Where should I move?

So I’ve been a fan of Uncle Cecil since I first discovered TSD in its adorable AOL widget in the early 90’s, and I’ve since dreamed of having a question pressing enough to warrant un-Lurking myself and creating a full-on message board presence. Finally that day has come.
The hubster and I are sick of our lifestyle. We’re natural travelers, and though we make comfortable salaries, access to enough vacation time to satisfy our wanderlust is simply not available in our current careers. So we’ve come up with a five year plan: we cut expenses back to nothing and save every penny until we have enough to pay cash for a bit of land somewhere, build a house, and spend our time traveling on the cheap/working when we feel like it. We’re not afraid to live simply as long as the roof over our heads is secure.
Funny enough, I’m having the hardest time figuring out where exactly I’d like to live, as my past moves have always been the result of job offers. So I thought I’d throw myself at the mercy of the Masses.

Here are our requirements:
-A temperate climate within the US
-It oughta be purty. I like mountains.
-It needs to be rural. I’m done with people noises (I have a nasty case of misophonia).
-A good school system, or access to a good private school, in case we decide to contribute to the overpopulation of the human race. I ain’t homeschoolin’.
-Low property taxes
-Within one hour’s drive to a major international airport.
-The tough one: it needs to be CHEAP. Low property values, low taxes.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I believe there might be some full time RVers on the board, I hope they can check in. Depending on how much you REALLY want to travel, full timers have a handful of optimized states to live in, based on taxes and such.

You almost had Frederick, Maryland. It’s got mountains, good schools, can be rural, pretty good climate, and within an hour or so of three major airports. It fails though on the taxes and property values.

I think you’re going to fail having both good schools and low property taxes.

Welcome! Glad you decided to participate.

Placerville California meets a lot of your requirements. Very rural and pretty. Tahoe isn’t too far either.

Maybe someplace near Portland, OR or Seattle (way north… near Blaine or Birch Bay). Oregon has no sales tax and Washington has no income tax.

If all that existed in one place it wouldn’t be cheap anymore because everyone would move there.

You might manage someplace near Denver (not Boulder–property prices too high). Weather is fairly temperate, though obviously it can be cold in the winter (dry cold, not like back East). Mountains are close. Denver has an international airport. Still a lot of rural land not too expensive). State income tax under 5% (figured on Federal taxable income, so that’s after the usual deductions). Property taxes are absurdly low–we pay a little over $3K on a house worth $500K (we bought it many years ago when it was worth much less, but Boulder is expensive), and I think that’s high for the state, since Boulder is very Blue and is less hostile to new local taxes. Sales taxes run about 8%. You can live even more cheaply farther away from Denver, but you won’t be able to get to the airport in an hour.

Colorado is a nice place to live.

Someplace near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

North Central Arkansas:

Yep-A temperate climate within the US
Yep-It oughta be purty. I like mountains.
Yep-It needs to be rural. I’m done with people noises (I have a nasty case of misophonia).
I don’t know-A good school system, or access to a good private school, in case we decide to contribute to the overpopulation of the human race. I ain’t homeschoolin’.
Yep-Low property taxes
No, but…*-Within one hour’s drive to a major international airport.
Yep-The tough one: it needs to be CHEAP. Low property values, low taxes.

*Springfield, MO has an airport with flights to several major cities.

Elko, Nevada.

I second this. North Central Arkansas is shockingly beautiful and shockingly empty. The schools are likely to be bad. Any rural area is likely to have very poor schools, frankly.

That is not true at all and I’d like to see your evidence of that. I’ve lived and taught in Asheville and rural Appalachia and the teachers here win the highest state honors every couple years and scores rival those in Richmond and DC. Standardized testing may have few benefits, but it does ensure an equal education across socioeconomic lines.

OP, I’ll nominate Asheville, NC for beauty, art, and great schools. Tourist attractions mean the cost of living is a bit higher than the average location along the Appalachian trail, but the activities are worth it. If looking for a smaller town, I can name several locations in Virginia that are inexpensive, safe, and beautiful. ,

Woohoo! Loving the replies. Thank you all very much.

Asheville is a distinct possibility but lacks a lot of draw for me owing to the fact that it’s where I went to college and You Can’t Go Home Again, amirite? All in all, it seems to fit our needs most perfectly, though, and that’s hard to ignore. If only my damn parents weren’t there.

I haven’t considered Arkansas at all! Outside vague recollections of Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign, I don’t think I know anything about it. North Central Arkansas is now the destination of our mid-summer road trip, which is perfect because I’m still missing Laura Ingalls Wilder’s grave rubbing, and I believe she’s not too far away. Is it stupid to worry about tornadoes?

Albuquerque seems great, and I’m a big fan of New Mexico in general. I’ll have to do more research on the surrounding areas.

And Nevada! Another state with which I am shamefully unfamiliar. It goes on the maybe pile.

The Pacific Northwest falls off the list due to property values - unfortunately from what I can tell it’s awfully expensive unless you want to live over near Idaho, and in that case the climate goes to hell. Plus, airports. Is my research off base here?

I don’t know about the grave, but the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum is in reasonably close Mansfield, MO. Apparently this is where she lived when she wrote the books.

Tornadoes are not unheard of there, but they aren’t particularly common either. I think the decidedly non-flat topography makes them less likely than in neighboring areas.

I was going to come in to mention north-central Arkansas or south-central Missouri, as well. But I echo the other posters: good school system, low property taxes and rural area? Best to pick two out of three.

if you go to the West side of Puget Sound, deals can still be had. Port Orchard, as one example, is about an hour from Seatac airport, and has decent schools. If you’re willing to be further from the airport, there are lots of great choices.

I have spent a lot of time in Albuquerque plus lived there for 15 months and love the place. The only reason I moved was I got accepted to school elsewhere. I had some co-workers who lived in a small town to the south whose name escapes me now. You can even live on the other side of Sandia Mountain, at least in the areas that are not national park.