NY/NJ: Would you come back? (Atlantic City, Washington: health insurance, how much, houses)

[Georgia]

Where to start, I lived in New Jersey for 10 years and adopted the state as my hometown. A West Virginia native, I found a major culture shock when I hit the Garden State in 1992, but fell in love immediately. It helps when you love food, the Eagles, etc.

I was transfered to Chicago, IL in 2002 and then Atlanta in 2004. Would I come back? Yer darn tootin I would. The item that NJ must get under control is the NJEA and it's mafia style control over the state. When you have average homes in some counties like Morris, Essex, Burlington, Camden, Union, etc. costing Joe Citizen north of $1,000.00 per month to support a teachers union with multiple unneeded supers at 200K per annum the exodus begins and continues. Of course voting for leftist time and time again to run the state does not help either.

Again, I left because of job transfer. My company closed NJ operations due to state government taxation and regulation after regulation. The funny thing is Illinois is not much different. Bought less home for more money and again paying $7,000+ per year in school taxes. The only break was car insurance and state income tax was a flat 3%.

Now in Georgia, I can breathe a breath of fresh air paying only a third of property tax as in NJ, however, I have 6% income tax, my car insurance from Illinois increased 30% upon hitting the crazy highways of Georgia, and each year I get a birthday present. Car tags and Car Tax! For example a company car Ford Taurus with high miles will cost in excess of $200.00 per year just to renew your tags. If you have a fancy Beemer, Mercedes, or Caddy plan to fork out up to a grand or more just to renew your tags.

The other thing about the southern Utopia is it is not Uptopia. With the Northern invasion, Florida refugees, and more illegal aliens than you can count, the states treasury is beginning to bleed red. The state is full of run a muk development, roads are crowded and dangerous. Yes fellow Jersey folks you can drive the upper and lower GW, the BQE, and the Parkway during new years eve and feel safer than you do driving around the Atlanta metroplex. Absolutely the worst place I have driven in my life and I travel the country on business all the time.

Let's not forget the food. God I miss the food in NJ/NY/ and Philly. Down here it is Bar-b-Que and of course good Bar-b-Que. You can have some diversity by looking forward to a night out on the town at one of the many national chains. Yippie!

Now,don't even talk about the shore.
Outside of the wake you can create during a bathtub farrt, you can always go south of Savannah and enjoy the water while catching a pulp mill exhaust buzz. Mmmmm!

So, would I come back? Heck yes, even with the taxes. Of course I would do what I could to convince folks to vote out the cruds like Corzine and the NJEA empire supporters.

New Joisey and You, Peurfect togetherrr. And don't even furgettaboutit!

[DecayingAngel]

I think for a lot of us it's the fact we can't afford the housing costs anymore. The rest I could learn to live with, but if you are middle class and were fortunate to have a home before the housing bubble OR inherit money (and don't have your sister rob you of your share), sure, I would stay in a heartbeat.

We lived in South Dakota for 2 years and came back to NJ. But then things began to change for the worst. I believe the nationwide housing bubble began in NJ and then started to spread. Also, I venture to say that NJ is the most "political" state in the US, with certain factions so entwined with government that it is a hopeless mess which benefits only the special interests.

There's a place for sale about 12 miles from me that would be absolutely perfect--except it comes with a price tag of $300,000. It really hurts that we can't afford it and be able to stay here.

I have heard horror stories about Atlanta traffic. We do complain a lot here in NJ about it but from all I've heard it can't hold a candle to the absolute crawl of Atlanta.

Wish I could stay, but unless a miracle happens we are, pure and simple, being forced to move.

[berryjuice4life]

Decaying, couldnt have said it better....we feel the same way we are also looking forward to a new life fresh start and alot friendlier atmosphere as well as a slower pace life...even with all the Ny and NJ people moving there its still slower because they are all learning how to Mellow out...LOL...Cant wait to get there

[BrianH1970]

Before we moved to NC I said pretty much all of the same things everyone else is saying. I think I said them pretty emphatically, too.

However if money weren't an issue I'd already be packed and heading back to New Jersey. Not even a question about it.

[DecayingAngel]

Originally Posted by BrianH1970

Before we moved to NC I said pretty much all of the same things everyone else is saying. I think I said them pretty emphatically, too.

However if money weren't an issue I'd already be packed and heading back to New Jersey. Not even a question about it.

Hmmm....yours is the first remark I've read about someone wanting to come back after having moved to NC. Don't mean to be too nosy but what are the reasons why you feel that way about NC? It's not a state on my list of resettling but am curious anyway.

[roxy1946]

I visit the city every year for about two to three weeks....my sis lives in Lower Manhattan....I would move to NYC if I had enough coins

[BrianH1970]

Originally Posted by DecayingAngel

Hmmm....yours is the first remark I've read about someone wanting to come back after having moved to NC. Don't mean to be too nosy but what are the reasons why you feel that way about NC? It's not a state on my list of resettling but am curious anyway.

I can start off by quoting some of my own post on the NJ>NC back to NJ thread on this board.

By my experience the first two or three weeks are the weeks where you're in what I'd like to call "exploratory mode". Everything is new and you're still looking around in wonder at the place you now call home. It's like a vacation in a sense and all the while you're also comparing what you've got now to what you had ("oh wow..they have this store too"). That's the easy part. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can prepare you for what it's like when you actually get down to just living. When it hits you just exactly how far you are away from family, friends and places. When the newness wears off and the whole, "wow, this is now home" comes into play, everything that seemed small and trivial takes on such great importance. The corner bar takes on a huge significance. The magical, almost mythical Jersey shore takes on a Disneyland-like status. The short trips to New York that you may have taken by bus, car or train that now need a plane ticket or an eleven hour car drive and you wish you could've done them more often. The Starbucks you may have been visiting because you liked the atmosphere and the one girl who would make your caramel macchiato just right. Going to a sporting event to cheer for your favorite team. It may all sound insanely trivial but it's a matter of leaving behind the comforts of the familiar and what you loved more than you thought you did.

Forget family and friends. You can have your spouse and kids with you, you can make new friends. There's no replacing the family and long time friends you leave behind. My sister emailed me a set of pictures of the Polar Bears at Seaside Heights. She took her son, my nephew, with her and snapped all of these shots. How I wish I could've gone just to be with everyone. When you factor time, travel, and expense it's not as easy as saying, "Well I'll just go back up every chance I get". It sounds good when you say it but real world at times will dictate otherwise.

Honestly I'm tired of going through the daily fits of anxiety and depression that don't seem to get any better. If it keeps up I have to think at some point that relocating just isn't for me.

North Carolina is as beautiful as you've probably heard, most likely moreso. The sunsets here are beautiful, after the give and take it is cheaper to live here (with housing it's a LOT cheaper). The people are more relaxed and friendlier. For a lot of people relocating works and I've had enough people say that what we're going through is normal. It may very well be and for those of you who were able to adapt, who got through the hard times and wound up calling NC home, I raise my glass to you. I'm not about to talk myself into wanting to call it home because so many others were able to. However deserving or undeserving of the bashing it takes, New Jersey was my home, I still consider it home and contains all of the people and places that shaped me to who I am today. That's a very difficult thing to leave behind and even harder to leave for good.

It's a little hard for me to add much more than that. Like I said, most of the comments coming from people who can't wait to come down here are the exact same ones I made before leaving. "I can't wait to get away from the congestion...the high cost of living....the over development...". I said them just as emphatically as those who are saying these very same things here. It goes back to the whole "grass is always greener" syndrome. Given our circumstances we didn't make the wrong decision in coming down. My thoughts on living in NC may change to where I would want to call this home. I'm not ruling that out. Everyone's different and different things are important to different people. All I know is that, from my own experience, you'd be shocked at the amount and types of things you took for granted when they're no longer at arm's length. I've found myself missing lunch at the Old Country Buffet or browsing the books at Borders in East Brunswick almost as much as going over to my folks place to watch a hockey game with my Dad. I could almost tolerate GSP traffic on a Friday in the summer if it meant seeing my little nephew on a more regular basis. And like my post in the quotations implies, the whole idea of "I'll just always drive or fly back up and visit" is merely a way of reassuring yourself that you're going to do everything you can to keep the familiar as close as possible. When it comes to practicality, believe me it doesn't come close to working that way.

I'd even wager that people who are already planning visits back up before they've even made the move down, the same way we did , are the ones in for the most amount of shock. Those who take the idea of "I'm moving away and never looking bacK" are probably in better shape.

There's a reason why there's been entire studies on relocation anxiety/trauma/stress syndrome/whatever the flavor of the day is. There's a reason why there are books written on the subject. Everything I've seen on this board falls right in line to what myself and many others we know were saying before we left. Funny thing is that we're all following that same script after being down here. Many decide to stay, many decide to return. It's simply not for everyone. The jury's still out as far as living here goes. But if were given the opportunity to move back to New Jersey with money being no object, oh absolutely.

[berryjuice4life]

decay, hey my friend I once again agree with you... on the flip side of that.people shouldnt think grass is greener on the otherside it becomes what u want to make out of it...we cant wait to move and now I have another friend who is considering leaving jersey as well and going to NC, she has freinds down there they are from brooklyn and they love it been there about a year and come home 2x a year to visit and could never imagine coming back, but again everyone's perspective of Happiness varies, as well as everyones experience, there are more people staying than coming back..I had someone look at my house the funniest thing....they loved it and then we got to talking about our relo and well they are looking TOO in NC so I guess they wont be buying my home..HAHAHA....for some people jersey has alot to offer and for those people some are stuck here for whatever reason and in that respect just have to make the best of it....

[BrianH1970]

Originally Posted by NJmomof2

decay, hey my friend I once again agree with you... on the flip side of that.people shouldnt think grass is greener on the otherside it becomes what u want to make out of it...we cant wait to move and now I have another friend who is considering leaving jersey as well and going to NC, she has freinds down there they are from brooklyn and they love it been there about a year and come home 2x a year to visit and could never imagine coming back, but again everyone's perspective of Happiness varies, as well as everyones experience, there are more people staying than coming back..I had someone look at my house the funniest thing....they loved it and then we got to talking about our relo and well they are looking TOO in NC so I guess they wont be buying my home..HAHAHA....for some people jersey has alot to offer and for those people some are stuck here for whatever reason and in that respect just have to make the best of it....

That seems like a monumental waste of time. Why on earth would people still be house shopping in Jersey when they're planning on relocating? I'd be pretty at that.

As far as becoming what you want to make out of it, I don't necessarily buy into that logic. I'm not going to continue to try to rationalize why I should like it here more than New Jersey if I really don't. That's like putting liver and onions in front of me every night for dinner. I'm not going to rationalize why I should want to continue to eat the stuff night after night when I'd rather have a cheeseburger.

More people may be staying here but the point of the thread is "if cost wasn't an issue would you come back". Heck of a lot of folks here saying that they would come back.

Who knows...one of my closest buddies has lived down here since 1999. For the first two or three years he despised North Carolina and everything about it. Now he wouldn't want to move back up to New Jersey. However a couple of people we know lasted here only two weeks before leaving (granted that's not nearly enough time to make a decision). Enough people we talked to (on top of a couple of books on the subject) say that we're following the script. So who knows...to each his/her own. Although as of 8:04 on Monday morning, I wouldn't mind it all that much in staying here. Give me another half hour and I'm sure I'll want to get out of here and move back to Jersey. Taking all of that into consideration, I'd still give it a 50/50..maybe an edge...to moving out of here and back to New Jersey. If cost truly wasn't an issue we both would be back up there in a heartbeat, no questions asked.

[KirbyJRT]

Left NJ in 1984 and have not regretted it for one single day. Each time I have the occasion to visit. I can't wait to leave again. I should add that I have always liked the NJ beaches and the people I grew up with were very loyal.