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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

I expect that, today, anyone over the age of thirty-five has stories that 
start with, "Why I remember when I could have bought that place for . . ."

I stay as informed of real estate prices and conditions as I can. But this 
article from the July 2005 edition of REALTOR magazine gave me pause:

"Affordable housing. The area comprising Boardman, Warren, and Youngstown, 
Ohio is the country's most affordable housing market among metropolitan 
areas with population greater than 500,000, says the National Association 
of Home Builders. In the area, which includes some neighborhoods across the 
Pennsylvania border, 90.2 percent of homes sold in the first quarter of 
2005 were affordable to households earning the area median household income 
of $51,300. The median price of all homes sold in the area during that time 
was $86,000."

Compare those numbers with what homesteaders can do with far fewer purchase 
dollars and less income. That is not to diminish urban opportunity. One of 
the best ways to get your homestead stake remains in the city, with city 
income and city real estate appreciation. For most, my advice is: make it 
in the city and take it to the country. The caveat: before you do this, 
become as certain as humanly possible that that's the direction you wish to 
go. It is often emotionally and always financially painful to go in the 
other direction, from uplifting acreage to postage stamp lot.