Where can you homestead?
Land cost, growing season, county rules on RVs, tiny homes and animals, hazards and off-grid radio coverage, county by county. Free, with every number linked to where it came from.
All 100 North Carolina counties are scored, and county rules are read for 100 of them. Open North Carolina
One state at a time
We're covering the US state by state, the same way each time: every county, every rule read at the county's own source and dated. North Carolina is the first. More states will follow.
What each county is scored on
Land cost
Cheaper farmland per acre and cheaper homes score higher
Rain
More rain April–September
Sun
More solar energy per day
Growing
Longer frost-free season and more prime farmland
Rules
County rules on RVs, tiny homes, animals and composting toilets
Clean
Fewer Superfund and toxic-release sites per square mile
Hazards
Lower FEMA risk and fewer disaster declarations
Farm country
More farms per square mile and more goat keepers
Mesh
Share of the county near an active MeshCore repeater
Scores compare each county with the others in its state. How we score