US Mid-Atlantic (Virginia) or Northeast (New York) for small scale farmingand homesteading?

If you could choose a spot to homestead/small farm, would you choose a rural area in Virginia or a rural area in upstate New York?  We're at a crossroads.  We have family in NY, but live in Virginia.  We haven't bought land, so we could choose either place.  All input welcome!

Hello Isabella,

I cannot be of any use, but I would like to ask a question.
I recently was checking out houses/land in upstate NY, and found the prices very cheap compared to the NW.

Houses and acreage ranging from 50-100K. I am not familiar with the east coast, but my assumption would have been that areas close to the big cities, i.e. Los Angeles, would be quite expensive, especially when acreage is involved.
Care to share your understanding on this?

Eastern Rensselaer County NY. LOVE IT. Been here 24 years.

Highly recommended. The Right to Farm law here makes life very sweet.

Jules

It's a close call for me, I'm in VA and the politics are illegal--at best--the state is basically run by money and they don't even apologize for it.

On the other hand, they have left me alone as far as interfering in my private affairs--except for the ACP that wants to steal some of my land.--NY is even fighting fracking, down here they're enabling it

I could go back and forth all day--nice climate, longer growing season, good old boys running the show locally

Then as mentioned, NY is somewhat more progressive, starting to try and take back power from big business and the feds, probably better soil, but then there's the cold

Good luck whatever you decide

http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Eleven-year-old_homestead_for_sale/

How about a 58 acre homestead that this couple has built up over 11 years, for sale for about $80K?

As they mention, the access is currently limited and being hilly affects the price too. The further out you're willing to go, and the closer to marginal you'll use, the better the price tends to be. But I've seen lots for sale that are remote and raw land on slopes that are still close to $10k/acre, maybe because others have bought nearby and the sellers assume the best? Some of those lots are for sale for 1-2 years as a result.

Access to healthy water is a biggie, not only for a decent well but what is upstream of you or in your watershed. A lot of land I've seen is surrounded by timber company land, so I would expect to be sprayed either directly or by wind drift with broadleaf herbicide that kills anything not named douglas fir.

But then out at Cob Cottage Company, they have protected lands adjacent to tree farms, and the sudden change between the sterile woodlot and their vibrant rainforest is jarring. Song birds and small mammals running around in the diverse forest, and 100 feet into the sterile food desert and it feels like everything is holding its breath, waiting for the Evil Terror to jump out and eat you...

So perhaps a permaculture homestead could survive relatively close to timber land? Or maybe Cobville gets very special treatment? They do have a 1200 year old Cedar which is technically on the timber company land, but the company is afraid to cut it down!  

I have 14 acres on the eastern border of New York about an hour north of Albany that I’m working towards making a sustainable Homestead very affordable. I’m in Washington county right on the Vermont border. Right to farm area good agricultural people pretty much left alone. Taxes is a tad steep.