St Louis area is considered reasonable. My husband's family is from DE and I can't believe their prices. We live in a 1600 sq ft brick home with finished basement on a middle sized lot (100 x 160)- my mortgage is $532, taxes $2500/year, utilites gas and elec average $200/mo, cable/phone/high speed $150, gas $2.38 yesterday. We are in a town of 100,000. If you go north to the smaller towns you can live more reasonably....but then there are less services.

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Lyn Clarke