 homes listed in the one big development, now it's down to maybe 3. Also mentioned that prices are at a premium, and people are willing to pay the premium and even more, definitely a sellers market.

 

Doing well Carl, thank you. Hope likewise you and yours.
I'll be back around; between mid-shifts and need some sleep.

 

It's about time you showed up! Hope all is well!