kentucky car insurance and licensing (Lexington, Richmond: for sale, how much, mobile home)

[vicky3vicky]

We are tentatively moving to eastern kentucky. I hear about any things being less expensive in Eastern kentucky, housing in particular. I have also heard that utilities also tend to be less expensive.

I keep reading little mentions here and there about insurance and taxes on cars being sky high. When I try to look up the specifics online all I can find are advertisements for car insurance. So, are the insurance and licensing costs high? Irf it makes a difference we are both senior citizens with spotless driving records and our current vehicle is valued at about $8,000 [maybe a little less as we received the estimate a couple years ago]

Is it true that utilities are less expensive because of coal use?

And food. Can you give me an idea about food prices, maybe a few specifics such as the cost of a gallon of milk, price of a pound of ground beef, price for various chicken parts, produce, etc.

Also, if food is more expensive in eastern Kentucky, would it be less expensive if I were to drive to Lexington to do my large monthly frocery shopping? When we were visiting our son in Prestonsburg, prices seemed crazy high to us.

Also, apart from prices, I was interested in learning about poisonous snakes. When we were in Prestonsburg the forests were so beautiful and reminded me of the jungles in Honduras and St. Lucia. I mentioned to my daughter that I would love to take a walk in the woods and she told me that people in eastern Kentucky never took walks in the forests and that copperhead snakes would hang in the trees, drop on people, bite them and they'd die.

I was getting a little concerned about this because I love being in nature. I did a little research and found that dying from a copperhead in eastern kentucky is rare. She told me that the only reason it's rare is because everyone out there stays out of the forests because they know of the danger. Is this true?

We've been looking at property online for sale in the area we hope to live in. lots of property but so much of it we wouldn't consider since we don't wish to be in a flood zone.

Thank you all for reading this and I am hopeful of receiving responses.

[Crazee Cat Lady]

I am not sure how to answer as I live in Lexington, not Eastern Kentucky.
There are copperhead snakes in Eastern Kentucky, but I am not sure how prevalent they are.
My family and I have hiked there many times before....and I have never had one drop out of a tree on me, or even seen one really(I assume they were there but I didn't seek them out!) My husband likes to fish, and he has been warned to watch out for bears there by people he works with.



I think car insurance varies by region, by the number of wrecks, traffic, etc....Eastern Kentucky is mostly rural, I would think that prices would be lower...but who knows maybe other factors....


Not for sure about the prices.
Here are three Lexington Grocery ads (It seems like Krogers and Walmart might be the same prices everywhere but maybe not, I am not for sure)


Kroger
Walmart
Meijers


Of course there is also always Cosco, Fresh Market, Whole Food, Trader Joe's, Aldi's, Good Food Co-op, Save-a-lot, the Farmers Market...

[wrightflyer]

Eastern Kentucky utilities to my knowledge are the highest in the state, despite being the region where coal was mined. The industry is pretty much gone. From 35K regionally employed in mining coal in the 70s to under 3K today. Part of utility prices being high is the likely infrastructure costs needing spread out over a smaller and smaller population count. As upgrades are made, utilities pass the costs to consumers, but when the consumer base erodes, it leaves those left with higher bills. However, that being said, I don't have intimate knowledge of numbers and don't have much to compare to besides my Duke Energy bill here in NKY and an AEP bill in Columbus. I am also travel weekly for work and am single, so probably don't use as much energy as a typical two-person household.

While you can find homes in non-flood plain areas or homes in low risk areas, the fact is much of the higher elevation land is owned by outside owners and corporations (a lot was bought up in the 90s when coal was expected to be reinvigorated but market investments fell short and the re-energization of coal never happened). HuffPost had a well written article about the floods in EKY and the impacts, specifically on Appalshop, a cultural and historical preservation society for Appalachian culture. The article covered this topic of land ownership and development patterns in some depth. Expect housing to be tighter as people need residences in the region, even if the place wasn't immediately affected by the flooding. Anything outside a flood plain may become hard to find. A lot of properties tend to also be passed down in families, so while a home may change hands, it is usually generational ownership versus transient owners. If you can find a good piece of land that is buildable, it may be good to build a cheaper home. However, materials and transport cost for building may be high depending on what you want in the home.

I would also consider some of the towns along I-64 corridor between Winchester and Ashland. Those towns may have more housing options, get you to bigger metros (Ashland/Huntington or Lexington) quicker, and be less prone to flooding if hollers are not as prevalent. Morehead would be a good example, and is home to a smaller state university, so there are things to do in town. Also, the Daniel Boone National Forest and Cave Run Lake are nearby for outdoor recreation and are immensely popular with locals and others outside the immediate region.

Plenty of people hike in the aforementioned Daniel Boone National Forest. While snakes can be found, if you stick to marked trails in popular forested areas, you will be fine. I would be more worried about running across a bear with her babies. Make sure to have some bear spray when hiking. At least we don't have cougars. While Prestonsburg is east of the forest and parklands, the EKY area is popular with outdoor enthusiasts, hunters, etc. It may be different though as you get closer to the Paintsville Lake / Levisa Fork or the KY/WV Stateline at Tug Fork. Maybe snakes are in higher numbers out there?

Costs for consumer goods are going to be high in most rural areas simply due to transportation costs. If you are in Prestonsburg, you are probably better off taking US Route 23, which is a 4-lane highway, north to Ashland, KY / Huntington, WV metro for bigger grocery or clothes shopping. This would be easier to reach than Lexington. The Combs Mountain Pkwy doesn't open to four lanes of traffic until Campton, which is about halfway between Lexington and Prestonsburg.

Car insurance is a little more in comparison to Ohio because Kentucky is a no fault state when it comes to insurance collision claims. Vehicle property tax varies by county and local city (if you reside in one). I paid about $200-300 in a more urban/suburban county in NKY for a newer $19K valued vehicle. So expect to pay $100-150 (or potentially less) a year for the vehicle. Property tax is owed based on valuation on January 1st and due when registration needs renewed. Registration is very cheap, which helps offset the property tax. I paid $21 to renew my tags.

[vicky3vicky]

Thank you for your helpful posts. My husband and I are mostly looking at prestonsburg because we are elderly and would like my disabled adult son to be near oldest son after we're gone.

I checked the weekly ad for Kroger and was surprised at how much the advertised products differred. Prices, all in all were similar to those in Colorado.

I know there isn't bus service in most towns but is there bus service between towns? That might help my son a little.

Thank you

[vicky3vicky]

I've been looking at homes online. We're looking at around $200,000. We've found some super cute ones that aren't in flood areas. We also are looking for a ranch style because neither of us does that great with steps anymore. There seem to be a decent ammount of them that are mobile home. Looked at some on the virtual tours and was shocked at how beautiful so many of them are.

I have heard that mobile homes are harder to heat but it rarely goes below 0 in eastern Kentucky, right? Are they fairly durable if on a foundation? Also, I have heard so many judgemental, negative jokes about double-wide mobile homes. Would we be looked down on if we bought one? I normally wouldn't care about what some people think but I want to start making friends ASAP and was worried that living in a mobile home on an acre or so of land would look "trashy" and might make it more difficult to find friends.

What i've always done whenever I've moved is baked trays of cookies and delivered them to my new neighbors which I've always received a positive response. Would that be appropriate if I were to continue doing that when we move there?

[censusdata]

Car insurance is calculated by ZIP code. In cities I know it can vary wildly by part of town. I'd guess the same would hold true in rural KY. I know in a truly rural place (as opposed to in or near a small town) home insurance is expensive due to lack of emergency services like fire and police. Rural utilities are more expensive because there are far fewer customers per mile of infrastructure. Very rural areas in KY often are call "co ops", probably some larger towns would have cheaper rates.

If possible I'd probably recommend in or around the bigger towns in the edge of the Appalachian region like Somerset / London, Richmond / Berea, Morehead, or Ashland. Still have very affordable housing but better amenities and less cost issue with insurance.