
Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere? - RomanPushkin
I&#x27;m a software engineer in the bay area and have been thinking about moving somewhere cheaper (in USA) where I can live cheaply and focus on my own intellectual pursuits. I&#x27;d love to be in a place where the living costs are low, and ideally where a thriving intellectual community exists. I haven&#x27;t traveled too often and would love to hear from HN community about any places that match this general description. Thank you in advance!
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notadog
I find it odd that the text of this post is plagiarized from the last time
this question was posted in 2018:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18164189](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18164189)

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partisan
It is strange. How did you notice this?

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gt2
I personally remembered it, and looked at a bookmark I had to verify.

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softwaredoug
The US is dotted with college towns. Sure the town center is more expensive,
but the costs drop off pretty quickly from the town center. They can be a good
bang for the buck compared to large cities. Nice restaurants, shops, and
coffee shops with a university anchor for the local economy. Often
universities can spin off a bit of a startup ecosystem.

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svaha1728
Lawrence, KS is nice, and inexpensive. College towns will be going through
lots of changes this year. Regardless, Lawrence is literally the heart of
bleeding Kansas. The Django web framework got its start in Lawrence as well.

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giantg2
I would say look for communities online. In person would be better, but with
the current events it would be tough. You could find cheap areas to live with
high speed internet in large parts of the rural US.

I can't wait to move out of my expensive area, and it isn't even that bad
compared to the really expensive places. $5k per year in property taxes is
just ridiculous. If this trend continues, nobody will be able to afford to
even rent.

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probinso
Small towns with a good college.

Ithaca, NY is a prime example.

I really enjoyed Bellingham Washington.

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HAL9OOO
Maybe digital nomad hotspots? Ones in SEA for example are in pretty
inexpensive locations. I'm not too sure honestly, I'm also looking for the
same thing as you.

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rdtwo
Probably Vancouver wa, you get to pay no income tax the cross the border and
shop in Oregon for no sales tax

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mrfusion
You’re saying it’s an intellectual town because the residents have optimized
their lives for tax savings? (I’d actually agree with you)

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mrfusion
College towns used to be a good place for that. It sure about anymore though.

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verdverm
Ithaca, NY comes to mind

