Hey all New Yorkers I miss NY, moved south feel like I made a BIG mistake! (Buffalo: property tax, to live)

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by smalltownusa

As for the weather, we have had some of our warmest winters on record year after year recently and IMO, I believe there is a climatic shift going which will make for more moderate temps in this part of the country .....maybe not Palm Beach but snow levels have already dropped off and winter snow comes later and later.......White Christmas' aren't a given anymore in NY.....

The problem I had with winter when living in Rochester was not so much temperature and snow - it was the ENDLESS CLOUD COVER that dominated the sky from November through April and into May.

I remember middays that were like twilight.

Never again.

[wallstreet1986]

Originally Posted by HeadedWest

The problem I had with winter when living in Rochester was not so much temperature and snow - it was the ENDLESS CLOUD COVER that dominated the sky from November through April and into May.

I remember middays that were like twilight.

Never again.

It gets better in Quebec or Northern Ontario - more sun and lot of pines so its not so dang bleak. It also gets better further South when you get to New Jersey or southern Pennsylvania. Best winters are the mildest ones and you'll get that in the Southeast and Southwest.

[smalltownusa]

Originally Posted by wallstreet1986

It gets better in Quebec or Northern Ontario - more sun and lot of pines so its not so dang bleak. It also gets better further South when you get to New Jersey or southern Pennsylvania. Best winters are the mildest ones and you'll get that in the Southeast and Southwest.

Along with water rationing before too long from the sounds of it......and we have just had a stretch of sunny weather in upstate NY beginning in the spring and has run right through Oct. which I'm quite bored with and very untypical of this part of the country....today, sunny and 80s, yesterday, same thing and this is Oct 22.....call me crazy, but there are some days just made for cloudy and overcast...lets a person slow down and relax and hibernate......there's is something very renewing about cuddling around a fire with the wind and snow blowing and just totally vegging.....and let's face it, our weather has changed over the last few decades in the North.....as a kid, mountains of snow every winter and the lakes froze by the 1st of the year.....now, it's hit or miss.....and as a continuous resident of NY for 40 plus years, I have seen it happen....

[ca46]

Originally Posted by missNY

Any yankee down in NC feel like me?? Something is missing here that just isn't home. Lived in the lower hudson valley all my life, got tired of the rat race wanted better life for family....You all know what I mean right?? I even wrote the governor for squashing out the hard working middle class, never heard back. I have been here w/my husband and daughter for 8 LONG months, he's doing better than her and I but we are already putting house back on market. Please NC people when you read this don't get mad I DON"T HATE your state but the majority of you HATE us northerners and I'm sick of it! Guess what you won, we are going back home to kids playing outdoors and neighbors chatting in the front yard and we'll pay through our ***! And yeah some of us may be rude maybe because you are so rude to us, (rolling your eyes as you here my "accent", saying "you won't hold it against me" when I say I'm from NY. I guess I'm bitter, when you get that mostly everyday, how would you feel. Anyway, thanks for letting me sound off and if anybody thinks the grass is greener in NC, think again, don't come here until your kids are grown and you are prepared to live in solitude w/your spouse or significant other.. BYE BYE ignorancy, hello integellency!!! Can't wait to get back, hope my house sells soon!!! I LOVE NY!!!!

To me there is no place like New York.....was born and raised here and this is where i will stay.....hope you find a nice house to come back to.
Wecome Home !

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by smalltownusa

... call me crazy, but there are some days just made for cloudy and overcast ... lets a person slow down and relax and hibernate ...

It's not crazy. While I personally would not be unhappy with 365 sunny days a year, I understand that most people don't mind a cloudy day now and then.

But during the winters I spent in Rochester, the clouds covered the sky from horizon to horizon nearly every day from November through April. That's not a pleasant change from sunny; it's grim. (I remember reading an article one fall in the Democrat & Chronicle warning new residents that they might not see the sun much for the next 6 months. I guess that was a public service but it was depressing.)

[garmin239]

Originally Posted by HeadedWest

It's not crazy. While I personally would not be unhappy with 365 sunny days a year, I understand that most people don't mind a cloudy day now and then.

But during the winters I spent in Rochester, the clouds covered the sky from horizon to horizon nearly every day from November through April. That's not a pleasant change from sunny; it's grim. (I remember reading an article one fall in the Democrat & Chronicle warning new residents that they might not see the sun much for the next 6 months. I guess that was a public service but it was depressing.)

Thats just not true at all. There is sun plenty of days between those months.

[I'minformed2]

that's bull actually.....yes, there are more cloudy days than sunny days for late fall, winter, and early spring...but there still ARE sunny days. If it was overcast 24/7 for 6 months out of the year nothing would grow here. That's an exaggeration. You can have a week, sometimes 2, at a time without a sunny day; and yes that can be depressing after a while, but it's definitely not 6 months with no sun.

[I'minformed2]

Originally Posted by 12buttons

Your'e either a real estate agent or you bought out all the rose colored glasses at the 99 cent store...I spent the last two winters there so I KNOW what's up with that -you can push that rosy blather to some newbie - Buffalo lost ALL its trees in October due to the ice storm -Rochester was no better... you call that mild? They closed the schools for SO LONG my niece got her summer vacation cut! ANd who said I moved away? I still have property there and go often! And no the incomes are not higher, and the higher taxes negate any savings on the one time purchase of the house because you get to pay them every year after year after year..And guess what? It looks like they're going up again! SO much for the property tax freeze they all talked about.
You are losing more residents than are moving in..the biggest employer IS the state, and you, the taxpayer are underwriting thru your taxes all that cheap healthcare the state employees get to enjoy while you pay for yours and theirs! Hey keep those rose colored glasses on - like Nicholson said, You can't handle the truth....
I still think you're a real estate agent - I never heard such one way biased thinking about a place in my life..and it is YOU who are doing a diservice to the readers here...I can't drive into my old neighborhood in Buffalo because the drug czars control that area now..Rochester is called the murder capital of USA..you think I wanted to see that happen to a place I called home?...I have many friends in Buffalo and we bemoan what has happened to our beloved cities in WNY. So don't single me out as being the bearer of bad news..Most of the young people that choose to stay in Buffalo eventually leave because they can't find work that's the truth..but don't believe me- go read the bufflaonews.com, or better yet talk to some of the reporters as I do regularly and let them set you straight...You get real..If folks choose to stay or move there, they should know what to expect and I wish them all the luck in the world.

1. The storm you are referring too in Buffalo in October of last year was a snowstorm, not an icestorm

2. Rochester saw NOTHING when that storm hit Buffalo, infact, it was a sunny pleasant typical fall day...check weather records if you don't believe me; or just ask anyone who was here

3. The state is NOT the largest employer anywhere in WNY...please show some actual statistics to back that false claim up. Oh wait you can't because there aren't any

4. You aren't a very intelligent person and that becomes more and more clear as you continue to post rambling (pardon my language) "bitchfests" on every thread that has anything to do with this region. I'm sorry you weren't happy living in WNY...but MANY people are; including myself. We are not all real estate agents, we are not local politicians....we are people who are proud and happy to call western new york home and realize that there are many great things about living here. We don't need you to tell us "what to expect" or your pitiful "wish" of "all the luck in the world". We are actually enjoying our lives and don't feel the need to bash an area that we DON'T EVEN LIVE IN ANYMORE all day.

"best wishes"

I'minformed(2)

[warm heatherette]

My primary home is in St. Catharines, ON, just 10 minutes over the border, but we also have a weekend home in Medina, NY, about half way between St. Catharines and Rochester. I have noticed drastic weather changes between St. Catharines & Medina (which seems to share Rochester weather, for the most part). The 'fluke' snowstorm of last October didn't effect St. Catharines or Niagara Falls at all. Yet it hit Buffalo, Tonawanda, Lockport & all the way to Medina. I've stood on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in St. Catharines, or even looked out over the lake when crossing the border and it will be totally sunny where I am, yet major grey cloud cover is passing over the lake in the direction of Orleans & Monroe counties. This seems to happen fairly often. Niagara Canada experienced a severe drought this year (everything was brown), yet Orleans County, NY, only an hour away, seemed to be getting rain (everything was green). Although I don't believe that Rochester is cloudy from November to April, there may be some truth to the fact that they are getting more cloudy days due to lake effect weather. Unfortunately for some, the bad days (cloudy) tend to diminish the good days (sunny). IMHO, the best way to overcome this is to make the most of those sunny days when you have them. Get outside, take a walk, or set up a chair in your backyard or the nearest park & just let the sun beat down on your face...aaaaahh.

That's what's so interesting about this area. Within such short distances the weather can be so vastly different. Wedged as they are between Lake Erie & Ontario, the tips of Ontario and NY on the river seem to get bypassed by extremes of snow & weather. Yet it might be blizzarding in Rochester and south of Buffalo. Living here means taking the good with the bad.

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by garmin239

Thats just not true at all. There is sun plenty of days between those months.

"The climate of the state features much cloudy weather during the months of November, December, and January in upstate New York, especially those regions that adjoin the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes and include the southern tier of counties." http://nysc.eas.cornell.edu/climate_of_ny.html