Where in the US to live with horses?

[McGurk]

I’m going to put another pitch in for Camden, SC. It has a lot of the amenities of Aiken, but without the wealthy winter colony vibe. Disclaimer: I have only visited there in the winter, when riding in my part of the world was pretty limited. Camden has the Firestone-Thiel Foundation for ride out (which in every way is as nice or nicer than the Hitchcock Woods other than the in-the-middle-of-the-city setting), a vibrant horse community, access to good horse pros, pretty much everything you’re looking for.

Downsides are 1.) fire ants and 2.) hay needs to be shipped in from out of state, but both of those are true of all the horse communities south of Raleigh.

That 5 acre perfect horse property is still going to be a rare bird, but there are tons of properties in the 300 - 400K price range that meet your 3BD/2BA criteria.

I would buy one of those houses, board your horses, and wait until the perfect small horse property comes available.

[Texarkana]

@NoSuchPerson

Or even find a house to rent for a year, then buy. Your opinion of an area can really change after living there, even after only a short time.

Agree with this!

Plus, with boots on the ground in the area, you can better judge the horsey vibe of different regions. It also gives you a chance to network and get the tea on the best vets, farriers, trainers, etc.

[TinFoilHat]

@Texarkana

Tennessee is a tough horse market. A lot of people relocate their operations there, but not that many stay.

No part of me thinks TN is what the OP is looking for.

OP is also priced out of the less rural areas of the state. Can’t speak for Knoxville/the east side of the state with certainty, but certainly priced out of the majority of Middle TN

ETA: oh shit you said for a FARM too. Yeah that clocks anything not rural in TN.

[fivestrideline]

Isn’t that wild? I feel like TN has this reputation of being lower COL… unless you go out to the boonies and somehow still have internet to make that six figure+ salary remotely, it really isn’t. Same for a lot of the SE. I lived in GA and let me tell you, people from out of state are always shocked by housing prices for anything above Macon.

$600k will get a decent house in most of these places, often with cash to spare. A farm is going to be much harder - not to mention all the “stuff” like a tractor, gator, mower, wheelbarrows, HOSES AND BUCKETS (these add up), fencing, hay storage, etc to get a farm operating. If you can find a property that’ll sell their functional equipment, it’ll save you a pretty penny.

[cutter99]

Things have changed dramatically in TN since the pandemic. We lived an hour outside of Nashville, in one of TN’s more rural and poorer counties from 2014-2023.

We bought just under 70 acres with a tobacco barn, small shop and house that we gut renovated, in 2014. We sold last year for over 3X what we had invested.

The property since has had the house and 2.5 acres sold off for $100K more than what we paid for the entire farm.

TN is lower COL than many northern states, but you will also find issues because of it. The first winter we were there most of middle TN was shut down for two full weeks because of a snow storm that iced over. Our county had not even one plow!

Low taxes and low COL are great, but there are trade offs!

[Montanas_Girl]

I think the Franklin/Murfreesboro area has a lot of what the OP is looking for, but she’d have to double her price range at minimum…

I am a little over an hour east of Nashville, in a semi-rural college town, and her price range might be sufficient here. In 2020, I purchased a property with just under 10 acres, a 1961 house that was updated in the early 90s, and a barn that needed a lot of work, for less than half of what she is looking to spend, but I couldn’t replace it today without going to the very top of her budget.

[TinFoilHat]

@fivestrideline

Isn’t that wild? I feel like TN has this reputation of being lower COL…

Totallllllyyy. And comparatively speaking it definitely is, but honestly, I’m from Cincinnati and Cinci has become WAY more affordable than here in middle TN (I’m 30 min south of Nashville tooo). It’s insane!

@cutter99

Things have changed dramatically in TN since the pandemic. We lived an hour outside of Nashville, in one of TN’s more rural and poorer counties from 2014-2023.

We bought just under 70 acres with a tobacco barn, small shop and house that we gut renovated, in 2014. We sold last year for over 3X what we had invested.

The property since has had the house and 2.5 acres sold off for $100K more than what we paid for the entire farm.

TN is lower COL than many northern states, but you will also find issues because of it. The first winter we were there most of middle TN was shut down for two full weeks because of a snow storm that iced over. Our county had not even one plow!

Low taxes and low COL are great, but there are trade offs!

Quoting all of this because YES TO IT ALL

Also hehehehhee yes the sprinkle of snow that shuts the entire state down lmfao

@Montanas_Girl

I think the Franklin/Murfreesboro area has a lot of what the OP is looking for, but she’d have to double her price range at minimum…

My suggestion would have been Franklin, College Grove and Columbia but for Williamson County (Franklin and College Grove) you’d need to triple right now and Maury County (Columbia) you’d probably be okay with double as long as you’re okay with a fixer upper home, and a barn that may or may not actually be a safe, functional structure OR depleted fencing.