Cheapest cost of living - DE, PA or MD? (Houston: homes, quality of life)

[elizamary]

DH and I moved from Pa 2 years ago to retire to DE. Main reason was and still is finances. Definately cheaper living in DE.
althought, I miss the beauty of PA and do not find central and southern DE all that picturesques. We do like being close to the beach. That is a big plus.
You gotta got to own a car to get around. Public transportation is not that great down here.

After living in PA, it seems to me the DE is a very backward state. Not in a bad way but they do need to ketch up to the times.

Reasonable or below reasonable real estate tax and no sales tax is a big plus.
Otherwise, we would have stayed in PA.
The price of homes are cheaper too. Way cheaper. Same home could cost you $100k more in Pa.

MD.......forget it.
NJ.........forget it.

People are moving out of NJ cuz it is too expensive.
I hear MD is as well.

Now jobs. If you are looking for work in Central and southern DE, it is going to be tough.
Jobs are scarce all over but De is not the place to move if you are looking for work.

Just my take on DE living

[toobusytoday]

I don't know what's up with the font thing, but as a moderator, one of my superpowers is that there is no time limit on editing so I went back and deleted the html stuff from your last post. If you see it right after you've posted, you can edit it out yourself. Perhaps you are trying for a special font and you did something wrong with it? I generally use the default font and just highlight a word now and then for emphasis.

Regarding your move, I think that you need to prioritize what is important to you and your family and not try to make it sort of work. Looking at this from the outsiders view, I think you should concentrate on your immediate family and finding a place that is a reasonable commute for you and your husband so you can spend time with your children and have time to visit your families in NY and MD. We have no family nearby, but vacation with the whole crew every summer (10 cousins, two sets of grandparents and five sets of couples). We also get together with family that lives within two hours a few times a year. But, our priority is OUR immediate family. We are very close to my husbands and my family emotionally, but that does not mean we see each other that often. We all keep in touch via e-mail and the kids often IM and get on facebook with each other.

My husband and I both grew up in Delaware but would not choose to move back there. The public schools throughout the state are not as well rated as they are in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia schools are an exception, NOT GOOD, but the suburbs surrounding the city are good, same goes for Lancaster. Check out SchoolMatters - Home (http://www.schoolmatters.com/ - broken link) for comparisons if schools are a consideration.

I understand your saying that this is not a bad time to move the kids because you say it's a transitional time but that's not true in all districts. Our school district has a middle school for grades 6-8 and HS for grades 9-12 so the transition would be a bit trickier as your kids would be joining as 7th and 10th graders, i.e., a year after everyone else. I think this set up is pretty common.

As far as saving for college, think about the in-state Colleges. Delaware has an extremely limited selection for in-state colleges, Pennsylvania, OTOH, has over a dozen colleges throughout the state that are well priced for residents. Maryland has about half as many.

I hope you don't mind my extremely opinionated statements, but I'm just trying to point out some things that you might want to consider.

[Ellwood]

You might give the Cost of Living calculator a try.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed

There are several websites with other calculators that might help you make a financial decision.

[elizamary]

Thats a good site Ellwood to compare but it doesn't have taxes.

I know taxes are higher in Philly than here.

also no sales tax in DE

[Honeycrisp]

THis tax chart may help -

The Tax Foundation - State and Local Property Tax Collections Per Household and Per Capita by State, Fiscal Year 2006

[itsajourney]

Originally Posted by kris1421

This is great information and ideas! You guys are so nice to take the time to help me. Frankly, my DH is sick of listening to me b/c as I mentioned, he is not really interested in moving anywhere, although he is trying to keep an open mind.

Another reason for the move (besides the general finances and being closer to my sisters) is to help with college expenses. I figured if we paid less for housing and taxes, we would have more money for college. We have 3 children.

Doctorjef – I see what you mean about DE being the cheapest place to live. We lived in NYC for 13 years and moved to NJ 3 years ago. These are expensive places (we paid $300 for our parking spot in NYC). We now live in a house that is valued at $400K and we pay $6,200 in property taxes...and going up. Our property is a little square with neighbors on either side close to us. My sister in Bel Aire lives in a very big house with a built in pool in the back and a lot of land in front and back (over an acre for sure). Her house is valued at $550K and she pays $5,000 in taxes.

Itsajourney – I did not know that most of Philly is very expensive. I guess coming from NYC and NJ, anything is cheaper, LOL! This is so interesting that you mentioned York/Lancaster b/c there is a company my DH could work for that is located in Lititz so I figured if we lived in York/Lancaster, he could commute to Lititz (although what is that traffic like during rush hour b/c there are no highways?)…and then I could drive down I-83 into Baltimore city (I know there are hospitals in PA and DE…but I guess I really want to work in the same hospital as my sisters). Would this commute be more reasonable? The only problem with this is that if we move here we would still need to get back to NY to visit my DH’s family. Wouldn’t that drive be about 4-5 hours? Is there an airport around York/Lancaster?

Also, I see what you’re saying about the gas prices and wear and tear on a car regarding my original plan to live in DE and commute to Baltimore City. And the stress! This is why it’s good to have you guys to talk to b/c this will be a BIG move for us. It would involve changing our entire lives. By the time we moved, our children would be in 11th, 9th and 6th grades. Not the best time to pick them up and move them, but the ones in 9th and 6th grades would be entering new schools in NJ anyway b/c those are transitional grades

That is interesting though that you mentioned staying with my sister in Bel Aire to make the commute easier. I thought of that. That would be fine to do once a week. It would allow me to visit her and my kids wouldn’t miss me for one night. They would be old enough that they wouldn’t need constant care and my DH would be around.

Anyway, again, thanks for your help. I await any more comments you might have!

I absolutely love LITITZ! As a matter of fact, just this last week I posted that town as a "hidden gem" on another forum on this site. There were many times I thought about moving to Lititz from Mechanicsburg. At the time my husband was driving from Mechanicsburg to Lancaster to work every day--took about an hour. Just when we started seriously looking at going to Lancaster, he took a transfer to the Mechanicsburg, Location.

Anyway, Lancaster is a fairly easy drive to Philly and York is an easy drive to Baltimore. I know Red Lion used to have good schools over by York--don't know about them anymore though. Just one thing to consider if you re-locate to Lancaster area--some of the schools are very good and some not. The Amish people are a treasure, but the school ranking will tend to be lower if it is a school that a lot of Amish kids go to. Generally, this doesn't affect high school because they only go through 8th grade.

From Mechanicsburg, I could be in New York City in 3 hours--so you should be looking at less that that from Lancaster and add on another 1/2hr from York. York to downtown Baltimore is only 45-60 min or so depending on traffic.

I love the scenic beauty of southeastern PA--and all of the history. Limestone farmhouses, oh I could just go on and on....I just won't move back cause I don't want winter anymore.

Have you been to Lititz? If not, you must check it out--and make sure to take the kids to the Sturgis Pretzel Factory--you will all get to make a pretzel and learn the significance of the folds and shape. Also check out the Wilbur Chocolate factory in downtown too. Right by the Chocolate factory is the most adorable city Park--it has a stream that goes thru it that has a walkway and feeding ducks and geese was always a must for us. I used to make candles and do craft shows--so I did the ones that they had in Lititz park.

If I can help with anything else, let me know,...

[itsajourney]

PS I forgot--Lancaster has an airport--a small one. York's is even smaller and I don't think it is for commercial traffic. Harrisburg has the largest of those three towns. Then of course, there is Philly and BWI(which used to always be the cheapest to fly out of)

[kris1421]

ElizaMary – TY for your info and advice. I didn’t realize that PA was more expensive in terms of home prices than DE. However, if we live in PA we would have an abundance of in-state colleges to chose from. Also, since you describe DE as a “backward state”, this might not sit well with my DH. He is very “city-like” (I sort of am too). We would hope for a town that is more cosmopolitan.


Itsajourney – We really don’t know anything much about living in DE or PA. We only know what MD is like as we have visited my sisters many times. I am assuming that the areas of Lititz, Lancaster and York are country-like…but it sounds like there are things to do there and places to go (pretzel and chocolate factory, city park). Thanks for the info on the driving time and airports. That is very helpful.

I have not been to Lititz. I have only been to Langhorne (Sesame Place!) and Hershey.
Part of the problem is that my DH has a good job in NYC and since he is the main breadwinner, it will be a risk to have him leave his job and take another where you never really know if it will work out or not. We would have to do this move slowly, step by step. And he wants to stay where we are in NJ b/c he likes his job and likes where we live, so that’s another strike against my great plan.


TooBusy – I guess from reading what I’m writing it seems that there might be more stacked against us then there would be if we just stayed where we are. I appreciate you bringing up these issues so we can do the right thing.
I understand what you are saying about priorities and I think I am confused! I think I am trying to do a good thing for my family b/c I feel if we live in a cheaper area, then we would have a better quality of life b/c we’d have more dispensable income and also be able to save more money to send kids to college. And it just so happens that the cheaper states would also be closer to my sisters, an added bonus. There are 6 siblings in my family: one is in Seattle, another in Cleveland, another on LI (where I grew up) and then my 2 sisters in Baltimore. My kids love their cousins in Baltimore and I just thought it would be great if we could all live closer to each other. However, as it is, we are only about 2 ½ hours away from them so I might just be better off planning more trips to see them instead of picking up the whole family to make a move that could be risky (due to DH’s job). It’s not like we can move to PA and then after a year, move back here and say, well, it didn’t work out. B/c it involves the children and schools and switching jobs and selling our house…


Thanks also for the website that you all posted on tax sites, etc. I will look into them.

[GODLEADMETOAPLACE]

Baltimore? that is scary

This is a violent crime capital of america. Drug infested, etc.
I have been living here since 1996. I am a victim of police brutality, violence, loss from theft, home vanderlize. It is just a city of caorse.
I am daring to get away (the soonest I can) to the South-south where I hospitality prevails and the environment non-violent. Goodluck!!!
I would put it this way: if I would continue to live here i.e. I do not know what is good. Property tax is high in the city of Baltimore.

All good wishes for Peace!

Godleadmetoaplace.

[rabit1]

Does any have any comments about moving from Huntsville, AL area to Newark, DE areas?