Is the grass greener (Charlotte, Matthews: fit in, sale, mortgage) - City-Data Forum

familymom · 07-20-2007, 12:00 PM

I live in Central NJ in a very desirable area. The problelm is that like many, I wonder if moving to a new area would present a better life style. I have 4 children and as many know the living expenses and taxes in NJ leave little left to play with. I would like to know if any other families have left NJ for North Carolina (ha, ha, of course there are) but is it a better life style, any regrets, cost of living that much better. We are considering the Waxhaw area or Matthews??? Would love to hear the good and the bad.

carolina_guy · 07-20-2007, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by familymom

I live in Central NJ in a very desirable area. The problelm is that like many, I wonder if moving to a new area would present a better life style. I have 4 children and as many know the living expenses and taxes in NJ leave little left to play with. I would like to know if any other families have left NJ for North Carolina (ha, ha, of course there are) but is it a better life style, any regrets, cost of living that much better. We are considering the Waxhaw area or Matthews??? Would love to hear the good and the bad.

From the yank friends I have, they say they'll never move back up north.

carolinaborncarolinabred · 07-20-2007, 12:08 PM

I actually read an article this morning that voted Matthews as one of the 25 best surburbs to live in in the US. I forget where it was. Business Week or something.

I'm not sure what your cost of living is like...but when you say you live in a desirable area I'm guessing there's money to play with. If you move to Charlotte, you might enjoy the Myers Park or Dilworth areas. Tons of old historic beautiful huge homes and plenty of yard space.

Just because you live in the south doesn't mean you'll be acting out a scene from deliverance.

carolinaborncarolinabred · 07-20-2007, 12:10 PM

oh but you'll probably get more bang for your buck in matthews. Waxhaw is a little bit more country but both places are very nice if you don't mind the commute.

groove1 · 07-20-2007, 12:10 PM

It's ok here. It won't take too long for taxes to skyrocket though. It's already happening. I like it here. It's not shangra-la (sp?) but it's sure better than Buffalo.

familymom · 07-20-2007, 12:17 PM

Actually carolinaborncarolinabred, we moved to this town by chance, we are in a small home among larger ones. So I guess keeping up with the Jones' is always in the back of my mind, especially with 4 children, 3 in school.

We are not executive type people, we still have backyard birthday parties. When we went to look around NC, we of course loved all the new construction but how well would a blue collar worker fit in there?

carolina_guy · 07-20-2007, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by familymom

Actually carolinaborncarolinabred, we moved to this town by chance, we are in a small home among larger ones. So I guess keeping up with the Jones' is always in the back of my mind, especially with 4 children, 3 in school.

We are not executive type people, we still have backyard birthday parties. When we went to look around NC, we of course loved all the new construction but how well would a blue collar worker fit in there?

Charlotte has every type of "class" out there. There are probably more blue collars than anybody else. The city is HUGE when you consider suburbs and the like, so the variety of neighborhoods is great. You will fit right in!

familymom · 07-20-2007, 12:45 PM

Thanks for the info. Just don't want to have any regrets, because once I leave NJ I probably would not be able to afford to return to this area again.

Girl · 07-20-2007, 01:17 PM

We moved from NoNJ last summer and the only financial changes were to our mortgage and property tax (thanks to the large downpayment we had from the sale of our NoNJ home). Every other cost stayed the same from groceries to daycare. Actually I take that back, in NoNJ we paid $60 a QUARTER for water, but here we pay about $50 each MONTH. Other than that everything costs the same. So when you calculate the reduction in pay from NoNJ to NC, we are still living paycheck to paycheck down here, but we're not so FREAKED OUT as we were in NoNJ about the prospect of ever-increasing NJ property taxes in our town.

But you are right - now that we have left NoNJ, we will NEVER be able to go back. But after a year here in NC/SC - I don't WANT to go back!!!

lisaf · 07-20-2007, 01:22 PM

The only way you'll have regrets is if you set your expectations too high. You have to buy a house that's cheaper than the one that you have right now. Lots of people come here and see the buying power they have and end up buying something that is basically similar priced to what they had in jersey because the prop taxes are way lower (but you end up making at least 15% less in salary). And then, at the end of the day, your expenses are quite similar and you haven't taken advantage of the real reason people come here. If you live in a valued 400k house in NJ with $8k prop taxes, try to get yourself in a $300-325k house with $3k taxes--then you're really scoring a reason to move.

Additionally, you've got to wrap your brain around the fact that you are leaving your family and friends. To some people that is worth no amount of money saved, and they're miserable without that constant family support.

We moved here 3 years ago from Jersey and haven't regretted it since! We think our family and friends are complete suckers for staying in the Ny/NJ metro area. Hah!

Set yourself a house budget and don't veer from it no matter what the bang-up deals you see here for the same price house you had in jersey. Resist all temptation for it. Just come up with a reasonable house price that will ultimately afford you a better (BUT CHEAPER) lifestyle than what you've got in the northeast right now.

Good luck!