In our little rural town, we have a 4 bedroom, 3 bath 3200 sq. ft. ranch on an acre lot. Our yearly taxes are under $400 with homstead. I have taken a laundry room with washer, dryer and cabinets to house supplies for granted for 35 years. We eat breakfast every morning on a glassed in back porch and watch the squirrels, birds, chipmonks, and deer feed and play. Sometimes, we have a rabbit drop by. We keep our lot woodsy with little to mow. A first class hospital is 10 minutes away.
When we are out and about, we know a lot of people who speak and visit a little. When we want to see shows, different places, we take a vacation.
vaudine
Your lifestyle sounds a lot like ours. Our taxes are higher (thanks, Michigan), our house is a two-story on 2.2 acres, and we have more wildlife than we want to sometimes. The rabbits chase the deer and get gently shooed-off now and then.
We’re trying to get our property to the “woodsy” stage, but that means undoing a lot of damage the state DNR did in the 70’s. They planted a bunch of autumn olives to “improve the habitat,” and now our section of the state is overrun with them. They’re choking out native trees so we’re putting them back.
NYC is a nice place to visit (I was there on 9/9/01) but there’s no way I’d ever live there. All that concrete makes me claustrophobic.
It’s a too each their own thing. Took me years, but I finally convinced my wife to move out of the stix and into a major city (Dallas), but I don’t think I could talk her into Manhattan.
I myself would love it. City boy that I am, I love the idea of a kitchen you never use because you’re surrounded by the finest restaurants in the country, no laundry because the dry cleaner picks up and delivers, no yard to take care of, no tires to rotate etc etc. Manhattan would be paradise to me, but the wife, not so much.