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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2001-06 > 0991858445
From: "John Steele Gordon" <>
Subject: Re: Translating the Value of Money over Time (was Forbes-Smith . . .)
Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 20:14:05 GMT
References: <57.172b0933.284fb037@aol.com>
<> wrote in message news:...
> However, to answer your questions about property values in the USA read
> below. I used to live in New York City too, but you do not get a good
picture
> of the rest of the country from living in such urban areas.
> I bought a two bedroom house in a rural NW Kansas town (near Nebraska) for
> $6000. Taxes are $80 a year. I do not live there yet (keep it as a get
away
> for the moment and might rent it out), but the town is like a return to
the
> late 1950's in values and past times. It is not a leaky trailer. All
systems
> work and it has new vinyl siding, natural gas heat, located in a town with
> its own backup electric generator (no rolling blackouts), free internet
> service from the local school, cheap city water from a good rural well,
sewer
> service and trash pickup.
I will be the first to admit (and my accountant would be the second) that
the NYC metropolitan area is very expensive. But a town in NW Kansas is
hardly typical either. The area has been depopulating since the 1930's (ever
read The Grapes of Wrath?). Many of the towns there are quickly becoming
ghost towns. That doesn't do much for the local real estate market. The US
is now a suburban nation. 17th-century England was a rural one. Another
reason it's hard to compare monetary values between the two.
> You are a city boy who will spend $20,000 on a car. My son just got a
truck
> for $300. He will doubtlessly get a year or two of use before any
maintenance
> is necessary. Although I have a $7000 truck, my older cars cost me about
$50
> a month in upkeep over a ten year period. That includes even rebuilt
motors
> and trannys.
Your house in NW Kansas and a $300 truck might be compared to a 17th-century
crofter's cottage in the Outer Hebrides whose owner rides around on an
18-year-old horse. Your example gives anecdotal evidence a bad name.
> There are plenty of alternatives to a $75,000 a year income and the stress
> that goes with it if one is willing to change lifestyles ... and you need
be
> neither homeless of poor to do so. This is especially good for folks who
want
> to retire on limited incomes and live with the mortgage paid and low
taxes.
Thanks, but I like my lifestyle. And I'm sure that couples who have lived in
the New York suburbs all their adult lives would just *love* to move to
Frozen Sneakers, Kansas, for their sunset years.
Get real.
JSG
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