When we first moved to North Dakota, we were astonished to learn that our neighbor had purchased his house for around $6,000.

Granted, it was a very small house and maybe not in the best condition. He was single at the time and looked at it as an investment. I thought he was smart.

I never expected to hear of other deals like that. I was mistaken; about a year ago I heard of another young man who had purchased a home in a rural North Dakota town for about the same price. This young man had moved from a metropolitan area from out of state, bought the house outright and opened an online auction business. The last time I spoke with him, he seemed to be doing pretty well for himself.

I’m not saying that all houses in North Dakota are inexpensive. It seems to me that homes in the more metropolitan areas (Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks) go for more money than they would in the country. Maybe homes in North Dakota’s energy belt are an exception; there are a lot of nice homes in Beulah and Hazen. On a national level, I still think they’re very reasonable.

Take the homes in my neighborhood as an example. They’re not new, but most of them are around 1800-2000 square feet with two-plus bedrooms on the main floor. All of them that I know of have basements and decent yards. Our home appraised for about $85,000 when we bought it five years ago (and we bought it for less than that). Similar homes in our neighborhood are now priced at around $95,000.

When we moved back to North Dakota, there was an ad in the paper for a five-bedroom house in the country selling for around $28,000. We opted to live in town, but sometimes I wish we would have at least walked through it. We might have changed our minds.

Some people maintain that the lower cost of housing here is a result of North Dakota’s lower wages and salaries. I don’t know whether that’s the case or not. What I think is that it offsets the lower wages and makes the Great American Dream–owning a home–more affordable, especially for people moving from out of state.

It’s a smart move for people opening businesses that can succeed from rural areas in North Dakota, although they may have to search to find the home they want. Some of the little towns are experiencing a housing crunch right now. I assume it’s because they’re already growing.