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We have no ties to LI(besides DHs work). Can not afford this place.
Family is in FL and CA- not places we want to go to. THe part of CA we can not afford, the part of FL we do not want.
DH licensure is tied to NY state and we do not want to throw that away. He works in home care so a place with good home care employment would be good. (by licensure i mean admission to NY state bar and RN)
we do not know where to go to have a normal family life that is affordable with good schools? We just do not know the state that well. We are thinking somewhere upstate? I am finishing up a MPH degree Albany is probably ideal but we dont know enough about that place either. Any input?
If you know you can't afford LI wouldn't you be better posting this in any of the other NY forums (with the exception of LI, NYC and Westchester)? Those people could probably give you a better idea of COL and salaries for your husband's profession.
That said, besides schools and cost of living, you mention having family in CA and FL. Suggest perhaps you consider being within an hour of a good airport if you visit or want to travel often.
If you're interested in the Albany area, there are plenty of nice places to live and plenty to do up there as well. One popular area is between Albany and Saratoga - right after I left State Farm they moved a bunch of people up there and everyone jumped at the chance (it was also the height of the market here so people made a ton of money on their house sale here) - but everyone was happy they made the move (they kept their downstate salaries too).
If you can live with the winters, that's probably your best bet (although they aren't as harsh as Syracuse or Buffalo).
I'd definitely relocate to the Albany area. The actual city of Albany has been re-vitalized in recent years - lots of shiny new businesses, farmers markets, some arts stuff, etc., at least in the more central part of the city (near the state buildings). When I was researching last spring, there seemed to be a lot of neighborhoods in commuting distance to the city with decent-to-good schools where reasonable homes (3bdr, 1.5 bath, updated but not necessarily brand-new) could be had for under $200K. Winters are colder than here, obviously, but it's not Minnesota cold, and the spring and summer are quite pretty.
I have a colleague in the Rochester area who has nothing but wonderful things to say about that area as well (and also, lower COL there than in Albany), but I think the Rochester winter would be too much for me personally. If you can hack the winter, that might be a good option too.
If one of you is an RN, you can have your pick of any place Upstate. Most areas have nursing shortages.
Admission to the bar says "attorney", and that will likely be a tougher find than the nursing.
However, the Upstate job picture is not nearly as bleak as many whiners make it seem. Manufacturing continues to bleed but there are many white collar and technical jobs available. Because the population is a bit less than the NYC metro but spread out over a much, much larger area, the jobs are spread out, too. Buffalo is the biggest Upstate metro, and it's only about 1 million.
You can't realistically expect NYC/LI salaries in Upstate, but the COL is significantly lower, too. Generally, Upstate NY has salaries and COL at about the national average. In any of the big Upstate Metros, you can find nice homes in suburban areas with good schools in the $200,000-300,000 range. In the smaller cities, you can find very nice homes for less, sometimes much less.
There's at least one recent thread on both the Albany and the Buffalo forums about people looking to move to those metros. I'm sure there are ones on the Rochester and Syracuse forums as well. Also, there are a couple on the general NYS forum where there's discussion of moving to some of the smaller places in NYS like Ithaca or the Finger Lakes, etc.
I'd say if you want a "low cost of living" that you should avoid Long Island. Even if you manage to purchase an inexpensive house, your taxes will be horribly high and the area won't be so good.
I'd agree with those who recommended upstate NY. I don't know anything about the schools, but Livingston Manor is reasonable and pretty. It's in the lower Catskills.
Further west are towns like Greenwood Lake and Florida. That area seems very quaint and it boarders northern New Jersey.
I am sure there are nice suburbs outside of many cities upstate. The only one that I'm familiar with is New Hartford NY, a suburb of Utica. The schools there are top notch. Very low COL.
If one of you is an RN, you can have your pick of any place Upstate. Most areas have nursing shortages.
Admission to the bar says "attorney", and that will likely be a tougher find than the nursing.
However, the Upstate job picture is not nearly as bleak as many whiners make it seem. Manufacturing continues to bleed but there are many white collar and technical jobs available. Because the population is a bit less than the NYC metro but spread out over a much, much larger area, the jobs are spread out, too. Buffalo is the biggest Upstate metro, and it's only about 1 million.
You can't realistically expect NYC/LI salaries in Upstate, but the COL is significantly lower, too. Generally, Upstate NY has salaries and COL at about the national average. In any of the big Upstate Metros, you can find nice homes in suburban areas with good schools in the $200,000-300,000 range. In the smaller cities, you can find very nice homes for less, sometimes much less.
There's at least one recent thread on both the Albany and the Buffalo forums about people looking to move to those metros. I'm sure there are ones on the Rochester and Syracuse forums as well. Also, there are a couple on the general NYS forum where there's discussion of moving to some of the smaller places in NYS like Ithaca or the Finger Lakes, etc.
Good luck.
Yes it is a Master in Public Health- with a concentration in EPI mostly. I am doing a healthcare personnel influenza surveillance program now for example as part of my internship .
DH is a nurse but he works in legal and nursing, he does compliance, contracts, and deals with regulations- he is not a hospital type of nurse. He would need employment that is at managerial/director level in similar field, i dont know what the options are for this upstate.
Any input on the salary differential between LI and Albany area? For example are we talking that 100k on Long Island is worth 50-60k in Albany? because then it would clearly not be worth it.
Greenwood Lake is very nice, but I'm pretty sure that is in NJ, not NY.
Rochester has a big teaching/research hospital.
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