Beautiful two-bedroom house in Anaconda, Montana, for $18,900. That's what the ad said. We were in Missoula after driving around the country for six weeks in 2002, exploring affordable places to live. We had never heard of Anaconda, but we fell in love with it the moment we drove into town, and we bought the home for $17,500 the next day, after looking at five similarly-priced homes.

It had a full basement, a garage with opener, hardwood floors and more. That's affordable! But the jobs were all very low-paying, so we sold the home five months later for a small profit and moved on. A couple years later we started the website on cheap houses, HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com, based on our experience touring the country looking at towns to live in, and Anaconda became the centerpiece of the site.

Now, in 2007, with an internet business that allows us to live where we want, we have our home in Colorado. But over the years we have wondered whether Anaconda had been "discovered" yet. The answer seems to be yes. As I write this, I am sitting in our room above the Harp and Thistle Inn looking out at downtown Anaconda, and up at the surrounding mountains.

Anaconda - Great Small Town

We drove into town on Tuesday afternoon, August 7, 2007. The town looked the same initially, but then we saw the new Brew Pub, the Rocky Mountain Brewery. We have since heard that they have great food, which we will find out later tonight. Other new businesses were here and there, but what surprised us most was that almost all the businesses we had thought would fail when we left town five years ago are still around. We stopped at the visitor's center.

There was a new dinner train that travels the twenty miles of hills between Anaconda and Butte, we were told. After telling the lady at the desk about the home we owned five years earlier, she told her own story about buying a house for $13,000 three years ago. She got tired of fixing it up, and sold it for $20,000 before buying another. She told me that the really cheap houses are all fixer-uppers now. Prices had at least doubled in the last five years.

We grabbed a real estate guide and went to Washoe Park, where we parked in the shade and laid in the Van for an hour looking over the current listings. Nearby someone had parked their RV on the grass, apparently camping there in the city park. Anaconda was apparently still easy-going like that. Sure enough, prices had gone up, but there were still five houses under $50,000. The sixth on the list was $60,000 for two small houses, one with all new siding and paint. Unfortunately, a ride around town later showed us that they are all fixer-uppers. There are no homes left under $50,000 that are ready to move into. We saw at least a couple under $100,000 that were remodeled and ready.

Even at twice the price as they were five years ago, the homes here are affordable. But more than the houses, the town itself is cheap to live in. After checking into our room, we walked to the Classic Cafe on Park Avenue, a cafe/restaurant/bar (there are a lot of these combinations in Anaconda) to use the wireless internet connection. We did an hour or two of work, had a large basket of french fries, drank three beers (me) and two cups of herbal tea (Ana), and asked for the bill.

$8.25! I was expecting $15. The beers cost $1.25 each, the tea $1, and the the fries $2.50. That's Anaconda. This morning we'll have to see if the McDonalds still has 25-cent coffee after all these years. Meals are cheap here, groceries are cheap here. The classic art-deco Washoe theater is just $4 (we may go see a movie later).

Later, at Nickel Annies Casino - just four blocks from our room - we spent an hour dropping $5 in nickels into our favorite slot machines. But the first two dollars was on the house. They give you a dollar or two each (depending on the day) just for signing in. Then, after buying a beer for $2, the second one was free (this could be a dangerous town, but at least everything is within walking distance).

That was our first afternoon and evening in town. Today we may drive into the mountains. There is a little lake we love, down a dirt road at about 8,000 feet. It is one of the most beautiful places around, but we'll keep the location our own little secret for now. Bottom line? Anaconda still has cheap houses, a low cost of living, and is a beautiful place to live.