Relocating to lower COL in TX, OK, KS, AR, MO, NM, CO. Where to look?

[summer_time]

We want to relocate to a small city or a town, no more than 100,000 people. In our dream world, we would eventually be able to buy a modest home for 80k (or 2x a teacher's salary), there would be some fellow crunchies, maybe a UU church, access to good food, decent public schools, a university within an hour's drive, 4 seasons, and an overall sense of community. We need to stay within a day's drive to see extended family, so we are looking in TX, OK, KS, AR, MO, NM, and maybe CO.

A little background:

I SAH (former teacher), my DH is a teacher. We live in a HCOL area and just sold our home and started renting again so I could continue to SAH. As of today we are debt free. and we will have a few thousand in savings to cover moving. We have to get out of this city over the next summer. I will SAH for the next 3-4 years, then return to teaching full time. I want to be able to live off of DH salary comfortably and when the time comes for me to work, put my all of my salary towards saving for a house so we can buy outright and live mortgage free. We live frugally and now that we don't have a mortgage that is half of our net pay, we have money to put into savings and we plan on keeping it that way!

[KatWrangler]

You might want to look at Lawrence, KS (we just moved from there). Thats where Kansas University is (Jayhawks). Housing will be higher in the city itself, but you could look at outlying areas. Kansas City is 48 miles away.

Lawrence is a nice area. Eventhough KS is a Red state, Lawrence and Douglas County is overwhelming Democrat (which another thing we liked about it )

http://www.ci.lawrence.ks.us/

http://www2.ljworld.com/

They have a UU church.

http://www.uufl.net/

[SunshineJ]

Missouri is a nice state overall, it really is. The people tend to be nice - as in wave to strangers on the street, even in downtown KC. Job market really stinks there right now. There are some neat little outlying areas there. If you go north of the river to the Liberty area it gets pretty pricey. To the east you run into places like Oak Grove, which is actually just a nice little small town. The only problem is that I never saw a lot in the way of crunchy, especially in the smaller communities.

[cymbeline]

Marfa, Texas!!!! That is all.

[summer_time]

We definitely are interested in KS and MO. The change in climate is exciting for us. Our car doesn't have a/c

Marfa seems so cool, but man it is isolated. I wish it were a little closer to something!

[jeca]

Co's not that low in the COL area.

[goldfishkate]

We live in a small subburb of Kansas City on the KS side and love it. I'm a sahm and we live on my dh's modest salary and own our own home. We live in a great school district and our home was in the low 100's althought it's only a 2 bedroom. Kansas city is a big city, but still very friendly with lots of attractions and several UU churches. Lawerence is a really funky, artsy, college town and it's only 45 minutes from KC. I used to have a lot of family out near Manhattan and it was a nice area, very small and rule once upon a time. Not sure if it's changed. It's about 2 1/2 hours from KC and also a college town. I'm not a fan of Wichita. If you're interested in staying closer to a big city like KC there are also some nice rule outter areas like Bonner Springs and Gardener that are close but not too close and still developed with shopping, fast food, etc. Then there's the MO side that someone else mentioned. Like anywhere else you can find homes as cheap as low 100's (or cheaper if you're willing to live in a lesser area) to over 400's. My il's bought a home in a rule area of Kansas City Kansas and paid $90K for a large 3 bedroom home with 3 acers. I would also suggest looking into Minnesota.
BTW- your car will need AC or you'll be suffering all summer.

[Dar]

I second Lawrence! We loved it there... there's also a great community arts center, and the Merc, which is overpriced but nice to have in town. There's also an Aldi, and Checker Foods is an awesome regular grocery store.

[summer_time]

ooOOoo Lawrence looks really nice. I'll have to check out the teaching salaries. Having KU around for graduate school would be great.

We have survived the past 2 summers (something like 66 in a row over 100 degrees this year) so summers in the 90's are an improvement! And in winter, we would have to button our coats. Wow!

[liberal_chick]

Look in the area around Fayetteville, AR. It is up in the Ozark Mountains so they have more distinct seasons than most of the rest of the state. Fayeteville houses the UofA and has a chapter of ICAN (the only in the state) and some crunchy playgroups.

It is bordered by many smaller towns that vary in size, but most are w/i your hour requirement. And Fayetteville is up in the corner of the state, so it borders both OK and MO.

[Monarchgrrl]

Columbia, MO. That's where I grew up. It has everything you mentioned. It's a great place to raise kids.

I also second Fayetteville, AR.

[november]

Originally Posted by summer_time

ooOOoo Lawrence looks really nice. I'll have to check out the teaching salaries. Having KU around for graduate school would be great.

We have survived the past 2 summers (something like 66 in a row over 100 degrees this year) so summers in the 90's are an improvement! And in winter, we would have to button our coats. Wow!

I live in SW Kansas and I assume Lawrence would be similar. Just want to make sure you know that it DOES get over 100 in the summer ... we have some beastly hot weather in KS sometimes. Granted, I am in the SW part of the state where we don't get any rain so it makes it dryyyy, hot heat. And in winter, it does get really, really cold. Some years there is a ton of ice and snow. We definitely get all four seasons -- the hot hot hot and the cold cold cold and everything in between.

But yeah -- the cost of living in Kansas is pretty affordable, I have to admit. Here, you would easily find a house for $80k with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Granted, it depends on what part of the state (and Lawrence is in the more populous part of the state).

[KatWrangler]

Originally Posted by november

I live in SW Kansas and I assume Lawrence would be similar. Just want to make sure you know that it DOES get over 100 in the summer ... we have some beastly hot weather in KS sometimes. Granted, I am in the SW part of the state where we don't get any rain so it makes it dryyyy, hot heat. And in winter, it does get really, really cold. Some years there is a ton of ice and snow. We definitely get all four seasons -- the hot hot hot and the cold cold cold and everything in between.

But yeah -- the cost of living in Kansas is pretty affordable, I have to admit. Here, you would easily find a house for $80k with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Granted, it depends on what part of the state (and Lawrence is in the more populous part of the state).

We lived in Wichita for 4 1/2 years. Lawrence temps aren't nearly as bad as Wichita was.

[SimplyRochelle]

Originally Posted by liberal_chick

Look in the area around Fayetteville, AR. It is up in the Ozark Mountains so they have more distinct seasons than most of the rest of the state. Fayeteville houses the UofA and has a chapter of ICAN (the only in the state) and some crunchy playgroups.

It is bordered by many smaller towns that vary in size, but most are w/i your hour requirement. And Fayetteville is up in the corner of the state, so it borders both OK and MO.

I would like to second this! I moved to the Bentonville/Rogers area which is about 20 miles north of Fayettveille and I absolutely love it. Much crunchier than most other places in the state.

[wavybrains]

I grew up in Southwest Missouri, and while I have no plans to leave Oregon anytime soon, I think it might have a lot of the characteristics you are looking for. Springfield, Missouri and Branson are the big hubs in that area, but there are a lot of charming small towns with nice character--Mount Vernon, Aurora, Lebanon, Republic, Carthage (one of my top picks). There are a lot of different teaching and education options within the one hour radius, and in addition to the colleges of Springfield, you also have Joplin with several offerings, and depending on where you live, Pittsburg Kansas (Pittsburg State University) is also an option. Pittsburg is also an awesome college town with very low COL. I think it's an undiscovered college town gem. I grew up in a small town of 7,000 people, and I can say that the teachers were among the top earners in our town and had among the nicest homes. Teachers are BELOVED in this area b/c so much of life revolves around the schools (which is both good and bad). My grandmother passed away last year, and her 3 bedroom, 2 bath, full basement, around 1 acre lot house sold for around 80k. In towns that don't have a UU, the United Methodist churches are often (in my experience) where the liberals hide in this area.

If fellow crunchies are what you need to be happy, the university towns and their outlying areas might be your best bet--it's a fairly "red" state once you are outside of St. Louis and K.C. The Columbia area is really nice--I went to school in Fulton which is right outside of it. There's a number of colleges all in that area. Kirksville, Missouri and Maryville, Missouri might be too far north for you, but they are both very nice little cities. Of course, if you need LOTS of crunchies, just come to Oregon like me

[summer_time]

Thanks for all of this excellent information!

[midwestmom]

Lawrence, KS would be a good fit, I bet. I lived there for 8 yrs and would move back in a heartbeat if I could talk DH into it. We are in KC now which is only about 30 min away.

[Rosebud1]

I feel I must add a cautionary word.... don't move anywhere, no matter how cheap, unless you have a job lined up and waiting for you. Particularly in this economy, where I read there are 6 people vying for each opening. Some areas with low COL and cheap houses are that way because there are no good jobs there.

[Treasuremapper]

Texas is really hot. REALLY hot.