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If my husband and I had relocated when the rest of my family did (95-96) instead of buying here and building our business, we wouldn't have what we do today. He would have stepped backwards -- having to go back to working for someone else while having to build his reputation and business from square one. I believe that professionals bouncing from one business to another don't experience as significant a setback as a self-employed tradesman.
I agree, everybody and every situation will be different depending on many factors. Good timing and choices on your part!
My appreciation, and everyone I know including my parents who bought about 28 years ago wouldn't make a profit when you factor in property tax. Fact is that owning a home is a luxury. Your income tax deduction for mortgage interest is a red herring, you are still losing money on an asset that is not appreciating at the rate of upkeep. Your original argument was that I should somehow be grateful because my equity magically came from Long Island being somehow immune to bubble bursts was voided out and now you are switching the goal posts.
I think you should start doing your income taxes without deducting property taxes since it's all so worthless and such a ripoff every which way you turn. Yeah, sure nobody on LI gets mega equity out of their house anymore because of property taxes even though those property taxes in return lower their taxable income. But it's worthless for you, so please don't bother deducting them from your income tax anymore as that doesn't help. Another red herring.
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Originally Posted by SilverBulletZ06
You are looking at it incorrectly. Your paycheck may drop 20% but when your taxes drop 80%, your housing costs drop 50%, and your ancillary costs of ownership (utilities, insurance, heating, etc) are greater then that 20% paycheck reduction you stand to enjoy a higher quality of life with more expendable income. I'm not sure why you are taking this so personally. If your personal choice is LI vs NYC then you probably do come out ahead living on LI. Those of us that aren't tied to NYC (which was one of the caveats I talked about in my original post) do far better away from LI.
How about my QUALITY of life? Maybe we don't want to live in East Jesus, Southland? Maybe our careers are here? So, no, if we are based in NYC, we are not going to find a Cheapskate's Paradise Exurb for NYC! (And please don't tell me about the Poconos ... LMAO ... they have been trying to sell cheap houses in the NY Post and promising a railroad to NYC for probably 50 years now ... I am not sitting on a bus for 2 hours each way!) My choices are: LI, NJ, NYC, Westchester, and Connecticut. None of them are cheap. That is the way it is.
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Originally Posted by SilverBulletZ06
I think the issue at hand here is that when you look at the demographics of the past 10-15 years and see a mass exodus of young folks (25% reduction in the 18-30 crowd), in a few years when their children are supposed to be filling the void, going to school, and using infrastructure, etc there will be a serious come-to-Jesus moment about how all this happened. It is sad that the politicians and school boards haven't figured out they are killing their cash cow.
LMAO ... you think any of this is NEW? The past 15-20 years? Look at this PDF of a Newsday series entitled "Long Island at the Crossroads" from 1978 (YES 1978 ... how old were you then?) bemoaning "high taxes" and "the loss of our educated young people because of high cost of living," etc., etc. They've covered all YOUR complaints and more quite thoroughly. And so far the sky didn't fall as it should have. LI just keeps chugging along regardless. How and why I don't know. But people keep buying houses here, don't they? When will the end come? I don't know. It will. So will America's. I mean the Roman Empire fell eventually. We all will fall.
Note: I am NOT saying we shouldn't be doing something about our problems on LI. We are one of the oldest suburbs in the country and naturally the major problems will come to us first. However, all the people who are running away from LI are NOT helping by coming back here and continually downing the place to the current residents.
It's all subjective... and my main point/theme here was that you (and seanx4 and twingles - the examples you highlight) do not have the same perspective as someone like me coming from Suffolk. You all live in Nassau with Suffolk being fly over to get to the Hamptons. I've said it before and say it again... the LI "area" is not all the same. You can't compare "LI" to "Boresville USA" - it's disingenuous. Since you "understand the other side of things" you do know there are high quality suburbs all over the country. There's even high quality NYC suburbs that are not on LI - shocking! LI does not have a monopoly on anything - not public schools... not beaches... not food... not bagels... not pizza. You can find these things elsewhere.
You talk like once you get over the Suffolk County border it becomes the hollers of Kentucky until you get to the Hamptons! I am not THAT inexperienced in Suffolk! When my parents got divorced my mom moved to Suffolk ... Bellport Village is no dump; nice historical area where they even tell you what color you can paint your house! Lots of other great areas in Suffolk that are non-Hamptons. Frankly what I consider Boresville is the areas most of the LI expats are going to. So sue me! But you still will not see me posting on the CD boards for those areas making negative comments and downing the home of the residents there, will you? Because it's not my business to do so! Yes I do know of high quality NYC suburbs and have looked at them. And no I am not one of the posters always talking about pizza, bagels and beaches.
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Originally Posted by MikeyKid
Maybe you're reading twingles' posts with rose colored glasses, but she consistently points out many of the same things that other ex-pats do... she posts about dirty streets, bad value for the taxes, etc while hyping the Triangle. I know you like to stalk, so go read some of her posts again.
The difference with twingles is that many of her posts are actually giving good information to posters seeking help. Subjects she shares expertise on are Garden City, Huntington, taxes, insurance, etc. She is not just on the LI board to say negative things about LI. She also does not get on here and act like since she left LI "LI is done" and treat the current residents like we are complete idiots for staying. As for "stalking" I only go back and read old posts when I catch liars and hypocrites. Otherwise I don't need to.
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Originally Posted by MikeyKid
I disagree - using anecdotal evidence myself... Going back to the original post I quoted we have to look at it in terms of what has happened in the past 7 years and where it's going in the next 7 years. You clearly think that appreciation will outpace COL and I don't.
I am talking to people who already moved and cashed in on their LI house when I am talking about appreciation. I never said future appreciation will be as strong. It is obviously not a flipper's market now and will not be in the near future.
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Originally Posted by MikeyKid
I'm there twice a year at minimum... I'll be there after Christmas again. I see issues in general, unkempt property, and a severe swing in demographics. I didn't even touch the Commack shelter thread - that town is such a joke... it was nothing but goombahs with faux marble twenty years ago blighted by badly planned shopping and suddenly blew up in value because the Jewish population fell in love with it. I have a close friend who paid 850k for a house there at the peak... I shake my head every time I think about it.
What part of Suffolk are you going to where you are seeing this? Also, this overpaying stuff happened a lot all over the country. For example, ask the people in California, Las Vegas and Florida who overpaid in the same time period and now their home values were slashed to 1/3 of what they paid for them how they feel.
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Originally Posted by MikeyKid
I do mind my own business... I leave Valley Stream to speak for itself. Seanx4 can love his south riv area and we know we have our core group hyping that area. But when it comes to Suffolk, I can't stand by and see it lumped in as something it is not. Beyond our long departed Crooks, nobody in the devout defenders on these boards lives there and hypes it. Sure, OBH is Suffolk, but even she is more realistic when it comes to the area. It's overpriced and overvalued. I don't down your home at all - in fact I speak highly of Nassau more often than not.
Well when you make all your negative posts why don't you put a disclaimer that they are about SUFFOLK and not Nassau?
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Originally Posted by MikeyKid
I compulsively think of most of my family (and long time friends), who happen to still live on LI... there's a difference. If I didn't have any connection I could understand your point. It's not a love it or leave proposition to me.
Instead of posting on here and treating US like we are idiots for still living on LI, why don't you talk to your friends and family that are still on LI if that's who you actually care about?
Just did a quick run of the numbers. We came down without owning a house on LI but did have saved the 20+% for the down payment on the LI house we passed on.
We've owned three homes down here, all appreciated some (not like LI though), taxes are lowish, salaries a bit below what Long Island pays but still more than adequate, so we've done well. At this point we have paid off our house, four years of each of our kids college is paid for, and we now have enough saved to either a) put down 50% on the house my wife grew up in, or b) buy the Clark Street Estate for cash with left over in the bank for upgrades (this is all without first selling the Old Dominion Domicile). Houses in my neighborhood usually sell in 4 to 8 weeks, good bang for the buck.
Long Island is a great place, but the idea that anyone who makes it elsewhere is because of what they took from Long Island is just absurd.
Just saying.
Keep dreaming. I don't believe a word of it (exception: unless you won a big lottery jackpot), especially in the area of Virginia you live in. Anyone can say anything on the anonymous internet.
And, no, judging by your posts, you do not think Long Island is a great place. However, you do seem very obsessed with it for someone who has been gone for over 20 years. And that obsession is very strange.
If my husband and I had relocated when the rest of my family did (95-96) instead of buying here and building our business, we wouldn't have what we do today. He would have stepped backwards -- having to go back to working for someone else while having to build his reputation and business from square one. I believe that professionals bouncing from one business to another don't experience as significant a setback as a self-employed tradesman.
Remaining here we have a house on a subdividable lot, built a carriage house on the other lot, purchased a 2nd home, and have saved toward retirement. While I would love to stay in my NY home, the writing is on the wall -- the taxes are going to consume an awful lot of retirement money over time. I'd sooner subdivide, sell two houses, and move on rather than feed the tax monster here. If I were to move where I could have gone almost 20 years ago, I'll be living a much better life with what I would have gained on LI.
Your mileage may vary.
Once you do retire and move on, will you actually admit it or will you be like these joker expats who swear they gained NOTHING by living on LI and magically pulled all the gains out of their behinds or got it in East Jesus, Southland?
I think everyone realizes that when retirement comes its a no brainer to move off LI. I mean that's one of the percs of staying here...more retirement money at the end of the road. At least for me that's the case. If it wasn't I would surely be moving asap.
Of course. Once you are not making $$$$$ and you're aging and living off your investments, paying high taxes is not going to be part of the game. That is just common sense (even to me)!
Behold, the Mystical Mind Skills of ILLIB. Teller of Fortunes, Reader of Minds.
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Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but
Keep dreaming. I don't believe a word of it (exception: unless you won a big lottery jackpot), especially in the area of Virginia you live in. Anyone can say anything on the anonymous internet.
Oh yesum, we livin down here in tha ollld log cabin. The missus is cookin up the road kill I just found at the end of the drive. Get your head out of the sand: people can excel off of the Island and save money. I know it sounds crazy but it happens. I'm not a millionaire but we have managed to save because we're not being taxed to death, or over charged (I mean paying market value) for a 1300 sq ft fixer upper, and are actually somewhat well paid even by Long Island standards. It happens sometimes.
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Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but
And, no, judging by your posts, you do not think Long Island is a great place. However, you do seem very obsessed with it for someone who has been gone for over 20 years. And that obsession is very strange.
On the contrary, I do think it's still great and unique. The place has good bones and can really stay great, but that window is closing fast. Maybe I am obsessed with the place that I called home, and whose history I still like exploring. So be it. Maybe you should be a bit more obsessed about the place instead of obsessing over ex-pats.
Once you do retire and move on, will you actually admit it or will you be like these joker expats who swear they gained NOTHING by living on LI and magically pulled all the gains out of their behinds or got it in East Jesus, Southland?
Maybe you should be a bit more obsessed about the place instead of obsessing over ex-pats.
Just remember, I am not on the Virginia forum telling negative tales about Virginia or putting up negative news stories concerning Virginia and its people and posting to the people there about how crappy Virginia is and telling the people of Virginia how stupid they are for living there and that they should get out, am I? I could find material if I wanted to I suppose. But I am not because I have too much class to treat the people of Virginia that way about their home.
So WHO is obsessed with WHO again? Who is the one coming to ME all the time? You crying foul as if I am the one who starts these things reminds me of a scene from a favorite movie actually.
Blanche (played by ClarkSt): You wouldn't be able to do these awful things to me if I weren't on the LI forum.
Jane (played by ILLIB): But you *are*, Blanche! You *are* on the LI forum!
Well I mean after you move off LI you might have a drastic memory lapse or personality change.
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Get your head out of the sand: people can excel off of the Island and save money. I know it sounds crazy but it happens. I'm not a millionaire but we have managed to save because we're not being taxed to death, or over charged (I mean paying market value) for a 1300 sq ft fixer upper, and are actually somewhat well paid even by Long Island standards. It happens sometimes.
