There’s plenty of information online about where you shouldn’t live off-grid. There’s advice about which climates just don’t work with solar power, or tales of how cities have denied a family’s off-grid dreams. So, where should you go? We’ll walk you through the considerations you need to keep in mind when choosing the best places to live off grid and find your perfect slice of paradise. Find specific recommendations for where to go, not just in the USA, but in the rest of the world too!
We’ll go over the top nine states that your off-grid dreams will work in, and give you a low down on their pros and cons on the top eight considerations you need to have in mind. We’ll give some general suggestions on where to locate within the state if one area is much better than another for some reason, but overall we suggest you do some research at the county level. They could have drastically different laws, or culture, from other areas in the state.
Off Grid Location Considerations
To use this guide, you’ll have to decide what kind of factors you want to consider when deciding where to live off-grid, and (because no place is perfect) which of these factors is ultimately most important to you. If you’re more of a prepper/off grider, than the environmental threats section will be of special importance to you. Are you part of the tiny house movement? The laws and building codes will probably be on the top of your list. Or, if you’re more of the homesteader type, the climate makes sense as a first consideration.
Climate
People who are used to living in northern climates are sometimes surprised to hear that their favorite plants may not actually grow in a more tropical climate, which means that heading south isn’t always the best idea. In many ways, picking your climate is picking what plants you want, as well as what highs and lows of temperature you’re comfortable dealing with. You can make most climates work, but access to power will usually control how warm you can get your greenhouse in a North Dakota winter, for example. On the opposite side of the spectrum, in Florida, getting cool weather spinach and apples to grow is a challenge, but most veggies and fruit can be grown, even if outside of summer months if need be.
The easiest climate to live off-grid in is a temperate one with a short and mild winter and enough rainfall (30-40 inches of rain not snow yearly is ideal) to make a tolerable summer. With only climate in mind, and depending on your personal preference bit, you might be tempted to live in southern California, Tennessee valley, valleys in Oregon, south western Idaho, Kentucky, Arkansas, or Missouri. Most of these places range from 6 to 8A on the plant hardiness scale.
Rainfall and Water Access
No matter what kind of cool grey-water, well, and rain collection system you intend to use, it will only go so far in a desert. Plenty of people live off grid in deserts, but I suggest you make it easier on yourself and pick a location with more reliable rainfall.
Of course, state-wide rainfall is not the only thing you should be thinking about. When you’re looking at specific plots of land you’ll want to know if a well can be dug there. You may also want to be near rivers or lakes for easy travel, especially in the case SHTF. Take into account whether the lakes and rivers freeze during the winter, larger faster bodies of water are less likely to, but remember this is balanced out because you can harvest snow for water.
Laws and Building Codes
In some states and localities the government is more likely to try to limit your ability to live off-grid. You can avoid a lot of hassle by living outside of major cities and picking a specific local area with lax building regulations. Texas has few, New York has many.
When you’re looking into the law, make sure it is legal to live in a building, year-round, that isn’t connected to the grid, including sewage. Look into how large a building has to be for some base laws to come into effect. For example, a lot of tiny houses avoid having architects or having to connect to the grid by being too small to be regulated. Others get around stifling laws by making their home in a trailer, an RV, even a parked bus.
It’s also worth knowing a head of time what kind of laws might effect the selling and buying of home-made goods, which most off-griders end up doing to some extent.
Community
Those moving to small towns from large cities, to new states, or even new countries, may be in for a culture shock. You need to know if you can get along with people you’ll be neighbors with, especially considering having a strong community to barter with and rely on can help you out substantially. I suggest you spend some time in the general communities you’ve narrowed yourself down to. If it seems like you’ll have major conflict with your community, don’t move in.
Power Potential
Think about what kind of power generation you want to do before you pick even a general state. Yes, you can use solar panels in Washington state, but you won’t get near as much energy from them as someone in California would – especially not during the shorter winter days. If you want to use geothermal heating, having a home in a rocky region will make that drilling harder. Wind power needs open flat spaces, usually.
Road Access
This is an absolutely key component of living off-grid that many people forget. Even if you want to live in the absolute middle of nowhere, you will have to leave occasionally, and who owns and maintains the roads will become a huge issue. Some cheap plots of land are priced because there’s no access, or there is access but it’s owned by neighbors. It’s better to get a properly level and maintained road and have to keep it that way yourself, than get a poorly constructed road and try to fix it or get someone else to fix it.
Environmental Threats
The biggest issues to watch out for in America are tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires and earthquakes. The Red Cross has a natural disaster map that shows which threats are a problem in which area. Generally, staying off the direct coasts will keep you out of the range of hurricanes and earthquakes. Tornadoes are only a problem in “tornado alley” in the center of the country, from South Dakota to northern Texas. Width-wise it touches a bit of Colorado and Wyoming, some Minnesota and most of Idaho. Flood risk is much less predictable, with pockets of major risk throughout the country. Of course, local conditions could flood you in plenty of other places.
There are places in the mid-west where the only threat is minor earthquakes. Some areas around the great lakes are also relatively disaster safe (but there’s an occasional snow storm).
Cost
You know much better than I do what you can afford and how you want to allocate your budget. My only advice is that the better the property is for the previous five factors the more expensive it will be. If a property is cheap, make sure you know why, because you are sacrificing somewhere and you need to make sure it’s a sacrifice you’re comfortable with. Also, here are Gaye’s 9 tips for buying property with little money.
