A friendly rural atmosphere
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3/14/2014
I have lived on a farm 10 miles from Lamar for 9 years. My husband grew up here. Lamar is an active, thriving town, which is something you might look for when moving to this area. There are towns that are dying, not Lamar. There are lots of businesses, there are 4 banks, a big farm store, a Walmart, several restaurants, a movie theater, drug stores, lumber yard, hardware, realtors, farm implement dealers, garages, etc. The town square is charming. Harry Truman's birthplace is right off the square, and open to visitors. There is a hospital, a health dept., a library, post office, motel, public pool, lovely big park, etc. etc. There are schools from K-12.
The people are friendly. It's the kind of area where you wave to people when you are driving down the country roads. They say that SW Missouri is among the cheapest places to live in the USA. Real Estate is very reasonable. Your retirement dollars would go a long way here. For the price of your house in the big city, you could move here and get a little farm if you wanted.
For a bigger city, Joplin is about 30 min. to the south. Joplin will supply just about anything you can't find in Lamar. Joplin would also be a great place to live, friendly, etc. I like Joplin a lot.
For drawbacks, this is the midwest and, there are tornadoes. We have fled to the basement many a time.There are ticks and chiggers out in the woods. You must use insect repellent if you go hiking,. In town, you should be okay. It gets windy here a LOT and it gets hot in the summer. Look up the weather statistics on this website. Also the area does have flood zones. Learn where they are before purchasing real estate. Another drawback would be the distance of a major airport.. That would be Kansas City, a 2-3 hour drive. Joplin has an airport, but prices are higher, often double the cost, and the few flights a day must go to Dallas first. .
susan | Lamar, MO