Property taxes - anyone being priced out of your home? (rent, mortgage)
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My old boss lives there. Her taxes were around 24K, and the house was nice but nothing amazing.
There is a lot to Millburn /Short Hills. I grew up there and I loved it .I would love to move back but the tax hit the home owners take is not fair.I refuse to pay for Newark's problems only becuase other people think I should.
I don't blame retirees for wanting to move out, especially if they've already sent now grown kids through the school system. But here we see plenty of younger people complaining bitterly about how it is too expensive here, and often their posts and what they hint at lead me to infer that perhaps they don't have the best job or a great education and maybe haven't made the best financial decisions... anyone who's been on this forum for years probably knows some examples of people I'm talking about. Maybe not off the top of your head but you've likely seen them before.
We all know it's expensive here. Despite this, NJ is the most densely populated state. Clearly something draws people here. Complaining that it's expensive as if one didn't know when I highly doubt that's the case is just useless. If you can't afford it, move out or shut up.
And no, it's not just NJ that is expensive. It's basically the NY metro area. LI and Westchester are also expensive. LI taxes are also ridiculous. Venture out south and west into NJ and it's not quite as bad. There's a price to living where many of us live. Perhaps we don't realize how lucky we are, in a sense, to live in such a major metro area. If you don't like it, you don't have to stay.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaRuss01
Within NYC metro, NJ is cheap! And has been know as the cheap alternative for people looking to be close to the city. Have you shopped around other areas within a 15 miles radius of midtown?
Glen Ridge. 27k for top schools and 35-40 min direct train. And a house that is 300 PSF, not 400-600 PSF
Top schools short direct train. That puts you where in comparison? Scarsdale, Larchmont, Rye, Garden City LI
3200 SF turn key in a good town in lower Westchester is 1.75MM with 40k in taxes. Garden City, 1.5MM with 25k taxes. People in Westchester are tearing down 3000 SF 1.5mm houses on quarter plots and building 800 PSF homes with taxes pushing 60k!
Is 27k high? Yes. But housing market is still affordable in comparison. By comparison, I mean a town with great schools and a DIRECT quick train to the city. As for other area in NJ, the housing stock is just more. Millburn Summit etc it all nets out to the same equilibrium of taxes and home prices. And areas in Westchester and LI are simply just more
Bottom line is, if you have a job that couldn't be found outside of NYC for similar comp, then you're a bit stuck. But for anyone NOT tied to Manhattan, paying these taxes and premiums makes very little sense.
I concur with both of these posts. Northern NJ is expensive because of where it is - within commuting distance of America's largest city. You're going to pay for that because a lot of people want to be similary situated. The law of supply and demand applies. And expensive is a relative term. NJ is easily the cheapest of the metro NYC areas. You think it's pricey here, try Nassau, Westchester, or Rockland Counties. Add in southern Connecticut to that list. I'll gladly pay that premium to have a close commute to work at my job that will pay far more here than anywhere else. Time is priceless and I'm not commuting 2 hours each way to get cheaper housing costs. Plus I want to be a close drive to Ocean beaches. That all comes at a cost.
The people complaining it's costly here are not wrong. It is very much so. But it sounds like they're in the wrong place for them. Try moving to metro Denver, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Atlanta, etc. You'll be much more in your preferred price range. Trust me, I will be joining you as soon as my kid is done with school and I retire. The for sale sign goes on the lawn as soon as both those events occur - and off to somewhere cheap and warm I go.
I concur with both of these posts. Northern NJ is expensive because of where it is - within commuting distance of America's largest city. You're going to pay for that because a lot of people want to be similary situated. The law of supply and demand applies. And expensive is a relative term. NJ is easily the cheapest of the metro NYC areas. You think it's pricey here, try Nassau, Westchester, or Rockland Counties. Add in southern Connecticut to that list. I'll gladly pay that premium to have a close commute to work at my job that will pay far more here than anywhere else. Time is priceless and I'm not commuting 2 hours each way to get cheaper housing costs. Plus I want to be a close drive to Ocean beaches. That all comes at a cost.
The people complaining it's costly here are not wrong. It is very much so. But it sounds like they're in the wrong place for them. Try moving to metro Denver, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Atlanta, etc. You'll be much more in your preferred price range. Trust me, I will be joining you as soon as my kid is done with school and I retire. The for sale sign goes on the lawn as soon as both those events occur - and off to somewhere cheap and warm I go.
Very well said. Relativity is key here.
To sum things up, it's costly to live near one of the biggest employment meccas in the world. If you aren't utilizing that job opportunity, then the logic is lacking. Unfortunately that puts many in a position that they may not or cannot afford to retire in an area close to NYC. It will be a constant wave of a generation of people getting outpriced and replaced with a younger generation. That's the hard truth. Other major humble cities that do not offer as much compensation opportunities will always be more accommodating for retirees. Areas around San Fran and NYC do not make this possible.
It's worth being priced out of your home. You get to pay worthless teachers to indoctrinate your kids with leftist nonsense! Muh pensions!
By all means go move to a red state where the taxes are cheap and public employees are poorly paid. I hear Mississippi and Alabama are nice this time of year. Good luck with that.
I wonder when the conservative right will figure out why all the blue state are the wealthiest while most red states are the poorest.
I know that you can't turn back the hands of the clock, but by pinching my pennies and doing very prudent investing between the mid-'90s and the early '00s, I gleaned a present-day dividend income that gives me much comfort in my retirement. I deprived myself of some luxuries when I was in my 40s and 50s, and the result is that I can now enjoy almost any luxuries that I desire.
Plan ahead...
... and don't get sick or in an accident in those 40s or 50s.
It may come as a shock to you but many retirees who leave NJ did make good investment decisions over the years and are continuing to do so by leaving and taking their disposable income with them to invest and spend elsewhere.
The trick is to replace them with high income earners, not low income earners who don't have the means to buy into all that you say NJ has to offer.
Exactly what my sister and BIL did. Now they are preparing to move out of NJ and kissing the insane property taxes goodbye. They consider it a "bad investment" to throw their hard-earned retirement funds down the drain by paying high property taxes that largely support schools they have no need of. I think moving out at retirement is pretty smart and will stretch those retirement funds out. Unfortunately, as you note, they are also taking their disposable income with them.
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