Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I lived outside NJ 7 years, but returned here, since it is where I'm from. I am now looking to leave again. I think it is so individualized as to what you think of where you live. Before I moved out of here, I thought NJ was the center of the universe. Then I moved away. I hated it at first, but after 4 months in Tennesee, I was acclimated to my new surroundings, and everywhere I moved after that (Virginia, D.C, The Netherlands), I loved. Now, being back in NJ, I feel like I'm a stranger in a strange land...and I have been back two years. I don't think it's the same for everyone. But I know that for me, I am not happy here, and two years of being back hasn't solved that. The grass isn't always greener on the other side. Everyone has different preferences and if you don't like where you are, but have lived other places that you like, then maybe NJ isn't for you. If you have never lived anywhere but NJ, but think you don't like NJ, then try somewhere else FOR AT LEAST ONE YEAR, and if you don't like it, then maybe NJ is the place for you after all. But the old saying rings true: don't knock it until you've tried it.
I've been in Florida for 7 years now, my children ages 11 and 7 are still in NJ, while I do visit regularly there is no way I would ever move back to that place. I spent my life trying to get out and now that I am you couldn't pay me to go back. However Florida sucks too and I'm movin to Vegas in Aug! In NJ's defense, I'm from Bridgeton and I'm not sure there are any smaller hick towns than that. I was born to be a city girl which Ocala, FL is not either. If I don't get away from the smell of farms and animal poo soon I might scream!
I grew up in the Philly suburbs but now live at the Jersey Shore. I always dreamed about a shore house, but now that I have one, I'm not so thrilled. It's depressing to see all the new condos in foreclosure or at auction. Owners are renting to anyone and everyone. The town attracts a low-brow crowd....there was a near-brawl between groups of drunken partying kids right outside my condo. Being a resort town, it's insane in the summer and dead in the winter. Oh, but the hood-rats live here year-round.
I miss the vitality of the city. But it's not just that -- the weather here in the Northeast has gotten progressively hotter and more humid each summer. I lived in Southern Calif. for two years and have a hankering to go back there. I know it's expensive, but the weather was incredible. I was only there two years and moved back because I missed my intense Philly peeps, but I think I'd be more open now to other cultures because I'd remind myself about that d*mn humidity if I moved back.
Anyway, I am glad to hear there are others who move around as much as I do!
Just to support the myth of working for peanuts in NC.. My dh got a job (rather keep company private as its quite wide known in NC) doing what he did in NJ and he is making a lot less... about $50K less. BUT we are living very comfortable and WITH a savings now. Didn't have that back in NJ. Our property taxes were sky high at $8000 a year and our car insurance was insane as well. Here we pay (kid you not) $1500 a year in prop tax for 2200 sq ft house on .55 acre and our car insurance for 2 cars (1 leased) is about $756 a year.. and they are not go carts. Sure ya gotta pay a tax on the cars as NC counts that as property tax but its a mere $300 for both of them I think. I am not sweating it ... thats still not even $2000 a year in property taxes all together.
Cost of living is not that high, I go on ShopRite.com and check prices on there all the time for basic groceries just to see whats up and I see no difference if not higher there! Gas is .10 cents lower than NJ I heard from my Mom the other day (who resides in NJ)
But there is no reason for anyone to assume its better anywhere else. If you like or have no struggle paying the taxes in NJ and you love your home and job and where you are then so be it. We wouldn't have left had my DH not lost his job. We were not sold on NC .. we were going to go anywhere we found a good paycheck. NC just happened to offer something that no other place did when we needed it most.
Plenty of great people come from NJ in the NC area and they shine a bright light on NJ for many that have beliefs that NJ is bad bad bad.
For me the grass is greener as far as property taxes but there are things I gave up to have lower taxes. Like someone else said, everyone is different and it depends on what's important to each individual. What I gained was better weather and lower taxes. What I lost was being close to my friends and NYC. Of course there are other small things like pizza but I have found a bunch of great restaurants here that make up for it.
Would I move back? Yes, if by some miracle property taxes were reduced and I could afford the same size house and yard I have here.
As far as I'm concerned the NJ that I grew up in doesn't exist anymore.
No, nor does the Georgia, South Carolina, or North Carolina exist anymore that those locals remember.
It amazes me, all the NJers complaining about recent immigrants to NJ changing the area....then picking up to other states. Never once thinking some people down there might have liked things better before the influx of NJ and NY transplants
I've been in Florida for 7 years now, my children ages 11 and 7 are still in NJ, while I do visit regularly there is no way I would ever move back to that place. I spent my life trying to get out and now that I am you couldn't pay me to go back. However Florida sucks too and I'm movin to Vegas in Aug! In NJ's defense, I'm from Bridgeton and I'm not sure there are any smaller hick towns than that. I was born to be a city girl which Ocala, FL is not either. If I don't get away from the smell of farms and animal poo soon I might scream!
If you are a city girl, why didn't you go to Philly or New York?
My impression is Florida is filled with a lot of transients. So I'm surprised you'd chose to go to Vegas....it's the same thing there.
I've been in Florida for 7 years now, my children ages 11 and 7 are still in NJ, while I do visit regularly there is no way I would ever move back to that place. I spent my life trying to get out and now that I am you couldn't pay me to go back. However Florida sucks too and I'm movin to Vegas in Aug! In NJ's defense, I'm from Bridgeton and I'm not sure there are any smaller hick towns than that. I was born to be a city girl which Ocala, FL is not either. If I don't get away from the smell of farms and animal poo soon I might scream!
I wouldn't be surprised if you find vegas to be pretty bad too, once you get away from the bright lights of the casinos, life out there can be real nasty, crime, gangs are everywhere and vegas is ground zero for home foreclosures.
Good luck with your search, utopia is a hard place to find
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's all relative
