Build new or wait for an affordable house to become available?

To your partly quite apocalyptic ideas about small towns and their dying out, I would like to throw in a counterexample ^^

Here is a small town (~77,000 inhabitants), neither S- nor U-Bahn and only a mini train station in exactly 1 direction, buses run quite well within the town but as soon as you go into the districts it gets creepy and without a car it's basically not doable.
Big cities - Münster and the Ruhr area are about an hour away, only the Dutch border can be reached in 5-15 minutes depending on location.

There is all the infrastructure you need, which is very helpful, nevertheless the districts still all have a village character.

And despite all that - which for many here would already be a disaster - people are building like crazy here. It is almost impossible to get building plots at all, they are quite expensive for such a "hamlet" (from 160 to 500 €/sqm) and still everyone who gets one builds.

The new settlements are bursting with young families with kids, so it seems many are still moving "to the countryside," because the districts where the building areas are designated rarely have more than a kindergarten, sometimes still an elementary school.

So dear Te, I can totally understand that you want to live in such a place

I have some people in my wider circle of acquaintances who want to leave the city, if that's somehow possible. Especially when there are children involved – in some cases also because of incidents at schools. They hope that life "in the countryside" will be more tranquil. If it can also be arranged so that the commute to work isn't too long, then moving to the countryside is gladly done. Friends of ours built a house last year. Before that, they lived with three children, then aged 5, 3, and 2, in a not so great district of Munich. Then they wanted to build – and, of course also because of the outrageous Munich building prices, they moved a bit further out to the countryside. A village area, yet school is right across the street, kindergarten one street away. They are so incredibly happy! My friend was amazed that her older son suddenly became a completely different child. He immediately made friends, is now exploring the area with his kindergarten buddies or now classmates, and knows every tractor brand ^^ Of course, there’s no supermarket or post office in that village; but since she commutes to work anyway, they just take care of those errands on the way – however, a new Rewe with a post office plus a dm is planned for the village now. I think that especially when many families settle newly, the infrastructure will eventually develop "on its own." Surely, the feeling also depends on where one grew up oneself. I am a true village child and would never want it any other way for my children. (And yes, at times it annoyed me so much that after finishing school I moved alone to Munich – but after a few years I had enough of it and longed for a garden, forest, and little birds )

: What kind of infrastructure do you mean? Kindergarten, primary school, work, secondary schools, and recreational activities are of course all nearby, what more do you want? And my mother is, as I said, 55 and completely healthy. We are talking about the next 40 years when we say she would "not be around eventually," that is a bit silly, especially since she helps with childcare.

In general, I would like to say one more thing about the commute. We previously lived and worked/studied in Berlin. My commute to my job in Berlin was 70 minutes - if nothing was delayed. None of my colleagues needed less than 30 minutes. One hour of travel time is nothing in Berlin, and honestly, those almost three hours a day on the subway were definitely not a great time.

We have understood that now too. You just don't usually associate it with a village of 200 souls. But it sounds better than you think. Since building here seems optimal for you, why don’t you find out how much the development costs. To be able to estimate the total costs of the project.

Just take a look at the Germany ranking from ZDF. Many rural areas are ranked very high there.