It's probably going to be hard to beat Bentonville. There may be some but not many and not by much if at all.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Simply seeing the thread title and I knew Bentonville and Bella Vista would have to top that list. Hell, you can find a 2,000 sq ft house just north of the border for $50,000 and be 15 mins from a trail head.

 

Good topic.
I immediately thought of Oakridge as well. Easily exceeds 100 miles of single track. I think the town size is perfect really, just needs more "desirable" tenants in the store fronts.

Grand Junction is gorgeous and I love the riding. Not a fan of how the town is falling victim to sprawl though and it gets very hot there.

Also a big fan of McCall. Need to figure a metric for the ability to make a living vs median home price to give the thread (Mtb town has the lowest cost of living) some utility. I plan to move to one of these towns within a year.

 

The ability to make a living vs home price/cost of living is immediately what came to mind when I thought of Oakridge. Sure, it's pretty cheap to live there, but what the hell would you do for work? What jobs are available would likely make that "low" cost of living seem pretty high.

Now, if you can truly work remotely (or commute into a larger town/city one or two days a week - in the case of Oakridge that would be Eugene), a place with a low cost of living but few decent (not even high) paying jobs would be just fine. Unfortunately, I used to be in a field where I could pull a similar scenario off --if I ever got the wife on board-- but since I made a career change 4 years ago, I'm stuck close to cities.

 

Yeah McCall is a pretty cool place to live but I agree, not sure how one would make a living there. Go back to school, get a forestry degree and work for the Forest Service!

 

Become a smoke jumper! There's a base right in town!

 

....

 

Only been to McCall once, when my son was at Boise State. Not sure what I was expecting but the town was much less inspiring than what I had hoped for. I guess I was hoping for an undiscovered Durango. I know there is riding there but is there enough to sustain you w/o getting bored.

 

The MTB scene is really growing as of late. They just built a bunch of mtb specific trail right out of town. You also have Brundage to go big and plenty of backcountry miles. A burgeoning fat bike/groomer scene in winter. I love snowmobiling and it doesn't get much better than McCall. Another plus is the Frank Church Wilderness. Biggest piece of roadless wilderness in the lower 48. McCall has a lot going for it.

 

Come to think of it, I suppose that Wenatchee, WA might qualify.

 

But I prefer Twisp

 

Oh hell yeah! I'd love to live in Twisp.

That place is awesome.

 

Damn you guys for giving up the goods on McCall! It was supposed to be our secret.

People were talking about Oakridge being "about to blow up any day" back in 2002 when I moved to central Oregon. Hasn't happened yet. It's still kinda beat down.

 

People were talking about Oakridge being "about to blow up any day" back in 2002 when I moved to central Oregon. Hasn't happened yet. It's still kinda beat down.

I still think it's going to happen at some point. According to one real estate website I was on, homes prices are up 9.8% over last year. It needs some "hip" businesses to open up to attract the right crowd to get things started. I wonder if any tech companies that are outdoor friendly would take a shot someday. Did you see this article in Outside Magazine https://www.outsideonline.com/2231051/living-cloud about tech companies coming to a dying town like Prineville?

 

If we are talking about small towns and brutal cost of living my town of Sandpoint Idaho has to rank up there. Really it's about what we earn compared to what it costs. Back in the late 90s you could buy a house for under a hundred thousand, in town. It was even less expensive outside of town.

In around 2003 there was an article in Sunset Magazine about Sandpoint and it ruined this town. Within a few years housing prices skyrocketed to triple and higher. Houses in town that were $60,000 shot up to over $250,000. Houses were being bought and flipped, often times with no work even being done to them.

Construction went nuts, new homes were being built and sold at insane prices. Problem was it was only the wealthy that were doing it. They also gained enough leverage to keep industry out of the area. Basically what was once a nice little logging town with a nice lake and decent ski mountain turned into a resort town for the upper income bracket to come and play.

The recession dropped housing prices a bit, I was finally able to buy my house in 2008 for $137,000 but it's a half hour from town. The same house in town would be well over $200,000. Rental costs are insane, you can't rent a meth lab for under 800 bucks, a decent house for a family is over 1200 bucks. Jobs don't pay very well, 8 to 10 bucks an hour is about average. I do okay, I work at a small company that builds airplanes but it only employs just under 300 people. Most jobs here are low paying customer service jobs. Everything is expensive to try to fleece money from the wealthy but it's us locals that pay the price.

So no, having your town "blowing up" isn't always the best thing.

 

If we are talking about small towns and brutal cost of living my town of Sandpoint Idaho has to rank up there. Really it's about what we earn compared to what it costs. Back in the late 90s you could buy a house for under a hundred thousand, in town. It was even less expensive outside of town.

In around 2003 there was an article in Sunset Magazine about Sandpoint and it ruined this town. Within a few years housing prices skyrocketed to triple and higher. Houses in town that were $60,000 shot up to over $250,000. Houses were being bought and flipped, often times with no work even being done to them.

Construction went nuts, new homes were being built and sold at insane prices. Problem was it was only the wealthy that were doing it. They also gained enough leverage to keep industry out of the area. Basically what was once a nice little logging town with a nice lake and decent ski mountain turned into a resort town for the upper income bracket to come and play.

The recession dropped housing prices a bit, I was finally able to buy my house in 2008 for $137,000 but it's a half hour from town. The same house in town would be well over $200,000. Rental costs are insane, you can't rent a meth lab for under 800 bucks, a decent house for a family is over 1200 bucks. Jobs don't pay very well, 8 to 10 bucks an hour is about average. I do okay, I work at a small company that builds airplanes but it only employs just under 300 people. Most jobs here are low paying customer service jobs. Everything is expensive to try to fleece money from the wealthy but it's us locals that pay the price.

So no, having your town "blowing up" isn't always the best thing.

Mineral Trail is one of the best I've ever ridden though.

 

Desirable towns will always be about the Haves versus the Have-nots, won't it? If it's a nice place people will move there. At some threshold many people will get priced out. You know the old saying about billionaires pushing out the millionaires?

 

Yeah that is true. Usually it's the drive across the Long Bridge that hooks most people. You don't find a nice ski mountain with a huge lake at the base in too many locations. The winters weed out the weak though. It isn't even that we get huge amounts of snow, it's more that the cloudy dreary wet season is long. We really only get about 4 months of awesome weather. The rest can be tough to deal with and a good amount of people leave after a tough winter. A significant amount of property belongs to people who only summer here.

I don't begrudge the wealthy, my issue is with the local businesses. The gas stations are the worst. They collude to raise prices, especially during busy times of the year. It's almost mafia level. Any owner that dares to run a lower price to attract business is pressured by the rest so basically we have to pay the high prices. We won't even get into the prices of goods and services, I almost exclusively buy goods online. Food we are kind of stuck. Basically we pay city prices but are paid small town wages. Oh well, that's the price we pay to live in this area....

 

Van down by the river.

 

Crosby, MN. Home of Cuyuna. Currently ~30 miles of glorious single track, soon to be 60. 2 hours from Minneapolis and their 100 miles. 1.5 hours for Duluth and their 100 miles. 15 minutes from Brainerd, which has most of everything worthwhile you’d find in a big city.

 

I tried this experiment two years ago when the last kid left for college. I took a break from my career and moved to Big Bear. You either have to drive down the hill for work or work for close to minimum wage. I landed a job working for Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski resorts in lift maintenance, climbing towers and troubleshooting electrical issues and everything else that goes along with maintaining lifts. Both resorts are owned by Mammoth Mountain and for this dangerous work in every kind of weather, I was paid $12.00 an hour. That was with a lot of experience, both in the electrical field and building cell sites(in the mid 90s I was paid $27.65 an hour build cell towers). In a mountain tourist town, that 12 bucks wouldn't buy me a breakfast burrito. Free year round passes to both resorts and Mammoth were cool.

On weekends, the town swells by 100k people and you cant move around town. Even the back streets get crowded. On Fridays, my wife and I would get our beer and food for the weekend and "shelter in place".

In the end, we moved back 25 miles across to the other side of the mountain. I went back to my career and 40 minute commute off the hill. There's good trails here, but not many, and it's a easy drive over to Big Bear.

 

It's all relative. Cheap places have low wages.

That said, I've looked around, and Pocatello was at the top of the list. Went there, and found it has some "cultural issues" that weren't so attractive, and then there's the harsh winter climate. Not for me, but maybe an option for others.

At this point, if the wife and I decide to make a run for it, it'll be to a small house on a large piece of land, far away from any major city, with a well maintained camper van parked out back for extended trips to the promised lands. Local trails won't be much of a priority, but living mortgage free and having the freedom to take off and go wherever for a week or a month at a time will.


.

 

It's all relative. Cheap places have low wages.
.

That's not always true.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Tons of good riding around Pittsburgh and the cost of living is still pretty low with lots of good paying jobs in tech, medical and industrial fields. I live 30 miles north of the city and gave 60K for a renovated house with a huge 2 car garage and 15 miles of singletrack 10 minutes away. There are at least 15 quality places to ride withing an hour drive.

Brady's Run
Brush Creek
Moraine
North Park
Boyce Park
Hartwood Acres
South Park
Bavington
Sewickley Park
Riverview Park
Frick Park
Deer Lakes
Settlers Cabin
Hollow Oak
Tomlinson Run
just across the Ohio line is Beaver Creek, Lake Milton and West Branch

Raystown, Jakes Rocks, Quebec Wilderness and Ohiopyle are within day trip distance.

 

Northern New England has plenty of inexpensive “bike towns.” Trails networks are popping up and expanding while biking is becoming a big draw for many people.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Brevard or Mills River, North Carolina. Starting to get more expensive, though.

 

I was thinking about NC. I'm assuming Asheville is getting pricey too?

 

Coxsackie

 

Knowing the area around Pisgah, there are still a LOT of fixer-upper opportunities off the beaten path there. Lots of hollers (hollows) where you could buy land or an old house for next to nothing. It's still Appalachia. Yeah, it would be a 30min drive into town, but you could build a palace in the woods.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

Yes, but housing isn't the only factor in cost of living calculations. That area is pretty cheap though.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Albuquerque, Boise and Colorado Springs are a few others that come to mind, considering larger metro areas and job potential as some of the limiting factors. Using a couple of the online cost of living calculators, the CoLs compared to San Diego (my personal and painful benchmark) are about 60-63%.

All of them have dozens of MTB trails close in, are a reasonable drive to many more, and are gateways to fantastic outdoor recreation beyond MTB.

 

I posted this on the Singletracks article but I'll post it here as well.

Hurricane/St. George, Utah

We're still the somewhat undiscovered Utah mtb destination.

That said, I'll go ahead and claim "world class" trails. Not just 100s of miles of single track but actual bucket list stuff.

We get year round riding and our local mtb advocacy organization and BLM love to work together to build new stuff. The Cities and County love and appreciate mtbr's and don't treat us as second class citizens. Actually, we pretty much have a seat at the head of the table.

Cost of living is way low and there are plenty of good paying jobs. St. George just announced "tech ridge", a new 155 acre development specifically planned to get tech companies and millenials/kids out of college, a great place to work and make a living.

The area is growing fast because dumbasses like myself keep promoting it Get in while you can.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

I posted this on the Singletracks article but I'll post it here as well.

Hurricane/St. George, Utah

We're still the somewhat undiscovered Utah mtb destination.

That said, I'll go ahead and claim "world class" trails. Not just 100s of miles of single track but actual bucket list stuff.

We get year round riding and our local mtb advocacy organization and BLM love to work together to build new stuff. The Cities and County love and appreciate mtbr's and don't treat us as second class citizens. Actually, we pretty much have a seat at the head of the table.

Cost of living is way low and there are plenty of good paying jobs. St. George just announced "tech ridge", a new 155 acre development specifically planned to get tech companies and millenials/kids out of college, a great place to work and make a living.

The area is growing fast because dumbasses like myself keep promoting it Get in while you can.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I like the area but haven't been in quite some time. I'm also an avid canyoneering guy and it's very close to canyon country. What about summer temps down there? Easy to get up higher out of the heat to ride? Job market?

 

Many of these places being mentioned sound great to research for retirement.

 

Just saw an article that Colorado Springs is the number one destination in the country for millennials who are relocating. That can be good or bad depending on your perspective, but it's probably safe to say the days of hardcore conservatism and religious wackos are numbered in this town.

Our trail system has grown immensely in recent years, and the city is putting together plans for yet another major expansion. No matter how good the trails are, if/when my house appreciates another $200K, I'm GTFO. I can always come back in live in a van down by the river for a week at a time if I want to ride the trails.


.

 

Just saw an article that Colorado Springs is the number one destination in the country for millennials who are relocating. That can be good or bad depending on your perspective, but it's probably safe to say the days of hardcore conservatism and religious wackos are numbered in this town.

Our trail system has grown immensely in recent years, and the city is putting together plans for yet another major expansion. No matter how good the trails are, if/when my house appreciates another $200K, I'm GTFO. I can always come back in live in a van down by the river for a week at a time if I want to ride the trails.

.

I'm up in Fort Collins and same thing. Colorado State University is here and many of the graduates have ended up staying. Doing what, I have no idea but I'm watching my friends rent out one of their houses - 1600 sq/ft 3 bedroom 1960's ranch for $2,100/month and I wonder how much longer this area can sustain it.

We love Fort Collins, but it's definitely been discovered and it's no longer cheap! Not sure where we would go, glad we own a house though. The weather isn't bad (wind at times suucks) and we do like change of seasons. Also, Wyoming is an hour north and is a hidden gem of amazing trails where the only other living things seen are deer and moose.

 

Great thread. To me, a great MTB town means year-round riding. Period. Only my opinion, of course, but I’m not a winter sports person.

I live in Phoenix. Do I think it’s the most awesome place ever? No. It’s huge. It’s hot. And we definitely don’t need more people. But the riding is incredible and it happens 12 months a year.

I was in Brevard last summer for a week of riding and scouting a potential move. Since it rained nearly the whole time, I had plenty of opportunity to research real estate. Didn’t seem all that cheap to me.

 

Great thread. To me, a great MTB town means year-round riding. Period. Only my opinion, of course, but I'm not a winter sports person.

I live in Phoenix. Do I think it's the most awesome place ever? No. It's huge. It's hot. And we definitely don't need more people. But the riding is incredible and it happens 12 months a year.

I was in Brevard last summer for a week of riding and scouting a potential move. Since it rained nearly the whole time, I had plenty of opportunity to research real estate. Didn't seem all that cheap to me.

People who love to fat bike will argue all day what constitutes "year-round riding".

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

Boise.