New Mexico. Cheap, good running, altitude, tons to do outdoors.
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The most inexpensive undiscovered best town left would be whitefish, Mt. You can get get a house for 500k. Columbia Falls and Kalispell or less from expensive.
Also, eastern Idaho is relatively inexpensive. Lived there two years, good access to the Tetons.
Boise is fine, affordable out in Nampa and Kuna. 2.5 hours from the Sawtoothes, best mountains in the lower 48 outside of Glacier and North Cascade NP. And maybe the Wind Rivers in Wyoming. So, like 4th best range.
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Honestly, people really sleep on Mount Washington Valley/Western Maine. North Conway, NH has a great outdoors community and there are enough things to do that you're still in a rural area but not completely out there. Also you're about 1.5 hrs from Portland, ME and only 3-4 hours from Boston. Real estate isn't bad either if you avoid the summer home pockets. Sure, its not as "trendy" as the west coast but there are some serious multi-sport athletes that come out of New England.
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"California seems like a no-go since the entire state is populated densely in all of the desirable locations near mountains"
do you have any idea what you are talking about? clearly not. If you go north of San Francisco you will wide swaths of redwooded, mountainous land that is incredibly sparsely populated and more wild than anything in the east coast and midwest. Cheap land too. CA is far, far more expansive than LA, SF and San Diego. Hell, move to somewhere near Whitney and you can find remote living with the highest mountain in the continuous united states
learn your geography
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Rental property in Colorado
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Phoenix is going to have cheap spots since it’s going to be 120degrees out daily every summer. You can save money there by frying an egg 🍳 on the pavement/pan outside
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Boone or Asheville North Carolina
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Kringle wrote:
Durango? Is that place any good???
Durango's a cool little town, but it's not cheap. Cheaper than CB or anything on the Front Range, but still not cheap. It's also infested with Texans who have second homes there. Cortez is a half hour away and a lot less touristy.
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joedlrt wrote:
South Fork, CO
Cody, WY
Walsenburg or La Veta, CO
Bayfield, CO (little expensive)
Centennial, WY
Dubois, WY
Paonia, CO
Naturita, CO
I've only been to places in CO on this list and feel like they are all super white and pretty conservative, if that matters to the OP. They're also all pretty rural - like at least a 3 hr drive from a major airport. They meet your criteria of being cheap-ish and close to mountains though.
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Kringle wrote:
Also I just hate California.
Why, because Fox News told you to?
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I think most mountainous areas have cheap real estate options, just not going to be near restaurants/night life/etc. I'm most familiar with the NE options, Adirondacks/Catskills/Green Mountains/White Mountains. Something outside of Lincoln or Conway, NH would be nice. Bike riding is probably best in VT . . . some random town like Montgomery might be cool. Mountains seem largest in the Adirondacks. I really like Lake Placid but locals hate anyone that isn't a local and its probably expensive. New Paltz NY is a decent little town in the Catskills/Shawanguks . . . nice trails/lakes here and just a couple hours north of NYC.
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Hood River, OR. Oh wait, you said "aren't expensive."
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zzzz wrote:
Anchorage and Palmer have all you are looking for.
Speaking as a lifelong Anchorage resident, I feel like this is the correct response. Scads of mountains; relatively affordable housing (particularly in the Valley); effectively infinite freshwater.
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Back 2 the Grind wrote:
Kringle wrote:
Also I just hate California.
Why, because Fox News told you to?
Why, because CNN told you not to?
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Back 2 the Grind wrote:
Kringle wrote:
Also I just hate California.
Why, because Fox News told you to?
I love California, it's Californians I hate.
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Precious Roy wrote:
New Mexico. Taos has the real alpine skiing and the best summer activities. It is a bargain compared to CO. Santa Fe is more expensive and is more of a real city. Ski area is small, but pretty good when powder is flying. Los Alamos is actually a good area if you want to settle down and start a family. Reasonably priced real estate and close to great trails in Bandelier, etc. Taos has the best weather in the summer. Santa Fe gets hotter. Both get monsoon rains in July and August.
ABQ is cheap, but not nearly as much to do outdoors as in the Sangre de Cristo Mtns.
There are a bunch of smaller ski areas like Angel Fire, Parajito and Red River. They can be a bit redneck especially at Christmas and spring break. In summer, Red River is full of ATVs. But Angel Fire actually has some pretty massive mountain bike trails in summer. Half days' drive to CO resorts like Telluride, Crested Butte and Purgatory from Norther NM.
Totally agree. I'm in Taos for a month every June. Great place for running and biking.
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You talking about Grand Junction? Yeah I’m surprised people never talk about it because it seems like such a cool place, was considering it for college even years ago. Never been there myself though.
A few other kinda underrated places out west I’d say are Prescott, AZ, beautiful, secluded area but still big enough to have common amenities you’d need (like, I’m assuming Grand Junction is), Albuquerque (now as a common person maybe not as much though the crime is overrated, but as a runner it’s hard to beat living here; great weather, elevation, good variety of trails, big enough it should be possible to find a local track to use), and Medford, Oregon (great scenery, cheap, decent running weather, good outdoors town)
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Have you ever thought about South Dakota. Could try Spearfish or Rapid City South Dakota. These are close to the black hills. Which are gorgeous and have the highest peaks east of the Rocky Mountains. It would be reasonably cheap to live out there and lots of fun stuff to do.
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It could be that my "expensive detector" is broken after years of living in the Golden State, but Big Bear, CA seems ridiculously inexpensive for somewhere so near the LA metro area AND at 7000 ft elevation with 2 ski parks available.
I'd like to give a second, third, and fourth for Santa Fe, NM. 7000ft elevation, mild temps....mountains, flat lands for tempo. It check a lot of the boxes OP mentioned. There are dirt cheap areas very nearby
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you should pay me for this wrote:
Far north California, Susanville, Mt. Shasta Eureka etc.
Ashland, Medford, Klamath Falls, OR. Bend has gotten expensive and trendy but Redmond or Prineville are close by.
Yakima, Wenatchee, WA.
Idaho has gone to the white supremees so you might stay out that place
Bozeman and Missoula are probably getting too expensive but some outlying areas might be okay. Billings or Helena would have potential.
Give Casper, or Sheridan WY a look. It's a lot like the Front Range of CO but these are relatively small towns. Right next to the mountains.
OP wrote off Colorado, but West Slope towns of Grand Junction, Montrose, Cortez, Durango, Pagosa Springs are pretty far out of the way.
Santa Fe, NM.
No, do not consider anywhere in Colorado.
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