Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore---maybe Munchkinland will do? (Buffalo: mortgage, house)

[iloveupstateny]

I feel as if I've come to the point in one's life when, as a die-hard fan of upstate NY, actually has to give up on getting back. It is weird and strange somewhere else, and it will never be my home, but after 3 years of pounding the pavement trying to find meaningful work in the Buffalo/Rochester/Syracuse area....I can really see how the majority of who one went to h.s. with, is all long gone.

Wonder if any other's out there got to the point where they had to give up on HOME, and find it somewhere else? What a great place to live, what a limiting, stagnant place to live ??? Upstate NY---it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.......

[Minathebrat]

It's not just upstate. I'm from Eastchester- a town in Westchester Cty. and I don't know anyone I went to school with who lives in the town we grew up in. It's really sad. My parent's house value went up at least 10x what they paid for it, and well, that's that, we're scattered to the four winds. No one can afford to buy in, and some couldn't even stay after they inherited their parent's house. If the mortgage won't kill you, the taxes surely will.
NY state needs a radical change, because no place can thrive that can't keep their younger generations.
However, I'm not giving up and I'm moving upstate. Keep your chin up.