Houston dream on hold...:-( (Spring, Katy: rental car, apartment, rental)

[Winebrat]

So Hubby has been working/living in Houston since August. I am stuck in PA trying to sell our house...His company has finally realized that spending the $6000/month for his apartment, rental car, food, gas, tolls and flights back home every 2 weeks is not gonna be over anytime soon because of the horrendous housing market. They are sending him back to the NE to work out of NJ until the housing market picks up and we might have better success selling our house.

I'm sad that the relocation is being put on hold, mad at all the people who took out home loans they couldn't afford and largly contributing to the housing market mess, but glad I will get to see Hubby again for more than 48 hours every 2 weeks.

[vicket]

Good luck to you. We were in the same boat. DH moved in Feb., the rest of us moved in August after taking a huge bath on our home in Ohio. Ended up taking the first (and extremely low) offer just to get on with our lives. I can't say it wasn't worth it, though. Houston is fantastic. We all found it better here for housing, jobs, schools, restaurants, recreation, weather, you name it. The only thing we miss is family and friends, and that would have happened wherever we moved. Hope you make it to Houston!

[Stephanie P]

Wow. We are moving from Katy to PA next year (sometime around April.)
We are going to put our house on the market soon. I am hoping we will have luck with that.
I have been looking at online realtors and the homes up there are sill so much more expensive than here. Plus the state income tax. Ouch!
We will be moving to the Sinking Spring area.

I am sorry about your situation. I hope everything works out for you and your family.

[Jesse69]

Maybe you have to sell your house at a loss then buy one in Houston where the owner makes a loss too.

[Winebrat]

And don't forget about PA's lovely EIT...Earned Income tax...above and beyond the state and feceral taxes, you pony up 1% of your earned income (the 401k doesn't get deducted!) and pay that annually! It's cheaper than NJ...but not by much...

[latetotheparty]

ouch!!

city of st. louis has that little 1% tax too .... if you live or work within the city limits, they gotcha......

so sorry your plans have been delayed winebrat..... maybe with the election OVER, things will start to improve.......

[Winebrat]

We just go tthe official word he is coming back to PA on the 14th and we are keeping our house on the market...the best part is he gets to work from home!!! That is totally awesome because otherwise it's a 97 mile commute...one way...

We won't take a loss on our house, but are willing to break even. We built this house from the ground up over 9 years and it cost us x amount to do so and that's the lowest we will go. And there is no guarantee that a house/property we want in Texas would sell at a loss, either. Our house is priced, right now, $9000 above the break even mark and our realtors said that they don't even have anyone to show the house to within $50,000 below that! We will just wait.

[Stephanie P]

Originally Posted by Winebrat

And don't forget about PA's lovely EIT...Earned Income tax...above and beyond the state and feceral taxes, you pony up 1% of your earned income (the 401k doesn't get deducted!) and pay that annually! It's cheaper than NJ...but not by much...

OMG, are you serious?
Does PA give you any tax breaks on purchases; say: clothes, groceries, anything?

[sbhubbell]

Yes, no tax on clothing at all, and no tax on groceries.

[Stephanie P]

Originally Posted by sbhubbell

Yes, no tax on clothing at all, and no tax on groceries.

Well, at least there is that.
Man, this is really turning out to be more costly than I originally thought.
Still worth it, though!