Looking for a place (probably up state) in PA to get 40+ acres.

We need 1400sq.ft not including a basement, we need a 2 or 3 car garage. We would PREFER DSL or "Cable" internet but satalite works (I work from home but can get T1 if needed).

We would prefer a clearing around the house of 2-3 acres, and usable flat for goats/chickens.

We are looking to spend 250k or less.

House can be 'old' as long as it's been re-done.

Can anyone suggest any Cities ?

Well, and propane preferred / expected. A pond would be a huge plus and/or a creek.

Within 35 minutes drive to a town/city with a decent population / movie theater

Well...
40 Acres @ 250K is extremely limiting. It means you're going to be in the middle of nowhere. I mean nowhere. No interstate, no trains, no surviving towns. No gas stations. So your costs to manage the property will be high. Your access to health care will be minimal. Your ability to have a network of people who can help you will be limited. Think about what $7.00 a gallon gas will mean when you want to go to town for something - think about what it means if you have to work the land with a tractor or ATV.

I live in PA.
With the exception of the Internet connectivity, you're might be able to get stuff like that in the center-north counties. These areas are still very rural.

http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/counties/county.asp?secid=31

I live in Bucks County, and we're up in the north end here, maybe 100 square miles of of rural land surrounded by heavily built up areas and we STILL can't get Cable Internet, just DSL or wireless broadband from AT&T or Verizon (no Sprint Coverage here at all).

When you're in a rural area, if you want a T1 line, expect to pay anywhere from $1,800 to $2,500 a month for service IF you can get it. I've looked into this here in Bucks County - $1,875 a month for a T1 line.

In my experience, there's no or limited cell service in much of north-central PA. (Elk, Tioga and those areas).

Thus, Satellite Internet is your only option if you want more than bad dialup. We have no national broadband network that reaches all of the US. The Rural areas are ignored.

That said:
56 Acres with a home: http://www.stevensrealtors.com/listings/fisher.htm $389K

21 Acres with a Trailer http://www.stevensrealtors.com/listings/arigo.htm
$189,900

http://www.connollyrealestate.com/camps-cabins-cottages.htm
Tioga Co. – Ward Twp. #815
48.81+/- mostly wooded acres. Large cabin shell with full basement (4420 sq. ft.). Perc approved. Electric on site. Borders Pa. State Forest Land. Just 15 minutes from Rt. 15 off of Old Possessions Rd. SALE PRICE: $219,500.


Lots of land listings:
http://www.connollyrealestate.com/land.htm

Thanks for the great information. We have relatives near Lancaster and plan to talk to them soon and get some ideas/suggestions.

That sounds a little to rural then, I guess we may have to step it down to 5-10 acres but near town and in that price. From what I've seen this should be possible for almost any place except BIG cities.

I want to be able to shoot, and have at least a 1 or 2 acre wooded area.

Thanks again.

(Tioga Coutny is def. the cheapest and has the most land available but like you said it looks like a house can be had out there in the middle of NO WHERE.)

-Todd

I've found MANY pieces with 50-60 acres for under 250k but they are VERY VERY RURAL, and I am not sure if the areas are nice... that's why I made the post

As far as cost where you are.. it's the same where I live now. (Sacramento Area of CA) If I want 5acres for 200k I have to live 2 hours from the nearest grocery store and rely on generator for power. If I want 50+ acres the land alone is over 1+mill. We have been looking at/around 5 acres here for 350k w/junkers or 'modulars' but as I said they are junkers and cost a bunch. This leaves us no 'room' for extra/fun/expansion money and just not happy.

We are now thinking about finding a place for ~200-250k in the 5-15 acre range in PA and putting 20% down and having a lot of extra $ to do 'fun' stuff. Since I work on the PC my income level will not change. This price and land size also gives us more options on counties.

I also thought about getting maybe a 150k or 200k house with <1acre and then getting 50 acres or so an hour or two away for ~100k. BUT in the end I would get more use and it would cost less in fuel/overall if we had a medium size for ourselves to live on too.

So many choices in life to make right now!

I'm origianlly from just outside of Wilkes-Barre PA myself... There used to be some beautiful pieces of property in the Bear Creek area / Pocono's.

If you post the locations of some of these places you are looking at, us "locals" can give a thumbs up or down.

Let me go one further with this.

Many of these dreams of 40 Acres and a Broadband connection are quickly tempered by the harsh reality that the USA does not have a functioning broadband infrastructure. Depending on which study you read, the USA is anywhere from 13th to 25th place in the world when it comes to the deployment of broadband connectivity. And falling.

Rural areas are not just under-served by broadband, they are, more often than not, not served at all.

Satellite "broadband" is, for the most part, barely tolerable, and for many broadband applications, like video conferencing and gaming, utterly useless.

On the one hand, you can argue that not having a broadband connection is not that big a deal. On the other hand, there's a number of things that you simply CAN'T do without an internet connection. For example, the full set of instructions for how to renew a passport is only online. The only way to buy airline tickets without a "transaction fee" is online. The only way to manage a Netflix account is online. There are hundreds of other examples, big and small, but the point is there's a reason rural America is dying at a rate never seen before.

It's not just gas prices, it's not just the collapse of manufacturing. It's the lack of a telecommunications infrastructure that can support alternatives to the classic rural industries.

So, back to your vision of being a "PC Guy" working your 40 acres. Think long and hard about this, and realize that until you can see hard-wired fast internet where you want to be, your economic opportunities are potentially very limited.

martinfocazio- Very well put. I would require some type of Internet. My existing job goes where I go so luckily I don't have to acquire another job if/when we move. BUT, Internet is a must.

So, it looks like 5-10 acres near a larger township will be what I should shoot for in terms of cost and size. Luckily in PA this has a whole different meaning than us in CA in terms of large.

Then I guess the questions I should be asking.

What counties have high speed Internet access and affordable land?

DSL or higher? Lots of places have DSL.

FIOS is in Chester and Deleware County... Not sure where else it has gotten to.

Lots of places in PA have a decent lot of land that border on state game lands, so you sort of have the land you are talking about.

Mike - I would be fine with 256kbps/256kbps it's far from my 16mb/3mb I have now but it would work. I`m a programmer and website developer so while I have to upload images for websites sometimes the majority is text based code. DSL, Cable Internet I'd prefer to stay away from sat. unless I get lots of land

I believe both counties you listed are VERY EXPENSIVE to live in.

Bordering State land or National forest (if different) would be awesome!

Thanks
-Todd

I'm following this thread with interest as my employer is planning on moving our office from Bethlehem to halfway to Philadelphia, more than doubling my commute from Joisey.

In about a year I'm gonna need a new home, a new job, or both.

I think that you need to have a look at www.dslreports.com and you'll see the 1:1 Correlation between "Cheap Land" and "No Broadband"

For example, this map: http://www.dslreports.com/coinfo shows you a nice national map of telephone companies with DSL capable central offices. The red dots are places where DSL isn't offered at the Central Office. Just because DSL is at a central office, it does not mean there's DSL at a particular home served by the Central Office.

Now look at this map of home prices in the USA:

http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/ Select "Median Sale Price"

Interesting, right?

Yeah, those counties are very expensive... I know Luzurne has DSL as that is where my family lives... Lots of land up there near game land. No FIOS yet from what I'm aware of... They probably have cable tho...

I'm a programmer myself and I currently have 15/2 FIOS. I couldn't live without high speed broadband.

The more you get rural tho, the less likely you'll get good broadband.

My suggestion, call Verizon to find out coverage areas and planned installs for PA.

Thanks, time to check out the maps and info

Your running into the same basic problem as everyone else, the furthur out you get the cheaper the land but get less services. It costs lots of $ to run that wire so when your the only one for miles its not cost effective. My parents paid as much to run power to their house as they did to build theit house in the mid 70's and they get a nice 32k dial up connection if its sunny out, if its rained and water has gotten in their phone lines they get a 24k dial up or no phone at all.

I was going to suggest Tioga or Potter Counties. I have relatives there, I live close (1.5 hours away)to there and it is a great area.

Do they have dial-up? How much snow do they get, is it plowed or more DIY up there?
Nearest supermarket >1hr ?

Any info would be appreciated.
-Todd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_County,_Pennsylvania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tioga_County%2C_Pennsylvania

Todd, I'm going to put this as gently as possible...you don't sound at all like you really "get" what low-cost living is all about. Don't get me wrong, that's not a critical statement, it just is obvious from your posts that you have a vision of a type of arrangement which is, quite frankly, not realistic in the USA.

There's something I call the "1 Acre Rule" when it comes to buying realestate. For each acre of land you have, you have to be 20 miles further from a major urban center for it to be affordable (as in under 250K). I have 4 acres and I'm about 80 miles from New York and Philadelphia. If you want to be in closer with a lot of land, you start multiplying by a factor of 5, for every acre, with every 20 miles.

For example, here's a property in the suburbs of New York City - it's vacant land only, 3.66 acres, land only, no house.

$3,699,000 (that's Three Million Six Hundred Ninety Nine Thousand Dollars).

http://www.prudentialelliman.com/Listing...i&Region=LI

Head out a little ways into NJ, about 1.5 hours from NYC, you get a rancher at 799,000 but it's only 2.61 acres.

Come over to my neck of the woods, and prices drop a bit. Now you're 2 to 3 hours from a city, 40 minutes to a grocery store. They plow, but there's no water, sewer or gas, and broadband access is limited - I can get it, just down the road they can't.
You could look at this place which is right down the road from me, but on only 2.26 acres, and $595,000.

It's not until you start going out deep - way deep - that you start seeing stuff under $250K.

Country living also means that you might not get plowed out. We have decent road services, and we've still been snowed in for a few days. It means that you might not have power for a few days. It means that animals will rummage through your trash, eat your garden and knock your fences down. It means you'll need to learn how to use a gun safely, since there's usually no police around. It means volunteer fire and ambulance services, which are slower than paid responders and sometimes they can't come at all (I know this, because I'm a volunteer firefigher).

Just think it though, that's all.

Martin,

You are making me miss home in Bear Creek, just outside of W-B.

I was a volunteer firefighter up there. Mind you, we weren't way out in nowhere, being pretty much right off of Rt 115. My mom is still living there on 4 acres of land. Pretty reasonable price that it was evaluated at. DSL only. Maybe cable broadband would be available...

Mike

If you want land move to Texas. The following properties are within 90 minutes of downtown Houston. Some are within 40 minutes.

County = Montgomery
Type = Acreage
Acres = 15.00
Price = $59,000
Description = 15 ACRES OF TIMBERLAND IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY. HEAVILY WOODED WITH PINE AND HARDWOOD. OUT OF FLOOD PLAIN EXCEPT SMALL PART. WILL SELL FOR $49,900, WITH 10% DOWN AND UP TO 20 YEAR FINANCING. WE DO NOT HAVE ANY OIL AND GAS MINERALS TO CONVEY, BUT WILL CONVEY ALL HARD MINERALS SUCH AS COAL, LIGNITE, SAND, GRAVEL, IRON ORE, ETC. THE OIL AND GAS IS RESERVED SO THAT THERE CAN NEVER BE ANY DRILLING ON THE LAND WITHOUT THE AUTHORIZATION OF THE SURFACE OWNER. THIS IS A COMPANY LIQUIDATION AND THE LAND IS PRICED BELOW THE MARKET TO SELL QUICKLY. THE CHEAPEST LAND FOR SALE TO OUR KNOWLEDGE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY. WE ARE SELLING "AS IS---WHERE IS" IN ORDER TO CLOSE OUT THIS COMPANY.
Get more property details by clicking here:
www.landsofamerica.com/america/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=106618


County = Leon
Type = Acreage
Acres = 20.00
Price = $65,860
Description = $3,450 an acre or $65,860 for the 19+ acres.Pasture and woods with a creek.
Get more property details by clicking here:
www.landsofamerica.com/america/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=89558


County = Leon
Type = Acreage
Acres = 15.00
Price = $51,919
Description = Recreational/Residential Lakeview - close to lake. This 14.834 acre tract is perfect for recreational or residental use with small pond,great hunting and near Lake Limestone. Property has a small pole barn with covered patio and small storage facility.
Get more property details by clicking here:
www.landsofamerica.com/america/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=126272


County = Leon
Type = Acreage
Acres = 12.11
Price = $45,000
Description = 12.11 heavily wooded acres on CR 407, only 3 miles from Normangee and 8 miles from I-45, great for hunting/recreation, $45,000.
Get more property details by clicking here:
www.landsofamerica.com/america/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=101420


County = Leon
Type = Acreage
Acres = 6.85
Price = $44,500
Description = 6.85 acres of mostly woods with scattered openings. This place has water and electricity already on it. This land is on a county road and has a beautiful live creek at the back of it. Located in Buffalo ISD. Great for a homesite or weekend getaway. $49,500, terms available. REDUCED TO $44,500.
Get more property details by clicking here:
www.landsofamerica.com/america/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=126453


County = Walker
Type = Acreage
Acres = 10.00
Price = $44,950
Description = Great home site or great getaway for play. Good hunting and fishing 10 minutes from Trinity River. 85% wooded. Come see!
Get more property details by clicking here:
www.landsofamerica.com/america/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=154193


County = Walker
Type = Acreage
Acres = 14.68
Price = $46,976
Description = Great get-away for hunting but close to Houston area. Beautiful trees and creek on property.
Get more property details by clicking here:
www.landsofamerica.com/america/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=156256

-Blast

ToddW,

You could also check out Northern Maine (Aroostook County) for some opportunities for large parcels of land. I was stationed up there in the '80s and loved it. Go to http://www.mainerec.com/realty.asp?Category=6&PageNum=6 for a list of the realty companies. It is a little out of the way. However, since the state university system has several campuses you may have access to satisfactory Internet since they need to be supported in the tech-age.

There is ample bear, deer, moose, grouse, rabbit, and fish to be had up there....


Standard disclaimer.....

Good prices. But, it's in TakesAss

Found my dream home in Eastern PA. Only a few acres but look what's in the back yard!

Only problem is my wife is not crazy about living in the woods. On top of a hill with wide open fields for miles is ok with her, though.

Sorry, picture a bit blurred. What's in the backyard?

A big honkin' mountain. Part of the Kittatinnies, which is what passes for a mountain around here anyway. The Appalachian Trail passes by about 1/2 mile beyond the ridge.

Very nice!

That would be a cool spot for sure