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Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 22 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,219 posts, read 17,091,524 times
Reputation: 15538
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The advantage of a hybrid vehicle really depends on what your regular driving is. I have coworker with a significant drive each day who drives a Honda Civic and asked him why he didn't get the hybrid version; he said with his drive being mostly highway there would only be a +1 or 2 mpg advantage not worth the extra cost. My wife on the other hand is the putt putt queen on the local roads even to get to work. When we replace her car we will long strongly at a hybrid. One daughter has a Prius and loves it, also local driving 95% of the time so the mileage is real good. The batteries have shown to last far beyond the original 6 year estimate and dealers have an extended warranty that includes replacing these if necessary.
Buying a car is always a personal choice and one of the best lines I ever heard was "buy a car that meets your daily needs". We never had a mini van when we needed on for family visits or vacation we would just rent it then turn it back in. I would dread having to drive one all the time.
Like you said, taxes aren't the "end all" and people have been leaving NY primarily for other reasons (too high COL downstate, too cold upstate, etc.)
There are contributing factors, but overall its mostly "cost" that are causing people to leave.
Why the hell should I pay almost 7k in taxes for a house that would cost me under 1k in other states? Add the ridiculous congestion that has exploded here in the past 15 years,the cold,etc... and yes people are leaving.
The taxes (and house prices) also are out of proportion with salaries. I grew up in Hudson Valley and have have worked in both Hudson and Dutchess counties and salaries have NOT gone up in over 20 years. They havent.
I have a friend who recently moved to South Carolina. He was struggling in Goshen to make ends meet, working 2 jobs. He moved to SC making not much less than he did up here and just bought a new house and truck. His taxes are $800a year.
I pay 6500+ for my home in Middletown.
Everyone I know is unhappy here and wants to leave. Some cant for many reasons like theyre divorced and cant leave their kids or locked into jobs with pensions,but many of us are actually making plans to do so.
Last edited by Scorpio1969; 07-30-2013 at 07:47 AM..
There are contributing factors, but overall its mostly "cost" that are causing people to leave.
Why the hell should I pay almost 7k in taxes for a house that would cost me under 1k in other states? Add the ridiculous congestion that has exploded here in the past 15 years,the cold,etc... and yes people are leaving.
The taxes (and house prices) also are out of proportion with salaries. I grew up in Hudson Valley and have have worked in both Hudson and Dutchess counties and salaries have NOT gone up in over 20 years. They havent.
I have a friend who recently moved to South Carolina. He was struggling in Goshen to make ends meet, working 2 jobs. He moved to SC making not much less than he did up here and just bought a new house and truck. His taxes are $800a year.
I pay 6500+ for my home in Middletown.
Everyone I know is unhappy here and wants to leave. Some cant for many reasons like theyre divorced and cant leave their kids or locked into jobs with pensions,but many of us are actually making plans to do so.
It depends on other variables such as where did he move to in SC, What kind of work can a person do? Where in NY you live, what do you get or are you looking for in the new location and what things do you qualify for, among other things. So, it is a case by case thing.
There are contributing factors, but overall its mostly "cost" that are causing people to leave.
Why the hell should I pay almost 7k in taxes for a house that would cost me under 1k in other states? Add the ridiculous congestion that has exploded here in the past 15 years,the cold,etc... and yes people are leaving.
The taxes (and house prices) also are out of proportion with salaries. I grew up in Hudson Valley and have have worked in both Hudson and Dutchess counties and salaries have NOT gone up in over 20 years. They havent.
I have a friend who recently moved to South Carolina. He was struggling in Goshen to make ends meet, working 2 jobs. He moved to SC making not much less than he did up here and just bought a new house and truck. His taxes are $800a year.
I pay 6500+ for my home in Middletown.
Everyone I know is unhappy here and wants to leave. Some cant for many reasons like theyre divorced and cant leave their kids or locked into jobs with pensions,but many of us are actually making plans to do so.
Sure, a typical office worker job salary range from $28-45k in other states in NYC the payscale is $45-100k
So that $7k property tax is relative. I did some math what it would cost to live down in Tampa, FL which is pretty cheap but then I spoke with someone in my industry who actually lives down there and it wasn't so ideal afterall. You take cheap property down in FL and cheap property tax then you gotta pay that extra flood and storm insurance and then I look at the job ads and what they're paying for a similar job down in FL and then things start to look not so good.
Everything else such as food, gas, and utilities are cheaper outside of NYC but not by that much. But the salary and income gap is huge, someone in my industry makes $130k in NYC, in FL they pay up to $75k only.
It's cold in other states, too--Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, the Dakotas. I don't think those states have as many people leaving and as cold or worse winters. Minnesota is brutal in the winter, yet people praise the state. Content there for the most part.
It's cold in other states, too--Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, the Dakotas. I don't think those states have as many people leaving and as cold or worse winters. Minnesota is brutal in the winter, yet people praise the state. Content there for the most part.
Maybe because NY has so many more people than those states you mentioned, there are just going to be that many more "complainers", especially on the Internet. New York has 1.5x Illinois' population, 3.4x Wisconsin's population, 3.8x Minnesota's populations, 24.3x South Dakota's population, and 27.7x North Dakota's population.
New York has 19.4 million people
Illinois has 12.8 million people.
Wisconsin has 5.7 million people.
Minnesota has 5.3 million people.
South Dakota has .8 million people.
North Dakota has .7 million people.
New York's population grew 2.12% (about 400,000) between 2000 and 2010, a decade which included the 9/11 terrrorist attack on the WTC and the 2008 economic crisis.
here are contributing factors, but overall its mostly "cost" that are causing people to leave.
Why the hell should I pay almost 7k in taxes for a house that would cost me under 1k in other states? Add the ridiculous congestion that has exploded here in the past 15 years,the cold,etc... and yes people are leaving.
The taxes (and house prices) also are out of proportion with salaries. I grew up in Hudson Valley and have have worked in both Hudson and Dutchess counties and salaries have NOT gone up in over 20 years. They havent.
Well I think Scorp here has it right. Really the area truly makes one think of the trade-offs. There are jobs here, there's money to be made. But surely you have to be a 'player'. I don't know if there are 'in-betweens' anymore. What's the point of scraping by if that's what you have to do to keep that house with 13,000 property taxes?
And this gets me to nature. To tell you the truth this is no different than the racoons in the wild. Sometimes the hunting grounds get stale, you have to move to eat well! So old raccoons move out, new raccoons come in. The old raccoons are tired of chicken. The new raccoons want steak. ok! The circle of nature...;-)...But really NY's been good to me but this raccoon doesn't want to eat on a skimpy diet. The gig's up and it was a nice one but new hunting grounds await....;-....
^ Yup. This critter is moving to Virginia within the next 2 or 3 years. As soon as my wife gets the boot from a certain 3 letter company, we're selling our 2 homes and getting outta here.
Already looking at some larger acres and looking foward to a nice big greenhouse, organic eating, chickens, goats, dogs, plenty of open space, no congestion, easier living and less stress, less cold weather,lower taxes, etc.
You present a lot of the typical rational why things function as they do. Other states have roads and bridges that are free but travelors are still paying for the Thruway after 50+ years. The gas difference must be an issue for many because when you come up the PIP or GSP the pumps at the Jersey rest stops are packed and the NY ones are pretty empty. The archaic stereotype; you don't use it but plenty of posters do and it is alive and well to them.
You ask why I care, why does my views upset you especially the cigs/gas example? It was just one example. Perhaps I would like to retire part of the year upstate, perhaps I enjoy the usual engaging discussions that these boards host. There are regulars I banter with over issues and others I just enjoy reading their posts.
Most other states don't have the extensive bridge and tunnel systems like NYC. Being a metro of 22 million there is obviously going to be a lot of wear and tear due to the amount of cars that travel on the bridges and tunnels per day and maintain bridges and tunnels is a great engineering expense. Almost every bridge and tunnel system in the Northeast has tolls, not just NY. BTW the tolls on the NYC bridges are $7.50 (~$5.00 with EZ pass), only the Verazzano is $10. No bridge one way is more than $10 here.
I have yet to meet someone from NY that's driving all the way to NJ for cheap gas, unless they live close to the border. NYers only go to NJ gas pumps if they happen to be driving through I-95 in NJ. Come on, are LIers really going battle 2 hours in traffic, cross the GW or Lincoln Tunnel just to get $0.20 cheaper gas in NJ? And many people in NYC don't own or use their car that much. Like I said, NJ may have cheaper gas but it's not a low tax haven either. In fact, I think property taxes are generally higher in NJ than NY.
Obviously it's not for everybody, but believe it or not NYC metro is still a highly desirable area with no room to expand outward. Like California, COL and taxes will always have to be kept high to prevent even more overcrowding. Upstate NY is a different story however.
NYers know there is civilization west of the Hudson other than 2 or 3 LI posters (and that forum is troll mecca so I wouldn't take what they say seriously). Other than maybe some Manhattan myopics, I never met any native NYer who thought NY was the center of the universe. Considering globalization and how much people are required to travel for work, you'd be a fool to think NY is everything.
Truth is, I love my job here. Sure the taxes are annoying, the crowds are annoying downstate, and the weather is terrible Upstate, but if everything else is great why complain? Like I said I have friends who are doctors in rural upstate, medical researchers at Columbia, NYU, Cornell, have great finance and arts jobs in Manhattan, one who owns an assisted living home on LI..not once to they complain about NY taxes. Shows you that there is more to life than taxes. Unless tax rates take up majority of my income, I don't find it a burden.
There are contributing factors, but overall its mostly "cost" that are causing people to leave.
Why the hell should I pay almost 7k in taxes for a house that would cost me under 1k in other states? Add the ridiculous congestion that has exploded here in the past 15 years,the cold,etc... and yes people are leaving.
The taxes (and house prices) also are out of proportion with salaries. I grew up in Hudson Valley and have have worked in both Hudson and Dutchess counties and salaries have NOT gone up in over 20 years. They havent.
I have a friend who recently moved to South Carolina. He was struggling in Goshen to make ends meet, working 2 jobs. He moved to SC making not much less than he did up here and just bought a new house and truck. His taxes are $800a year.
I pay 6500+ for my home in Middletown.
Everyone I know is unhappy here and wants to leave. Some cant for many reasons like theyre divorced and cant leave their kids or locked into jobs with pensions,but many of us are actually making plans to do so.
$800 a year in taxes, what?? Well idk about South Carolina, but good luck trying to find $800/year taxes in Florida, Texas, or Colorado. Even <$1,000 in yearly property taxes is not the norm in "low-tax" states unless you're in an extremely rural area.
However, I'll agree that proper income in relation the high COL seems to have become a problem for some people in the NYC metro.
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