- [Briggs] Are you looking to retire
or just live a more affordable life, maybe buy a home?
In this video, I'm gonna show you where you could do that
in the Southern United States.
What is going on, everyone?
Welcome back to the World According to Briggs,
and a video about towns in the Southern United States,
where you could live, retire, survive on $1,658 a month.
We did this series a few years back
and we set the price at $1,500 a month
because that is what the average
Social Security payment was
and it's about half what the average
military retirement and pension is.
Things have changed, prices are up across the board,
real estate, insurance, Rice Krispie Treats, everything.
Today, we're looking at the Southern United States,
Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee,
South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Kentucky.
Virginia and West Virginia should be on this list
by some regional maps
but I try and make sure every state has some representation.
So we're gonna move those up with the North Atlantic state
like they are in some maps.
The $1,658 on this video is what it should cost
the average Joe of a comfortable life.
In this case, when I say comfortable life,
it means you never have to worry about food,
eviction or utilities getting shut off.
The stats on this video are just the average.
There's a million and one scenarios that could change
someone's financial situation
like poor health, divorce, dependence.
This is just the basics for the average Joe.
All right, let's see where you could live
a more affordable life.
(electricity buzzing) Number 10, McRae-Helena.
McRae-Helena is a small town of under 7,000 people
in between Savannah and Columbus.
About the midway point there.
This town has a prison on the north side of town
and a lot of the residents work for the prison
or in some kind of job that supports the prison.
This town hasn't been around that long.
Well, I shouldn't say it that way, it used to be two towns.
Then in 2015, they pressed them together
and became McRae-Helena.
I'm struggling to call this place Helena
because I grew up with a girl named Helena,
spelled the same way.
Every time I look at it, I wanna call it Helena.
But this town is big in prisons and corrections.
They have a correctional facility
on the south side of town too.
I don't know if that works as a deterrent
to keep their crime rate down
but their crime rate is actually 64% lower
than the national average.
Now keep in mind that rarely happens
for a town that is relatively affordable.
Now they say the median rental price here is 560 a month.
That's 41% lower than the national average.
I looked around, they didn't have a whole bunch of rentals.
The median listing price for a home here is about $58,000,
which is 68% lower than the national average.
I poked around.
If you wanna buy a home here, that's nice, ready to go,
maybe a little bit older, but decent,
you're looking at around 200,000.
And if you go all the way up to 350,000,
they have one that looks like a plantation.
It's just a lot smaller
and doesn't have a bunch of property.
You know, a lot like acres and acres,
it's like starter plantation for someone.
McRae-Helena has a livability score of 75,
and the average monthly expenditure
is estimated to be $1,280.
(electricity buzzing)
Number nine, Taylors, South Carolina.
It is a suburb of Greenville, it's on the north side.
And houses here, I was talking to a real estate agent
from there that I've communicated back and forth with.
And he said the difference in prices for real estate
between Taylors and Greenville is about $100,000.
Now that's just ballparking it, obviously.
But they do have some reasonable real estate prices.
I was looking around
and you could get a decent older home for under $240,000.
According to the U.S. census, the real estate here
is about 23% lower than the national average.
And if you're gonna rent here,
the median rental price is about $800,
which is 16% lower than the national average.
It's not bad.
Now, they got a little more crime
than I'd like to see in a retirement place,
but it's not the worst.
It's only 40% above the national average.
Like we've learned in other videos,
you've got places like East St. Louis and Camden, New Jersey
where it's like two, three and 400%
above the national average.
Taylors is not a bad place to live.
They've got a lot of construction going on there.
So the place is growing, which means next five or six years,
it'll start getting more expensive.
So you're thinking about it, look into it now.
They do have a livability score of 78.
And like we've said before, if it's below like 60, it sucks.
If it's below 50 or in the 50s, it really sucks.
And anything above 70 to 75 is decent.
Your average monthly expenditure in Taylors
would be $1,595. (electricity buzzing)
Number eight, Corbin, Kentucky.
Corbin's a nice place.
I mean, it's got really good stats, next to no crime.
It's beautiful land.
It's right there by the Laurel River Lake,
which gives you plenty of things to do.
If you're looking for it on a map,
Corbin is on interstate 75 about halfway
between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Lexington Kentucky.
Corbin was first settled in the mid 1800s,
and it was called Lynn Camp Station at the time.
When they got a post office,
they started calling the community Cummins
after the founder Nelson Cummins.
But then it was discovered in 1885
that both Cummins and Lynn Camp were already in use
in other places in Kentucky,
so they had to change it.
They settled on Corbin after a local reverend.
If you look at it from the stats,
the only negative they have is employment.
They really don't have a bunch of jobs
or high-paying jobs or decent-paying jobs, for that matter.
But everything else is great, including their crime rate.
It's actually 17% lower than the national average,
their of cost of living's low, their housing's great.
Here's the statistics on housing.
If you wanna rent here,
they really don't have a bunch of rentals,
but it's about $550 a month,
which is 41% lower than national average.
If you wanna buy a house here,
the median listing price is $91,400.
That's 51% lower than national average.
But realistically, if you wanna buy a house here,
you're looking at about $200,000.
Now, a lot of these places, these small towns,
we don't have a lot of good footage.
So if you're watching video
in the background and you're like, "Hey, that's not Corbin.
"That's like four miles down the road,"
we're just showing that as a visual aid,
the pictures are of that place.
Corbin has a livability score of 77
and your average monthly expenditure in Corbin is $1,575.
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Number seven, Red Bank, Tennessee.
Red Bank is a little city entirely surrounded
by the city limits of Chattanooga.
Now Chattanooga's growing.
It's a great place to live right now.
Red Bank is probably your cheapest option,
if you wanna live in the Chattanooga metro area.
They have a little bit of crime, nothing major.
It's just like 22% above the national average.
But their costs living and their housing is pretty low here.
It's actually 13% lower than the national average,
and 3% lower than the Tennessee average.
And it's in a major city in Tennessee.
That's really strange.
This is another place that had to change their name
because the name was already taken.
It originally was Pleasant Hill,
but when they went to get their post office,
they found out there's another place
in Tennessee called Pleasant Hill.
The postmaster at the time, his wife actually suggested
that they call it Red Bank because outside her window,
she could see a red clay ridge.
So the name Red Bank stuck until they decided to incorporate
with another town next to it called White Oak.
And eventually in 1966,
they just dropped White Oak and were called Red Bank.
As far as real estate goes in Red Bank,
they say that the median listing price is 126,000.
That's 31% lower than the national average
and rent is about $719.
Realistically, if you wanna buy a house in Red Bank
it's all over the map.
But 250 should be able to get you something decent.
They actually have one house here for $45,000,
and it's rundown and it would need a whole bunch of work.
And the lot is about as big as the house,
wide, I should say,
but it goes what looks like about 100 yards back.
It's strange, it's like the thinnest lot I've ever seen.
Livability score in Red Bank is 79,
which is outstanding for a place that's relatively cheap.
And your average monthly expenditure
in Red Bank is only $1,467.
Good job, Red Bank! (electricity buzzing)
Number six, Hartselle, Alabama.
Hartselle, Alabama is north of Birmingham
and just south of Decatur, Alabama,
not too far from the Tennessee River.
This is a nice town that builds itself
as the city of southern hospitality.
They have a nice downtown with plenty of like antique shops
and little cafes, things like that.
And like any quality town,
their main street is called Main Street.
Sometimes I watch like city council meetings
when I run across them on YouTube.
It's not like I'm out looking for 'em,
but sometimes I see 'em I'll watch 'em,
and this one small town was gonna rename their main street
to The Main, that's what they wanted to call it.
And the locals at the meeting started laughing
when they suggested it
so they killed that idea and stuck with Main Street.
This is not a bad place to live.
Their crime isn't terrible.
It's only like 15% above the national average
but it's a relatively small place.
So, a bar fight could raise
your crime rate through the roof here.
They only got about 14,000 residents.
They say the median listing price here is about $132,000,
which is 29% lower than the national average,
and rent here goes about $600, that's what they say.
If you wanna rent a one-bedroom here, two-bedroom here,
you're looking at over 700, 750, maybe $800.
But the real estate is so cheap here,
you might as well just buy.
You could get houses that you're probably
gonna need a little work for about $100,000,
but if you wanna get something decent that's ready to go
I mean, 150,000 to 200,000 is all you're gonna need.
Hartselle has a livability score of 72,
and their average monthly expenditure is $1,489.
(electricity buzzing)
Number five, Grenada, Mississippi.
It is really hard to find place
with good stats in Mississippi.
I mean, statewide, sure.
Their cost of living and their housing,
the real estate is always really cheap,
but to find one with everything else that's kind of good,
it's kind of rough.
Grenada has a population of a little over 13,000 residents,
and it sits between Jackson, Mississippi,
and Memphis, Tennessee, about the midway point.
Right outside of town, they've got good Grenada Lake,
which looks like it's a good time.
They've got a river going through town.
They've got some really nice things about this place.
It's just in Mississippi.
If you wanna retire on the cheap and you own a fishing pole,
Grenada's probably a good place for you.
Here's where Grenada shines, real estate.
Their median listing price is $98,000.
That's 47% lower than the national average.
But this is another one of those places, why rent?
You could almost afford a house here working at McDonald's.
I mean, if they had a McDonald's.
They do have a Walmart super center.
They have homes here all over the place
that are like $50,000.
You're gonna need to do some work
and it's gonna take some effort,
but they have plenty of them.
Livability score in Grenada is 76, which is not bad.
And their average monthly expenditure is $1,205.
Mississippi has a lot of problems,
but being an expensive date is not one of 'em.
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Number four, Thomasville, North Carolina.
I like Thomasville.
It's in that sweet spot where I like to find towns,
where it's just south of Winston-Salem, not too far away,
and kind of close to Greensboro, too.
So you get the small town vibe with bigger cities
not too far away in case you need one.
That usually ends up in the form of healthcare,
which Winston-Salem has phenomenal healthcare.
You're retired, that is something to be concerned with.
Winston-Salem has some of the best doctors, nurses
and hospitals in this country.
So if you're a retiree with some medical problems,
this is probably a solid option for you,
especially when you see how cheap the real estate is.
The median listing price in Thomasville is $109,900,
which is not bad.
That's 40% lower than the national average.
When it comes to median rent price, it sits at $647,
which is 32% lower than the national average.
Realistically, a decent rent is gonna run about $750 here.
When it comes to real estate here,
you could find things for under $100,000.
If you wanna buy a house, probably, you know,
a couple decades old, but in decent condition,
you're looking at in between 170 to 200,000.
Now, if you go all the way up to 250,000
you'll get a newer house on maybe a half an acre.
Thomasville prides itself on its big chair.
Yeah, it's a thing.
You know, some of these small towns or towns
have like the world's largest ball of twine,
things like that.
They've got a big chair.
That big chair sits in downtown Thomasville,
which is a nice little downtown area.
It's clean, it's cute,
it's got some train tracks running through town.
Thomasville has a livability score of 72,
and their average monthly expenditure is $1,481.
(electricity buzzing)
Number three, Middleburg, Florida.
It's getting harder and harder to find places in Florida
that fall under the cheap category.
If it's cheap, it's usually really high crime,
but we do what we can, so I found Middleburg, Florida,
which is outside of Jacksonville to the south.
It's not really a town, or a city.
It's known as a census designated area.
Now what's good about this
is they do have relatively cheap houses,
the crime isn't terrible here,
and it's close to Jacksonville.
In case you have some medical concerns,
you have great hospitals right there.
Now they do have some crime, it's not terrible.
It's only 11% higher than the national average,
which, like we've talked about, is not bad.
The median listing price in Middleburg is $121,000,
which is 34% lower than the national average.
And their average rent is percent lower
and it sits around 900.
Realistically, rent's probably gonna be
somewhere around 1000 buck, maybe 950,
or like a two-bedroom, one-bath.
And the housing of course is gonna be higher than 121,000.
That's just the median listing price, they say.
And that counts in things like vacant lots, whatever.
Realistically, you're looking at probably around 200
to $250,000 to get into something that's livable.
But a majority of their homes there
are about 350 to $450,000.
It is still affordable.
It's just a little higher than I'd like to have
on a list like this.
But it's in Florida.
Livability score in Middleburg, Florida is 75,
and their average monthly expenditure is $1,521.
(electricity buzzing)
Number two, Springhill, Louisiana.
Springhill, Louisiana is on the north side of the state
at the Arkansas border.
And like every place in Louisiana,
this area is surrounded by water.
You've got lakes, creeks, rivers, ponds, it's all here.
If you own a fishing pole
and you wanna have a nice relaxing life move to Springhill.
They do have homes for sale,
but really, it's lots of land.
They have acres and acres of land that you could buy.
Now, the reason I bring this one up,
and the reason I put it here,
I always get people wanting to know
where they could move their motor home to,
or something like that, while they build a house.
This is the perfect opportunity.
The land is cheap here.
You have half-acre lots here for like $25,000.
There's one that has an old rundown house on it for $18,000.
The median listing price in Springhill is $73,900.
It is the cheapest place I've ever seen that has good stats.
They're actually 60% lower than the national average.
Their median renting price is 46%
lower than the national average, and that's $513 a month.
Realistically, that one's probably gonna be about 650.
The cost of living here is 25%
lower than the national average.
Not bad.
There's two downsides to this city,
and that's one, it's in Louisiana.
Number two, it's right up against Arkansas.
Those are your only two negatives.
The crime rate here is 41% lower
than the national average,
and the employment numbers here aren't terrible.
The unemployment rate is actually 46%
lower than the national average.
So you could move here, actually have a job,
and live extremely cheap.
If you wanna do that in retirement,
or you just build a house and fish,
This would be considered a small town.
They have a population that's just under 5,000 residents.
It's actually shrinking.
In 2010, they had 5,279.
Springhill has two requirements of all southern towns.
They've got a main street like we discussed earlier,
and they also got a church street, they always have 'em.
The livability score in Springhill is 72.
And their average monthly expenditure is 1,435.
All right, before we get to number one,
don't forget to like, and subscribe to the channel
if you already haven't,
and you really wanna help out the channel,
at the end of the video,
there's those end screens that suggest videos for you,
watch one of those.
It's something YouTube really want you to do these days
and I'm here to promote it.
All right, onto number one. (electricity buzzing)
And number one, Mountain Home, Arkansas.
It's normally kinda hard to find a nice place in Arkansas
that's outside that northwest corner,
with Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville.
But Mountain Home does a pretty good job.
It hasn't always been called Mountain Home.
Mountain Home was originally known as Rapp's Barren.
The land was owned by man name named Simeon Talburt
but he went by the nickname Rapp.
He built the first home in the area in the early 1830s.
This became one of those areas
like so many other areas in the south
where the whole family lived like in the area.
Different generations.
Rapp and many of his family members
are buried in the small cemetery
in the Indian Creek subdivision of Mountain Home.
Mountain Home has a good size medical facility
called Baxter Regional Medical Center.
It's another good place to live if you like to fish.
You've got Norfolk Lake right there,
and Bull Shoals Lake isn't too far away.
You got creeks, rivers, everything in this area.
The White River runs not too far from town, either.
The median listing price here is $116,000,
which is 37% below the national average.
Realistically, though, you could get a decent house
for the 200,000 area.
And I mean, ready to move in, decent,
you're not gonna have to do a whole bunch of work.
They do have houses that get up in the three to 400,000.
Those are really nice.
But you could get a nice house and retire
for in between 150 and $200,000.
The average rental price here for one bedroom is $635,
which is 33% lower than the national average.
It's gonna be a little more expensive,
probably around 700, 725 if you can find a place.
Just buy a house here, if you move here.
I mean, it's pretty cheap.
The livability score in Mountain Home, Arkansas is 70.
And the average monthly expenditure is $1,488.
This is not a bad place to live,
especially if you're the outdoor type.
Arkansas, for all its problems, is not lacking
when it comes to natural beauty, great places to fish,
be on the water, whatever you wanna do.
(soft guitar music)
All right, that's today's video.
I hope you guys enjoyed it,
hope you got some information out of it.
Don't forget to maybe watch another video,
if you've got time.
That would be great, helps out the channel.
Everybody have a great day, be nice to each other.