Despite what you may have heard, the American Dream is not dead or out of reach; so long as you’re willing to put in a little work (ok, a lot of work) and keep an open mind (ok, a very open mind). I found a place off the grid to start for just $900 that’s perfect for those unafraid to embrace America’s new apocalyptic phase.
Surveys show the American Dream is increasingly nothing more than that — a dream. Between 35 and 36 percent of people my age (I’m somewhere in my 40s) and younger think it’s completely out of reach for them. For the majority of Americans, their situation can best be defined as precarious, with 56 percent reporting they would be unable to pay an unexpected $1,000 expense out of savings. It’s no wonder coming up with a $30,000 down payment for a home seems like pure fantasy to so many.
But this is no longer our grandparents’ America. It’s time to revise the Dream for current conditions. In short, it’s time to imagine a new American Dream: Apocalypse Edition (reality show producers take note). Since 2001, we continue to experience major events that conjure end times visions — a global pandemic, climate crisis and dramatic escalation of war in the Middle East, just to name a few from recent years.
Surely in apocalyptic times the American Dream can’t still be sprawling suburban ranchettes or cookie-cutter cul-de-sac construction? We need a new dream that’s a little bit grittier and a whole lot cheaper.
After all, it is still a big ol’ country and much is still remarkably empty if you’re willing to not be picky. How much could it possibly cost for just an empty patch of dirt in the middle of nowhere a person could call their own, pitch a tent, park a car and figure the rest out later, one step at a time?
Fourth of An Acre and Some Tools
How about a quarter acre of dirt, sagebrush, road access and not much more except for an epic view of the southern Rockies and around 300 sunny days each year? Asking price: $900 plus fees.
My wife and I bought two such lots a few weeks ago when they came up for sale in our funky little off-grid community here in northern New Mexico. One is adjacent to where we already live, and the other about a mile up the road with a slightly better view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and the maw of the Rio Grande Gorge below.
It got me thinking more about the huge gap between the current cost of a home – especially with interest on a typical 30-year mortgage – and what most people actually need or would be willing to get by on today.
We’ve been imagining an array of affordable options for these newly acquired plots, either for ourselves or others; everything from a yurt or tiny home to a larger Earthship or straw bale construction. A cozy yurt – definitely still roughing it by modern standards, but cozy – can be set up for perhaps 5 or 10 percent of the total cost of a median home with a typical fixed rate mortgage attached to it over 30 years.
The savings are also substantial over the cost of renting for 30 years, even if you manage to find a place for $1,000 a month for the duration (good luck!) And, of course, you’d have no assets to show for your 30 years of renting.
Obviously this steal on a piece of what most might consider high desert wasteland isn’t for everyone. But if it intrigues you even slightly, there’s probably another part of the American Dream you might want to consider pursuing: that old hard-scrabble, independent pioneering spirit that still brings people here today.
Off The Grid Ain’t Easy, But it Sure is… Something
When Covid hit, my wife and I indeed joked the apocalypse had finally arrived, although the unfunny fact for many Americans is it had already been arriving economically for years. Either way, we decided to lean into the American Dream apocalyptic remix by moving off the grid in April 2020.
We saw a listing on Craigslist for a funky, unfinished small home off-grid in the nearby New Mexico high desert. The asking price was just a little higher than the median down payment on a home mentioned above. It seemed certain there was either a catch or it was a brazen scam.
Turns out there wasn’t a single catch; there were several of them. The structure was fully built, but without any electrical wiring, plumbing or any other utilities installed. We had bought ourselves a huge pandemic project. Put more positively, we had made a big investment into our own independence.
Used solar panels were installed alongside water tanks to catch rainwater and we’re now even building on to the original structure. All without any need of financing. It’s been such a successful experiment and investment, we’re looking to run it all over again, but this time starting from the bare dirt.
Actually not even from the bare dirt. The $900 lots we bought are covered in sagebrush, so it would take a few hours with some equipment just to get down to the dirt.
There is maintained road access right up to the property, which I wouldn’t actually expect for this price. Even better, the view is spectacular, National Forest is a half mile down the road, a National Monument and the mighty Rio Grande are a few miles the other direction and a famous resort town is a half-hour drive. Water, electricity and everything else is up to us.
If it still sounds more like a dream than a nightmare you’ll be interested to know that median rent here is $2,000, so for just TWO WEEKS rent you could buy the absolute bare bones, apocalypse edition American Dream starter kit.
If, instead, you’re more of a traditional white picket fence kind of dreamer, that’s fine. I was once firmly in that camp as well. Weirdly, though, when you get a taste of a harder way, you just might find yourself hooked.
