NY/NJ: Would you come back? (Trenton, Eatontown: apartment, rent, crimes)

[cyntmac]

No difference? That's too easy to answer. I live on the west coast and was raised in NJ. I have also lived in the south as a youngster. The people are the difference! People from NJ are very different than what/who you will meet down south. Being opinionated in the south is sometimes taken as rudeness. Especially if the opinion is coming out of a woman's mouth. Sarcasm anyone? I happen to like it-but you will get some strange looks. Our sense of humor in the Northeast is different too. NC is the southern state I am most familiar with. My father has lived there since 1977. He lives in Greensboro. It is full of transplants but is like a middle-class version of Stepford. You can find places in NJ that look very similar but the people there are likely to be individuals who are not afraid to speak their mind. If you are leaving NY/NJ because you truly hate it-you will probably love Stepford and it will like you right back. This is because you will blend/bland right in and that is what is prized there. Flashes of individualism should be kept to a mimimum or eliminated if possible. You don't want to upset anyone.

[winter]

I'm chimming in late but I don't have too much of a chance to sit on the computer. Anyway I'm leaving NJ been born and raised here but at my age I just can't afford the taxes etc. Too much. I hope it's going to be good but looking around at NJ now it's almost a pity. So much is changing Places are building up all around highways are being enlarged to accomadate the traffic and save time. I don't think I'll ever come back once I'm gone.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by New Jersey Texan

Hey Bob,
I looked on the weather for Jersey today and its 11!!! Today in DFW, its going to be 70 and beautifull. I'm going out now for lunch and sit in the sun.

Yeah, the high today will be around 25, but that's far from the norm. We'll have this weather for less than a week, and then get back to some managable temps. Email me in July when it's 105 there and then tell me how wonderful DFW is.....lol.

Bob

[emanon]

If my taxes in Somerset county could all of a sudden come down from 11,000 to 2,000 no way would I consider moving to NC or any other place for that matter.

Sure it's crowded here but I have a little more than an acre here in a nice quiet neighborhood and know the neighbors just enough to wave hello every once in a while.

Since that ain't gonna be hapening I'll be moving South one of these days.

I'll be looking for the same type neighborhood in NC, I'm too old to be looking for new "best friends"

[NCMommy2-4]

Originally Posted by emanon

If my taxes in Somerset county could all of a sudden come down from 11,000 to 2,000 no way would I consider moving to NC or any other place for that matter.

Sure it's crowded here but I have a little more than an acre here in a nice quiet neighborhood and know the neighbors just enough to wave hello every once in a while.

Since that ain't gonna be hapening I'll be moving South one of these days.

I'll be looking for the same type neighborhood in NC, I'm too old to be looking for new "best friends"

Come on down to my n'hood in NC.. I'll be your new best friend and all my friends will welcome you too!!

Its sad to hear your story.... you get happy someplace and then it all gets hard to handle. I know it. I do hope you find that peaceful someplace with the similar feel to what you love now.

Linda

[JerZ]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

Yeah, the high today will be around 25, but that's far from the norm. We'll have this weather for less than a week, and then get back to some managable temps. Email me in July when it's 105 there and then tell me how wonderful DFW is.....lol.

Bob

You know, there's a flip side to this, though I'm sure not a lot of people see it the way I do.

There's something about having been cold and snowy for a long time and suddenly spring breaks and it's like, "Ahhhhhhhh." It's a gift...a whisper of warm breeze on your cheek...nature comes and calls you back..."Remember, I can be nice too."

There is nothing, nothing like a northeastern spring following the winter. There is something marvelous about the changing seasons, how they are entirely out of your control, how you are swept up by them, sometimes have to battle them...there's something about bundling up and drinking cocoa after snow-shoveling and looking out the window and thinking, "Look. I survived it."

Winter lies silent, waiting...the snow muffles sound...it's a waiting period...a time when you only run out because you have to, to de-ice your car and start it to warm up even though the Owner's Manual tells you not to. You watch the children playing without a care in the snow and getting wet before school and yelling, "Oh now look, I have to clean you all up again!" but secretly smiling because you remember doing the same thing, too.

Other, warmer parts of the country are always very impressed to hear how hardy you are...a northeasterner, bragging about how you felt your cheeks freeze when you went outside, yanking out all the winter gear--tons of clothes, doubled-up socks, kitty litter to scatter on the snow in the driveway so you don't skid. You're set to brave the elements..and you do. And then...spring...spring...............

I guess this isn't really convincing anyone, is it?

I can also tell you it's a matter of what you're used to. We've only been in SoCal for two years but already I'm cold if it's 60 degrees out. That's ridiculous. People from warmer climates think, "I could NEVER live where it gets cold!"--but they could, because for them, it *is* a climate change. And people from colder climates think, "How wonderful it would be to live in a place where the lowest it gets is 50 degrees!" but that too is a fallacy.

Knowing what I know now, weather would be among the least of my considerations in moving to a new place.

[njchick]

JerZ, your post is very sweet.. I guess because I'm one of those strange people that actually likes snow I didn't feel we really had a winter this year..

[rags260Z]

Originally Posted by NYLATINQT

Most people that have left the NY/NJ area have done so due to ridiculously high real estate prices and taxes. If money were not an object, would you choose to come back from wherever you relocated to (mostly North Carolina, Florida from what I gather)? Just curious.

It seems like most poeple are missing the point of this post. It asks if you would come back if money were not an issue.

I had the oportunity to relocate south about 18 months ago. The specific city is irrelavent but I would have been very well off as I would keep my NYC salary. I didn't go. Mainly it was because of family and friends. I just couldn't take my child away from his "family". I fought with my decision for all of this time until reading these posts. What I can see is yes, I would have a bigger house and less car insurance but is that something I am willing to move to a different state for? Hardly. I have come to the conclusion that I must like it here. It's where I'm comfortable. I like the sarcasm and the "attitude" that people have. I have grown to be able to read that better than the way people are in other parts of the country. I have done my share of business travel and I have to say I find that I get uncomfortable around people who I consider too friendly. I just don't know how to read them. sure I'll struggle to make ends meet but is that so terrible? I just consider it living within my means and I'm good with that. I used to think I hated the winter, and I'm sure when I leave work today I will grumble, but something that JerZ said really hit a nerve. I do know what it feels like to feel the spring sun on your face! My imagination took me there as i read the post. I know someone who moved back to Jersey after living in Florida for 30 years and I never knew why. I guess if I'll never know what it feels like to miss it here if I never leave

[Girl]

If money were truly no object, not only would I return to the area but I'd live in Manhattan.

However, when my family made the decision to move from NoNJ it was strictly due to finances. We just COULDN'T afford NJ anymore. We struggled for two years before making that final decision. We didn't live extravagantly, and yet we still struggled.

Our move was perfect in every way - we found a nice house, a nice community, great jobs with fantastic commutes, decent neighbors and a wonderful church since we arrived here in July 2006.

We loved where we were in NoNJ - our neighbors there were/are like family and our church was home to us. But we don't regret our decision to move away one bit. Because now we don't STRUGGLE. We don't panic when the first batch of bills comes in every month. We can actually afford to take our kids places like the zoo or the aquarium. Our quality of life has wholly improved by leaving NoNJ. So I don't see us coming back even if money were no object.

[DecayingAngel]

I realize that the point of the thread is that "what if money weren't an issue". But I'm glad that people chimed in about all the factors, because it helps when one is trying to come to a decision whether to leave or not. I've learned a lot from this thread.

If money weren't the issue, then I would buy a place in NJ that was isolated enough to make it seem as though I didn't live in NJ. Then I could enjoy all the good stuff NJ has to offer without the bad. But then, that would make it not really NJ at all....it would be like pretending I were somewhere else. And would that be worth it? I really don't know.

Hope that makes some kind of sense.