The Venn map of robust internet and cheap housing? (US)
July 6, 2023 6:07 AM Subscribe
I'm in the semi-fortunate position of having a 100% remote job and just barely being able to purchase a house in the US. Looking at home prices, my housing options are in rural areas, yet to be able to continue working without annoying myself and my boss, I need to ensure I also have access to fast and reliable internet service. Is there a resource that comprehensively shows where robust internet (100-300 Mbps range) currently exists? (Any other resources for making this late-in-life, first-time home buyer's dream a reality are deeply appreciated).
What's your price range for "cheap housing"?
posted by jonathanhughes at 6:23 AM on July 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by jonathanhughes at 6:23 AM on July 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
You may want to consider the AscendWV program, which will provide you with $10,000 for moving to West Virginia, where housing is very cheap. Politics are, however, very red at the state level, if that's a concern.
posted by matkline at 6:39 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by matkline at 6:39 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
I believe the FCC's data about broadband availability is suspect, as they've been relying on the providers for years, and the providers are generally full of shit. I would approach this by creating a short list of cities you might move to, then checking each city individually for broadband availability.
posted by COD at 6:40 AM on July 6, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by COD at 6:40 AM on July 6, 2023 [6 favorites]
That map is cool but doesn't really help you figure out if a house a couple miles from town on a dirt road has fast internet. I live in a small city and I could get super fast internet if only I could move two blocks away. I think there are not any real shortcuts for figuring this out. My advice would be to check out places you'd consider living, find houses for sale that you could afford and then find out which companies provide internet, etc. And don't trust realtors for this kind of info.
posted by mareli at 7:01 AM on July 6, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by mareli at 7:01 AM on July 6, 2023 [9 favorites]
You are the prime example of the user base for Starlink.
posted by sammyo at 7:16 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 7:16 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: > (Any other resources for making this late-in-life, first-time home buyer's dream a reality are deeply appreciated).
If you're concerned about rainfall, wetbulb temperatures, wildfires, etc. in the 2040-2060 period, these maps and discussion from 2020 may be a useful starting point:
https://projects.propublica.org/climate-migration/ - New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States
In your position, I would certainly want some maps and analysis from 2023 before making decisions about buying property and moving into a community.
I'm not sure if this was an appropriate topic to bring up in this thread, nor how accurate that particular resource is.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:21 AM on July 6, 2023 [9 favorites]
If you're concerned about rainfall, wetbulb temperatures, wildfires, etc. in the 2040-2060 period, these maps and discussion from 2020 may be a useful starting point:
https://projects.propublica.org/climate-migration/ - New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States
In your position, I would certainly want some maps and analysis from 2023 before making decisions about buying property and moving into a community.
I'm not sure if this was an appropriate topic to bring up in this thread, nor how accurate that particular resource is.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:21 AM on July 6, 2023 [9 favorites]
Best answer: As the map shows, there's a lot of high speed in North Dakota and Minnesota rural areas -- the governments here have been extremely proactive about getting fiber out to every farmstead possible.
I have a house in rural MN, population 1200, where I could get multigigabit fiber internet service if I wanted to pay for it (I opted for less, still fiber, because all that's there is security cameras for now, but my plan is like yours: cheap small town living while working remote late in life).
Much of this expansion is motivated by the USDA Broadband eConnectivity program, who may have more information for you about rural living with high speed internet.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:29 AM on July 6, 2023 [6 favorites]
I have a house in rural MN, population 1200, where I could get multigigabit fiber internet service if I wanted to pay for it (I opted for less, still fiber, because all that's there is security cameras for now, but my plan is like yours: cheap small town living while working remote late in life).
Much of this expansion is motivated by the USDA Broadband eConnectivity program, who may have more information for you about rural living with high speed internet.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:29 AM on July 6, 2023 [6 favorites]
Most of rural Oregon and Washington has good internet for commercial reasons - data centers and crypto mining. IIRC the prices are reasonable tho because the local/ state government paid to put it in.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:40 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by fiercekitten at 7:40 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I think you'll need to at some point get to the address by address view. I recently did the same exercise and internet access was wildly different between one rural town vs the next. I think Zillow (?) has a filter for you to diagnose if a listing has high speed internet, but once you get to... Should I make an offer stages, you would want to check directly with internet provider that the address is supported at the speeds you want and/or make sure the owners provide a copy of their internet bill.
Weirdly enough, I found my town in western WA with high speed internet mostly bc I was surprised by the juxtaposition of really expensive mansions AND really inexpensive normal sized housing. The expensive mansions are supportable bc there is high speed internet, but the area has a lot of more affordable housing.
Alternative method is to go internet provider by internet. The one high speed local internet provider in my area serves 4 ish rural towns, so I narrowed my scope to looking at houses in just those towns.
The above doesn't help narrow down the US to anything more reasonable, but should help you narrow down within the same tract of a single state.
posted by ellerhodes at 8:13 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Weirdly enough, I found my town in western WA with high speed internet mostly bc I was surprised by the juxtaposition of really expensive mansions AND really inexpensive normal sized housing. The expensive mansions are supportable bc there is high speed internet, but the area has a lot of more affordable housing.
Alternative method is to go internet provider by internet. The one high speed local internet provider in my area serves 4 ish rural towns, so I narrowed my scope to looking at houses in just those towns.
The above doesn't help narrow down the US to anything more reasonable, but should help you narrow down within the same tract of a single state.
posted by ellerhodes at 8:13 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The search keywords that might help are something like "best states for digital nomads". You'll probably get a lot of blog articles of varying quality that these things that are applicable like cheap housing and internet - this one for example seems ok-ish, but I don't know where they got their data from.
Nomadlist might also be a good resource - it's typically used to find good countries to work from, balancing all the same concerns, but they also have a section on North American cities with good internet here.
posted by cgg at 8:25 AM on July 6, 2023
Nomadlist might also be a good resource - it's typically used to find good countries to work from, balancing all the same concerns, but they also have a section on North American cities with good internet here.
posted by cgg at 8:25 AM on July 6, 2023
Best answer: How cheap of a house are we talking here? Because I live in central(ish) NY state where houses are pretty cheap (though mind the property taxes, which vary wildly by location, and the flood zones) and have fiber internet (at this exact moment it's 250 mbps down/310 mbps up on their cheapest plan). It's still expanding in my area and not every neighborhood has it, but it's also available in 3 or so larger cities.
The politics here are pretty purple-red at the local level, but at the state level it's okay.
Unfortunately a lot of those "digital nomad" articles assume their readers are getting high-end San Francisco/Silicon Valley salaries and can just roll into anywhere with their chunks of cash, lolsob.
(I did actually look at data like the ProPublica map, and central/upstate NY is supposedly fairly well situated wrt climate change, if that's a consideration. There could be worse floods, so I gave generous buffers to the supposed maximums on NOAA maps, and more snow--or less, who knows!)
Anyway, good luck!
posted by wintersweet at 8:46 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
The politics here are pretty purple-red at the local level, but at the state level it's okay.
Unfortunately a lot of those "digital nomad" articles assume their readers are getting high-end San Francisco/Silicon Valley salaries and can just roll into anywhere with their chunks of cash, lolsob.
(I did actually look at data like the ProPublica map, and central/upstate NY is supposedly fairly well situated wrt climate change, if that's a consideration. There could be worse floods, so I gave generous buffers to the supposed maximums on NOAA maps, and more snow--or less, who knows!)
Anyway, good luck!
posted by wintersweet at 8:46 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
I keep hearing about Buffalo NY as a good place for cheap houses. It's pretty affordable in nearby Rochester, too.
Oregon and Washington are two of the most expensive states in the country for housing, and rural areas aren't necessarily a ton cheaper than urban areas.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:56 PM on July 6, 2023
Oregon and Washington are two of the most expensive states in the country for housing, and rural areas aren't necessarily a ton cheaper than urban areas.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:56 PM on July 6, 2023
One hint is to find housing near universities. They need the internet to function.
Some state universities have branches in towns that are more rural, but functional high speed internet at all times is not a guarantee.
posted by TrishaU at 3:09 PM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Some state universities have branches in towns that are more rural, but functional high speed internet at all times is not a guarantee.
posted by TrishaU at 3:09 PM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Off grid internet options are getting pretty good, so there are potentially options pretty much anywhere.
Starlink or Viasat satellite connections could potentially get you 100+Mbps with a few downsides (upstream is not great, Viasat has pretty high latency, and I do not know if there is an option to get something without a data cap), and are available pretty much anywhere.
A few cell providers offer home service now so anywhere with a solid 5G signal could get you something in the 300-1000 Mbps range, and even without a great signal spending a little on a fancy cell booster can extend your range a lot. I managed to work remotely in a spot with basically no service by putting an antenna high enough in a tree.
posted by St. Sorryass at 5:19 PM on July 6, 2023
Starlink or Viasat satellite connections could potentially get you 100+Mbps with a few downsides (upstream is not great, Viasat has pretty high latency, and I do not know if there is an option to get something without a data cap), and are available pretty much anywhere.
A few cell providers offer home service now so anywhere with a solid 5G signal could get you something in the 300-1000 Mbps range, and even without a great signal spending a little on a fancy cell booster can extend your range a lot. I managed to work remotely in a spot with basically no service by putting an antenna high enough in a tree.
posted by St. Sorryass at 5:19 PM on July 6, 2023
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posted by coffeecat at 6:22 AM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]