Is New England, North Dakota a good place to buy and own property? The answer is “Yes”, “No”, and “It Depends”.

New England, North Dakota is a very small town, with a low population. It is peaceful, quiet, laid-back, and has a lower than average amount of crime. More than half the population of the town has lived in the area for several generations.

In any given month, there are usually several houses for sale, and there are always vacant city-lots that someone is willing to sell in New England.

In general, the house prices in New England are less than half of what they are in Dickinson, a town of 25,000 people 25 miles to the north of New England. The people in Dickinson unrealistically and baselessly over-value their property in Dickinson, and just as foolishly they greatly undervalue the property in New England.

In my opinion, I have never seen property so undervalued in my life, as here in New England. Due to the very low asking price for existing housing, the perceived value of what I would be getting, and my fear of the U.S. Dollar losing its worth, in the past four years I bought two houses and four vacant city-lots in New England. I tried to purchase a third house by agreeing to pay the advertised asking-price, but “They” wouldn’t let me. “They” in this case was the realtor, who was supposedly instructed by North Dakota Housing Finance that the house had to be sold to an “owner-occupier” only.

My belief was that each of my houses and vacant city-lots that I bought in New England, would experience only moderate appreciation in the next 10-20 years. However, I bought each of them at such a low price to begin with, I was confident that they certainly would not lose any value.

Also, in my estimation, there is about a 30%-70% chance that there will be another North Dakota Oil Boom within the next 10 years. The 2007-2014 North Dakota Oil Boom caused housing prices in Dickinson to double, then triple, then quadruple. I expect there to be an increase in oil production activity in southwest North Dakota, and I expect there to be another housing shortage here, even if it’s not an Oil Boom.

At this point, I need to warn readers about a few of the risks and downside to buying and owning property in New England, North Dakota. As I discussed in my previous blog post, if the Women’s Prison in New England were to close, there soon could be ten houses going up for sale in New England at the same time as people leave. The economic ripple-effect of the prison closing and then ten houses being for sale, could deflate the housing prices in New England.

The Property Taxes in New England, North Dakota are not high. However, due to sewer-system and water-system improvements that were made several years ago, there is approximately an additional 40% “special assessment” fee added to everyone’s property taxes.

For someone who is considering relocating to New England because of a specific employment opportunity or job offer, I warn that this is very risky. More often than not, new-hires do not do well in southwest North Dakota due to incompatibility with the company owners and managers, but even more so due to resistance from local co-workers who wanted their friend or family member to get your job.

It is safer to relocate to New England, based on someone having job-skills, training, experience, and aptitude that give them the ability to obtain a wide variety of employment within a 1-hour drive of New England. For instance: commercial truck driving, welding, mechanic, heavy-equipment operator, roofer, prison guard, paramedic, nurse.

Lastly, I need to give a warning about buying and owning property in New England by an absentee owner that is seeking an investment. Due to the price of housing in New England being very low compared to everywhere else, there are often down-on-their-luck, everything-went-wrong, or naer-do-well people who look for housing in New England. There is a very high rate of tenants gone wrong in New England.

Even though landlords everywhere face the risks of tenants who lose their employment and are unable to pay their rent, schemers who are unwilling to pay their rent, and hoodlums who trash their rental housing, the people who fall through the cracks and wind up in New England have otherworldly abnormal behavior, that you can’t even imagine.