(gentle music)
- [Briggs] This is the Midwest.
And I'm gonna show you where you could retire
or just live a more affordable life
in this region of the United States.
What is going on everyone?
Welcome back to the World According to Briggs,
and a video about towns in the United States
where you could retire on $1,658 a month.
We did this video a few years back
and had the price at $1,500
because that was the average social security payment
and it was close to about half
the average military retirement.
Things have changed, prices have gone up across the board,
real estate, insurance even scrapbooking cruises
have jumped 20%, and yes there are scrapbook-themed cruises.
And I read a blog where some guy was describing
how his mom had just lost it
because they raised the prices of these crews.
She went on one during the pandemic and it was half priced,
now they're back up to full price.
The world has gone crazy.
Today, we're looking at the Midwest states,
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio,
Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
This $1,658 on this video
is it would cost the average person to live comfortably.
In this case, comfortably means
you never have to worry about food, eviction,
or your utilities getting shut off.
The stats in this video are just the average.
There are a million and one scenarios
like poor health, divorce, dependence
that change a person's financial situation.
This is just the basics for the Average Joe.
All right, let's see where you could live
for under $1,658 a month.
Number 10, Concordia, Kansas.
Concordia sits about two hours Northwest of Topeka, Kansas.
And it is kind of out in the middle of nowhere.
It is really close to the Republican River.
And if you know anything about this part of the country,
they like the name of that river.
Kansas is a great state for a quiet life
and a nice retirement.
If you like just relaxing, and letting time go by,
and doing your hobbies,
this is a perfect city for that or town, I should say.
They got just over 5,000 residents.
One thing I noticed is their downtown
doesn't have a whole bunch of boarded up shops
on their main street.
That's a theme in the Midwest these days,
but they look like they're holding it together pretty good.
I mean, there are some, not a ton.
I've seen some towns where it's like three out of four shops
on a main street are boarded up.
The crime in Concordia is 8% lower
than the national average, which is solid.
They say the median listing price here is about $72,000.
There's homes right now that look decent,
like I've said before,
I'm not in inspecting the plumbing or anything like that.
I'm just looking from Zillow.
There are under $60,000 right now that look livable.
Like go in there, they look like even painted,
taken care of, move your stuff in.
Newer nicer homes might set you back
150, $180,000, that's it.
The cost of living here is 25 per percent lower
than the national average.
Concordia has a quality of life score of 80.
And your estimated average monthly expenditure
would be $1,389.
Number nine, Tipton, Indiana.
The big bustling city of Tipton.
It's just a little small town out
in the middle of the Praire.
Tipton sits about an hour north of Indianapolis
and they don't have a lot of homes for sale right now
but when they do, they're pretty cheap.
Tipton is a quiet little town of about 5,200 residents.
And just this last census, they actually gained 3%.
That's only the second time they've gained population
in the last 70 years.
So it's becoming a migration hotspot.
Tipton is a very safe place to live.
Their crime rate is 64% lower than the national average.
Homes are 55% lower.
The median home listing price is $83,000.
That's not bad.
But like I said, right now they don't have
a lot of homes for sale
but some do pop up for about a hundred thousand.
But more than likely, if you want something decent
it's gonna be 150 to 220,000.
I love little towns like this.
They got a lot of old brick buildings
that have been there since the 18 hundreds probably.
Nice looking little town.
The cost of living in Tipton is 26% lower
than the national average, that is outstanding.
And the estimated average monthly expenditure
would be $1,385.
That's pretty low price for a place
that still has a quality of life score of 82.
If this is the first time you've watched this,
a quality of life score if it's below 60, 59, 58 on down,
the place sucks.
When you start getting into the mid sixties
to mid seventies, it's a decent place to live.
When you get to over 80, you're living in a nice place.
And they got an 82.
Number eight, Tell City, Indiana.
Tell City sits on the banks of the Ohio River
right between Louisville, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana.
A little over 7,000 people call Tell City home
and it looks like a nice place to live.
You drive down the streets here,
you find houses with flag polls, the American flag.
Looks like they put it up every morning.
All the lawns are maintained.
You don't have a bunch of houses
that have boarded up windows.
It's a nice place to live.
Their crime rate is 24% lower than the national average.
The real estate here is about 51% lower
than the national average.
The median listing home here is about $90,000.
Realistically, you're looking
at about 120 to 250,000 to get something decent.
Tell City has a quality of life score of 85.
And your estimated average monthly expenditure is $1,433.
Number seven, Nixa, Missouri.
Nixa is sort of in the Springfield Metro area.
It's actually about 12 miles south of Springfield.
And this isn't really a small town.
They got about 22,000 residents
and it's had a little growth spurt in recent years
probably 'cause it's a great place to live.
They got a crime rate that's 58% lower
than the national average.
And right now their home prices are about 27% lower.
The median home listing price is $133,000.
That is not bad.
Realistically though, homes are gonna start
around 200,000 and go on up to 250,000 and actually beyond.
But 200, 250,000 is what you're probably looking at
to get a decent home.
The reason it's so low for their median,
they have a lot of lots for sale.
They've got planned communities.
You buy the lot that's like 50,000 to 60, 70,000
and then you have a house built on it.
So that kind of lowers their median price.
This is also the home of Jason Bourne.
This is where he was born and raised.
Sure he's a fictional character,
but in the books and in the movie, he's from Nixa, Missouri.
They've even got a street sign
that says home of Jason Bourne.
The cost living here is 13% lower
than the national average.
And your estimated average monthly expenditure is $1,478.
That's not bad for a place that's got
a quality of life score of 87.
Number six, Holdrege, Nebraska.
Holdrege is a farming town
about three hours west of Omaha, Nebraska.
About five hours east of Denver, Colorado.
It is out in the middle of nowhere.
I mean farmland as far as the eye can see.
And it is a great place to raise a family.
That is the strong point of this area.
That's what I like about Kansas and Nebraska.
You actually have to go out of your way
to find a crappy place to raise a family.
Just about any other state you're trying to navigate
where there are good place to raise a family, not them.
It's like the exact opposite.
Holdrege is in a big town.
It's only got about 5,500 residents
but there's like no crime here.
The crime rate is actually 53% lower
than the national average.
The only negatives about Holdrege is,
they don't have a bunch of jobs.
So if you're bringing your own job, great.
Or you're retired, even better.
And they don't have a ton of things to do.
It's not like they've got amusement parks
or anything like that.
It's just a nice place to live.
The average home price here is 43% lower
than the national average
and the median listing price is $105,000.
Realistically though, you could buy a house here
for close to 150, $160,000.
They've got plenty of lots too.
That are going for like 40,000
if you wanna build your own house on it.
The cost of living in Holdrege is 16% lower
than the national average.
Your estimated average monthly expenditure would be $1,454.
That is not bad for a place that's got
a quality of life score of 86.
Number five, Columbia, Illinois.
Columbia, Illinois sits just off the Mississippi River
south of east St. Louis, which it already sounds
like the place sucks because it's south
of east St. Louis, but it really doesn't.
East St. Louis is a nightmare.
I mean it's crime infested.
What's the old saying crime infested, the hell hole.
That's what's going on in east St. Louis.
But in Columbia it's a different story.
They're only like 25 minutes south of east St. Louis
and they've got a really good crime rate.
It's actually 68% lower than the national average.
So they got about 10,000 residents living the good life.
It's nice, safe, and it's a good life.
Well, maybe not for this dude.
He looks like he's walking with a rush.
But everyone else seems to be walking around just fine.
Now, this is good place to live in.
The home prices are a little bit higher
than I'd like to see on here,
but everything else is pretty cheap.
Home prices here are about 2% higher
than the national average
which the median listing price is about $197,000.
You can sometimes find homes here for under $200,000
but really you wanna be looking to spend around 300,000
at least on up to about 400,000 if you wanna live here.
Now they might have some homes coming up
that may be cheaper because they've got a lot of areas
where they're opening up to plant communities here.
So that could be good.
They have a lot of lots for sale in Columbia, Illinois.
The cost of living here is 4% lower
than the national average.
Giving your estimated average monthly expenditure $1620.
So it barely made it in.
The quality of life score is 89.
So it might be worth the price.
Number four, Marietta, Ohio.
Marietta is a beautiful Ohio River town
that sits on the tip of Appalachia.
And it's seen better days.
This is cold country.
So as you can imagine their economy
is tanked several times and then it'll come back
and then it'll tank again.
And that's what has been going on here
for probably the last 50 years.
But it sits right across the river
from West Virginia and if you know anything about this part
of the country, you know the people are resilient
and they stick with their town
and they kind of build stronger communities
because of the ups and downs.
Marietta is an old town
and they have beautiful architecture here.
It's just that part of the country
where you got those beautiful old brick buildings,
churches that are just,
they don't build them like that anymore.
I know a lot of people from this part of the country
and I always just hope for the best for this area.
I don't know why, it's just this thing I have for them.
The population of Marietta
has been shrinking since the 1980 census.
Actually in this 1970 census they only gained 0.1%.
So they've been on a downward slide for some time now.
The good news about that is,
if you could bring a job to this area
or you're retired and you don't mind the cold
because it's pretty cold here,
you could live pretty cheap.
A little over 13,000 people called Marietta home right now.
And for a place that has its ups and downs
with its economy, their crime rate is pretty low.
That's normally not a thing.
If your economy sucks and people don't have jobs,
their crime rate is always through the roof.
In Marietta, it's 43% lower than the national average.
Their real estate is 47% lower than the national average
and their median home listing price is $99,000.
Realistically though, if you wanna get a place here,
something decent that's livable is about $150,000.
If you get near the 250 to 300,000
you're living in a nice place.
The cost of living in Marietta is 16% lower
than the national average
meaning your estimated average monthly expenditure
would be $1,466.
That is not bad for a place that's got
a quality of life score of 89.
Number three, Denison, Iowa.
If you pulled out a map
and thought to yourself, you know what?
I wanna live as far away as I can
from any good size cities, where do I go?
You would end up in Denison, Iowa.
They're an hour from Omaha, Nebraska,
an hour and a half from Sioux city, Iowa,
and two hours from Des Moines, Iowa.
They do have a Walmart super center.
Really, that's all you need in this part of the country.
And their hours are 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM.
So if you wanna do any 1:00 AM shopping,
you're out of luck here.
But if you have a phobia, be neat by a shark
this is probably the best place to live
in the United States.
It's like dead center almost.
Denison has a population of about 8,300 residents.
And their crime rate is next to nothing.
It's actually 66% lower
than national average, which is phenomenal.
Their home prices are 50% lower than the national average
and their median home listing price is about $95,000.
Now, realistically it's closer to 200,000
because this is one of those places
that have a lot of lots for sale
and they drive down that median home listing price.
The cost of living in Denison is 20% lower
than the national average.
All their stats are great for this place.
Schools are good, people are decent, they got things to do.
If you don't work in farms
you might wanna bring a job with you.
That's their only knock.
But this is kind of geared towards retirement
and you don't really need a job if you're retired properly.
The estimated average monthly expenditure
in Denison, Iowa is $1,415.
Not bad for a place that's got
a quality of life score of 90.
Number two, Atlantic, Iowa.
Staying in Iowa, we have the great city of Atlantic.
I don't know if it's a great city.
It's a decent city to live, it's got the name Atlantic
out in the middle of the Praire.
Nobody can really agree on how they got the name Atlantic
but I think they're trying to scare away
all those people that are afraid of sharks.
Local legends say that the founding fathers estimated
that the town was about halfway
between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
So they just flipped a coin and Atlantic won.
Atlantic has about 7,000 residents in every single one
of their stats, but employment is phenomenal.
I mean, employment's not terrible
but everything else is like graded A, A plus,
the exact opposite of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Atlantic, Iowa, you could find right
between Des Moines, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska
and like so many other places in this part of the country
it is a phenomenal place to raise a family.
Or just be retired and relax.
Just like Denison, they got a Walmart super center.
So you will never run out of Hohos.
And they got a pretty good size medical center
called Atlantic Medical Center.
So if you're retired
you won't be going without medical care.
It's actually two things.
There's Atlantic Medical Center
and in kind of the same little complex
Cass County Memorial Hospital is right there too.
So if you're there for a colonoscopy,
after you're done you can just walk across the field
to Super Bowls Sports Bar and Grill, do some bowling.
If your colonoscopy doesn't go well,
you just pass by the super bowl
and right across the street to the Atlantic Cemetery.
You don't have to worry about getting killed
by anything else here because their crime rate is 25% lower
than the national average.
Let's say you do survive all that stuff,
you can get a home here.
Home prices are 50% lower than the national average.
The median home listing price is $92,000.
They have homes here for about 105.
If you wanna get something nice,
you're looking at 200,000, that's it.
The cost of living here is 16% lower
than the national average.
And your estimated monthly expenditure would be $1,470.
That's the average.
Not bad for a place that's got a 90 quality of life score.
All right, before we get to number one,
don't forget we have another channel called "On This Day."
I'm trying so hard to build that channel up
and I would really appreciate it
if you went over there and subscribe.
All right, on to number one.
And number one, New Philadelphia, Ohio.
New Philadelphia was started because old Philadelphia sucks.
No, actually old Philadelphia is horrible in some places.
Woo, I saw some videos of, I guess
they're homeless camps where all the people
that are strung out or whatever are living.
That was some scary stuff.
I've seen some scary homeless stuff
here in Portland, Oregon.
What's going on in Philadelphia was alarming.
New Philadelphia is south of Canton and Akron, Ohio.
And it is west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
They're one of the only towns I've seen
on these lists that has continually grown in population.
In the nineties, they did lose some population
but most of their census since 1880,
they've grown in population almost in double digits.
They've had three census where they lost some people
and all of them were like 3%.
When you got a town in this part of the country
that people aren't flooded out of,
that's kind of tells you it's a good place to live.
And 17,000 people are living
the good life in New Philadelphia.
Their crime rate is 73% lower than the national average.
Their home prices are 42% lower than the national average
and their median home listing price is about $107,000.
Realistically, you're looking around 200,000.
The cost of living in new Philadelphia is 11% lower
than the national average, giving you an average monthly
expenditure of about $1,522.
All that, and they have a quality of life score of 90.
All right, that's today's video.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Hope you got some information out of it.
Now go out, have a great day.
Be nice to each other.