My husband's employer has a plant in Oklahoma City and we were considering trying to relocate there. Currently we are near Denver, Co which was just ranked the 6th highest priced place to live! We were hoping that moving to a more affordable area might be the ticket to a little financial breathing room & the possibility to expand our homesteading. What we would like to have is 20+ acres of decent ag land (for pasture & gardens), a 3 bdrm home, within 1 hrs drive to OK city. What type of $$$ would we have to spend, we don't mind a little sweat equity. Any weird regulations we would need to know about. What's the weatehr like, etc, etc. I would really like to hear advice from OK residents if possible.

-- Elle (hotging@aol.com), October 16, 2000

Answers

Here is a web site that will give you all sorts of weather averages for 300 or more cities in the US. I use it when looking for a location to move to. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/waverage.htm

For a quick check of weather for other locations is http://www.wunderground.com Here is the specific url for OKC, OK. http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=okla homa+city+ok

For a daily in-depth look at OKC weather, I refer you to one of the OKC airport reporting stations for weather. It gives hour by hour accounts. http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/KOKC.html

Next is a site for newspapers for all over the world. Use the top right column to go to the Oklahoma newspapers. Once at the newspaper you should be able to look at classifieds to get a rough idea of land costs, etc. Some daily reading will generally give you an idea of preferred schools, etc. Realtors can help with this as well. http://www.start4all.com/

A lot of homework will at least head you in the right direction. You've started that by asking questions here. You might also try asking over on the Backwoodshome Magazine web forum. I think at least one from OKC posts there.

Good luck in your quest for information.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), October 17, 2000.

We lived & worked in OKC for a very long time raising kids & paying for our place. I assume that acreage close in will still be prohibitively expencive for all but the well off. A good place to investigate may be the Chandler area. Lots of good folks & not too far to commute. The United Farm Agency would be a good place to check out acreage around Lincoln County.

-- Okie-Dokie (tjcamp6338@aol.com), October 22, 2000.

One place to avoid is Shawnee, OK. If you are within city limits there are all sorts of rules and regulations, one being PVC pipe is illegal. You cannot do any building or anything on your own or you face fines and having it all torn out and redone by a hired person. No plumbing can be done by anyone without a license etc.... Can you guess we have been burned? We don't live there now and are happy people. Good luck and be sure to check into city ordinances if you live within city limits. We are within city limits where we area now, but it is considered aggricultural, so we don't have the problems that we had in Shawnee.

-- Cindy in OK (ldsmomof6@yahoo.com), October 22, 2000.