Do you miss massachusetts? (Boston, Plymouth: insurance, new house, employment)

[wpotsie]

YES YES YES!!! I moved from MA to San Antonio a year ago, and I can honestly say that agree 100%! I know it seems like an awful thing to say, but sometimes I need to cuss just a little bit. I was watching a Spurs game and I swore at the TV because Tim Duncan as playing like a p****. People have no passion for their team. People were looking aat me like I was a criminal. I'm not a potty mouth or anything but I've developed a rep down here because NO ONE SWEARS!!! Anyway, just thought I'd put my 2 cents in because it feels good to flip someone off just once in a while! Does that make me a bad person?

Originally Posted by mb1197

I grew up in MA and moved to NC 4 years ago. Do I miss it? Yeah, I do from time to time and so I make the trip home, get my dose and come back to NC. I miss my friends, I miss the snow from time to time and occassionally I just want to flip someone off just cuz it feels good.

[Hatchvillebiker]

Are any of you thinking of maintaining two places in Mass and the South for example? Like some snowbirds do? Or is that becoming more of a pipe dream as it gets more and more $$$ everywhere you go? BTW, lived in Metrowest Boston, Tidewater Virginia, and now Cape Cod with commute to Boston. Love the chat of peeps in San Antonio, sounds really inviting. Texans seem nice, stationed in Wichita Falls in 83-84. No income tax sounds nice too if heard right.... No income tax, low property tax if possible.... Pipe dream? thx...

[jsa2]

Originally Posted by npagem

We are both asians and have been prepared for discriminations no matter where we live, so no matter which state we live is okay. We are relocating from KY(nice here but ...), nurses and would like to live in Boston, Newton and or Brookline. Plan to rent first, do you have any advice on good realtors we can contact. Ms steinberg ,Ms Higgins and remax have contact with us We are still applying for a job, rent first for a year. I sincerely appreciate any advice you can give.Thanks

I used to work for Ed Lyon at Preservation Properties in Newton Centre. He's a good guy, you might try him. They handle rentals and sales. He'll probably have you work with one of his agents which would be fine.

You can tell him JSA referred you. Tell him I worked there about 14 years ago, so it will jog his mememory!
Happy house-hunting!

[baystater]

Yeah I miss Mass. I live there all my until about 2 years ago. my signifigant other got a job and Northern New Jersey a I had to follow. Don't get me wrong Jersey is OK....But...it ain't home. I miss being near the ocean (marshfield,ma.), and I miss the culture that is the south shore. BTW I finally found a state were the average driver is worse than us baystaters.

Peace.

[Tarrant]

Originally Posted by Lauren

Where do you live now and do you miss Massachusetts? Excluding the high cost of living, if you could afford to live here, would you prefer to?

I grew up in Woods Hole on the Cape and left in 86'. I would go back in a flash if housing was not so expensive. I miss the beaches, friends, summers. I think it's a midlife crisis thing. I currently live in NC and hate it. Hope to move to upstate NY soon where I can buy a house for around 200k.

[Tarrant]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I miss the food!

I didn't realize how good the food was in New England, until I moved. It is also difficult to get New England food in another part of the country.

What I would give for a clam fritter!

I've tried to make them, and I'm a good cook, but no matter what recipe I try, I just can't replicate it.

New England shore dinners, lobstah rolls, Indian pudding, fresh haddock and cod decent fish and chips...

It's been about ten years, and I really miss the food.

You can only eat so much grits, greens and cornbread. (I'm in Tennessee.) I use to live in Florida. I hate grouper! And both states heavily rely on chain restaurants.

Could someone just send me a clam fritter? Or a decent recipe? LOL!

I miss stuffed quohogs from the Cataumet Fish Market on the Cape....YUM!

[darzz1]

Originally Posted by Cosmic

I lived 34 years in Boston. I have been all over the World, lived in many different states and foreign countries.

To the principal question, do I miss Massachusetts???

Yup, I miss the old dazes before it all went to Hell. I miss my old neighborhood before it went to Hell, I miss some of my old neighbors and the fun we had before it turned into Real Estate Lottery.

But do I miss Massachusetts and what it became. Not on your life.

I do miss Bldg 19. Every state should have one.

I do not miss the traffic, the idiots, the grime and crime, more idiots, taxes, corruption, stupid people, living in a UN with all the illegals, taxes, pollution, **** games on top of **** games, going for the ever increasing permits, parking, snow, hassles, more corruption, car inspections, oil tank licenses, more licenses, excise taxes, filling out that darn MA income tax form, the road idiots, the DMV, downtown Boston and all its big glass boxes, surly clerks, all the Catch-22's, going to the post office, living in a place that was just an insult, the over priced everything, going for dog licenses, scanner scams as a way of life, driving on what they called roads with holes big enough to hide my dog even tho she had a license, being in a place where gays thought they should be able get married, all my stupid one way new neighbors, all my gay neighbors who thought they were something special and I owed them something, being strip searched to get in the JFK building for tax forms, jury duty where I was treated worse than the criminals, did I mention the taxes.

Did I miss anything, probably only a couple more thousand.

Naw, the good olde dazes are long gone.

In the later years I just had to get out of there in the winter. I would drive back from the airport and see the grime and bleak place, (the Kennedy's would call it Dank, why was that their favorite word???) and ask why am I still here. Easy it was for the money, come on building boom peak out quick.

It all turned into one big Police State where the insane where running the Institution. There is nothing to go back too. I wasn't born there, sure was not going to die there.

You really don't appreciate how bad it had become until you finally escape. To be really free you must be entirely out of New England, nothing but a zoo.

If you want to be miserable, move to MA. They should have to post warning signs at the border.

Grew up In Natick
So funny my Mom is still there and works at bldg 19 1/5! lol
I have lots of found memories of MA.. going to the cape, gloucester for Lobsta and the penny candy store... I would never move back.. couldn't afford to and winters way to cold for me. THough there are some good points, best seafood anywhere, miss those pretty blue skys, rolling hills and all the quaint little mom & pop stores. Also,, most houses have a lot of character and charm to them- not like the cookie cutters they put up everywere.
SO.. the question. If housing wasn't soo costly and it wasn't soo cold! and there weren't sooo many Illegals - I would consider it.
Everyplace has there problems. I'm in va bch know and crime is really bad, getting worse by the day.
Good luck all

[smarty]

Most who left state don't plan to return
Jobs, housing inspired moves, survey finds
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | May 14, 2006

A majority of people who moved out of Massachusetts last year report they are very satisfied with life in their new state and would not move back, a Boston Globe poll has found.

Seventy-three percent of those surveyed said they live in a home that is bigger than their home in Massachusetts was. Fifty-four percent said their standard of living is higher now.

The top reason people gave for leaving Massachusetts was a better job, followed by the cost of housing, family ties, and the weather. In a separate set of questions, 50 percent of those surveyed said the cost of housing was a ''major factor," and a better job was cited as a ''major factor" by 39 percent.

The findings underscored the difficulties of living, raising children, and earning enough money in Massachusetts, and suggested that these fundamental aspirations of the American middle-class are often easier for people to achieve outside the state.

The wide-ranging poll was the first of its kind to measure the motivations of people who have left Massachusetts, whose population of 6.39 million dropped by nearly 19,000 between 2003 and 2005, according to Census data.

Some 232,945 people moved out of the state between 2000 and 2005, a number somewhat offset by births and by an influx of immigrants from other countries, researchers said.

The survey comes as candidates for governor and policy makers are discussing the state's stagnant population, and identifies some of the aspects where Massachusetts faces a competitive disadvantage with other states.

''It points out that people are not being dragged away from Massachusetts kicking and screaming: They go out, they look at other states, and they say, 'You know what? This is pretty nice,' " said Andrew E. Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which conducted the poll. ''I see so many people who move from Massachusetts and say they will never move back."

The nationwide survey, commissioned by the Globe and administered over the phone, interviewed 524 people between April 28 and May 4. The respondents, who moved out of Massachusetts in 2005, were randomly selected from a database compiled from change-of-address forms for utilities and telephone service and public records. The questions covered a range of topics, from people's perceptions of their new local public schools to the courteousness of their neighbors.

The results showed New Hampshire was the top destination for people who left Massachusetts. Florida was the second most popular state, followed by Texas. Regionally, the Southeast was the most popular destination, drawing 19 percent of those polled, followed by 18 percent who now live in the Midwest and West.

[smarty]

Blue-collar and white-collar nonprofessionals and those who made less than $75,000 were more likely to move to New Hampshire than others who left the state. Those who moved to New Hampshire were also more likely to name housing costs as a ''major factor" for their move, the poll suggested. They represent many middle-class people who feel they can no longer afford life in the Bay State, said William H. Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., who has studied migration patterns throughout the United States.

''They want a suburban lifestyle, they want a yard, they want a home, they want to have the American dream," Frey said. ''And it's persistently unaffordable in places like Massachusetts."

Professionals and executives, people under age 50, people with post-graduate educations or with incomes above $100,000 were more likely than other emigrés to move to the Mid-Atlantic and to cite a better job as a major factor for moving, the poll suggested. Their exodus represents what some policymakers term a brain drain.

The exodus from Massachusetts has been particularly acute in recent years. Between 2000 and 2004, Massachusetts lost residents at a greater rate than any other state except New York, according to Census Bureau estimates that were released last month. The exodus from Massachusetts averaged 42,402 people per year, according to the Census data.

''To me, what's new about this period is that now housing costs are being factored into people's migration decisions," Frey said. ''In the past, they would look more or less at the job and what the job paid, but housing costs would not factor as much."

The survey also sought to measure what was a major factor in prompting people to move. Housing and jobs were cited by 50 percent and 39 percent, respectively. Taxes were cited by 30 percent; a better place to raise kids, by 25 percent; the weather by 24 percent; and the traffic by 20 percent.

Other issues were less important, the poll showed. Only 8 percent of respondents indicated crime as a major factor for their move, while 9 percent cited the public schools, 12 percent cited Massachusetts' liberal bent, and 13 percent its political leadership.

Once outside Massachusetts, life improved for many respondents. Ninety-two percent described themselves as satisfied with their new state, including 56 percent who said they were ''very satisfied." Only 37 percent of those polled said they would like to move back to Massachusetts someday, while 56 percent said they would not return to the Bay State.

Fifty-four percent of those polled said their standard of living was higher in their new state. Thirty-six percent said it was about the same, while 9 percent said it was lower.

Fifty percent of those polled said their home now is ''much bigger" than the one they had in Massachusetts, while 23 percent said it was ''somewhat bigger." Sixteen percent live in a home that is ''much smaller" or ''somewhat smaller."

A majority of those polled said they were satisfied with their move, with 56 percent calling themselves ''very satisfied" and 36 percent ''somewhat satisfied."

Fifty-two percent of respondents said they visit Massachusetts more than once a year; 26 percent said they visit about once a year. A majority -- 68 percent -- said they still have relatives in the Bay State.

Asked what they missed most about Massachusetts, 25 percent of those polled said family, while 22 percent said the state's natural surroundings. Eight percent said they missed cultural outings to museums and theaters, and 8 percent said they missed Boston.

Asked what they missed least, weather topped the list, named by 24 percent of respondents. Traffic and commuting were named by 19 percent, taxes by 16 percent, the cost of living by 10 percent, cost of housing by 6 percent, and state politics by 5 percent.

A majority -- 69 percent -- said they found Bay State residents either ''much less courteous" or ''somewhat less courteous" than people in their new state.

Some allegiances persisted, the results showed. Only 5 percent of those polled said they were now cheering for a different sports team. The Red Sox, the poll suggested, were the most popular team among those who left Massachusetts, listed by 56 percent of respondents. The Patriots claimed 43 percent, and the Bruins and Celtics, 10 percent each.

[tsbjoe]

Ironically, I just stumbled upon this site because I was looking for something (anything) to do this weekend in the central Mass. area. Something interesting to see or do, something I haven't done 92 times. I have now spent over an hour reading through some of these comments.

I live in Brimfield (town motto: "We are next to nothing.") and for the life of me I can't figure out why I've lived here in Mass as long as I have. Note: Moved to Brimfield 6 years ago from Palmer. If Brimfield is next to nothing and Palmer is next to Brimfield ... Anyway, I moved here to be closer to a business I had in Southbridge. So there was method to the madness. I sold my business in 2004 and now have more free time on my hands. It was nice to come home to Brimfield and relax after running a restaurant, but now with free time, you realize everything you want to do requires a drive.

Over the last 6 or so years my wife and I have been able to travel to about half of the 50 states, and while some are not a good fit for me for a number of reasons, every time I come back I want to move away!

There seems to be a lot more nightlife even in small towns outside of Mass, especially in areas where the temp doesn't drop below freezing in winter. And people are a lot friendlier outside Mass. The pace is usually way more relaxed and enjoyable.

Sure there are some nice places in Mass, as there are anywhere, but a lot of the sentiments I am hearing solidify my resolve to move elsewhere. I actually had the good timing of trying to sell my house and move away this past spring (2006) just as the real estate market crashed in this area. Two people looked at our house in 8 months. I can't even get out now that I want to! It is starting to feel like a prison sentence. I am getting tired of the winter, even though this year was not bad. Almost everything I like to do centers around the warmer weather and I am tired of shutting down for 3 (or more) months. I am tired of the Mass politics, the crazy pensions we pay state workers (that's really gonna bite us soon), the property taxes, excise taxes, busy roads and dirty cities.

So why stick around, to see the leaves change and get fried clams? People .. the leaves change in a lot of places, and honestly the seafood is way better in Maine.

A lot of people seem to be from the Boston area, so there are some things to do if your into the nightlife, restaurants, etc. But in central & western Mass there really is not a lot to do here.

So at this time I can't answer the question do I miss Mass, but I really would like to find out.