Moving from LA to Ithaca? Need advice (New York, Syracuse: insurance, new home)

[Ome Image]

We are thinking of moving from Los Angeles to Ithaca, NY. Could anyone tell me the benifits of Ithaca.

[skaneatelesmom]

Check out this link from another poster:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-y...-friendly.html

Skaneatelesmom

[honeychrome]

It's going to be a BIG change, not least with the weather! Ithaca is a great small city though.

[Hartwick]

moving from LA to Ithaca will be like moving to another country. Megalopolis with nightmare traffic, hugely inflated housing prices on little bungelows, long traffic commutes to get to work, shopping, schools, on and on. Not my idea of a family-oriented place to live. Expensive to go out to eat, get a haircut, go to the movies, buy clothing, on and on

Ithaca is literally just the opposite of LA on nearly all quality of life issues, cost of living, housing, education, traffic. As other posters have indicated, Ithaca is a small town in upstate New York, and home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, with Tompkins-Cortland Community College nearby. So, the population swell dramatically each year with the influx of students.

Housing ranges from the very modest to ultra-expensive and contemporary. Your property and insurance taxes will be high compared to other states, but again, the true assesses value of your property will be a fraction of a comparable house in LA. One factor you may not have much of an issue with in LA that you will in Ithaca is heating your house, during Upstate New York's typically long, cold, dreary, dark, sunless winters.

Other taxes willl probably be less also and your gasoline here will be in the low $3.05 range.

There's lot of cultural activities given the two major campus' in town. Lots of parks, playgrounds. The south end of Cayuga Lake borders on Ithaca and has a great marina, sports fields, walking/bicycle trails, and a swimming pool-ice-skating rink. There are Farmer's Markets downtown every weekend. The Science Museum is built by Ithaca volunteers and is quite spectacular. I could go on and on.

Quality healthcare is availabe through the Cayuga Medical Center and it's satellite clinics. The Guthrie Clinic(world famous!) also has satellite clinics here. For some more major procedures, people go to Binghamton or Syracuse.

Traffic? around rush hour, some of the side streets feeding into Route 13 to get backed up to some extent. But, you'll never have a hour long or two hour long commute to work. Probably less than 30 minutes if you live far out of town.

Hope this helps.

[jgreg]

The spring, summer and fall scenery is great. The winters are long and dark, although Ithaca does not usually get as much snow as some neighboring areas.

Lots of things to do outdoors and many great day trip options. The scenic beauty of Central NY and the Finger Lakes really can’t be beat.

There are many, many very well educated people and a large creative class. It’s also about as leftist liberal as you can get. When I lived there, there didn’t seem to be much tolerance for views that were not left-of-center. Instead of a civilized exchange of views, those who were not extreme liberals were simply labeled as un-enlightened.

If you are a liberal or can tune out the political/public policy debates, you’ll be fine. Politics plays a big role in the culture of Ithaca.

Property taxes in New York State are very high. Don’t know how Prop. 13 affects your property in California, but make sure you check out the tax bill of what you are thinking of buying.

You should check out the town and see if it suits your style.

[Ome Image]

Thank you for all your great information. We are already house hunting.

[CBaillo]

How funny, we are doing the same move. We are in Simi Valley, CA now, and we are moving to Newfield, NY (8 miles out of Ithaca) in late Jul/Early Aug. Maybe we'll see you there :P

[vicarian]

Originally Posted by jgreg

The spring, summer and fall scenery is great. The winters are long and dark, although Ithaca does not usually get as much snow as some neighboring areas.

Lots of things to do outdoors and many great day trip options. The scenic beauty of Central NY and the Finger Lakes really can’t be beat.

There are many, many very well educated people and a large creative class. It’s also about as leftist liberal as you can get. When I lived there, there didn’t seem to be much tolerance for views that were not left-of-center. Instead of a civilized exchange of views, those who were not extreme liberals were simply labeled as un-enlightened.

If you are a liberal or can tune out the political/public policy debates, you’ll be fine. Politics plays a big role in the culture of Ithaca.

Property taxes in New York State are very high. Don’t know how Prop. 13 affects your property in California, but make sure you check out the tax bill of what you are thinking of buying.

You should check out the town and see if it suits your style.

Yeah, that was something I had to learn about Ithaca. I came from a moderate-to-conservative area, and I was always just a little to the liberal tilt, which made me seem much farther left than I was. Then I moved to Ithaca, and I feel like a relative conservative. I went from being a sissy leftist to being a crazy conservative, lol.


But if you stay out of the politics, Ithaca's a nice place to live. Just my two cents. Good luck with your house hunting (the local paper's site, The Ithaca Journal - www.theithacajournal.com - Ithaca, NY, has house listings).

[yankee_transplant]

Boy, I'm sure that you've noticed a few differences between the Valley and Newfield. I don't remember any covered bridges in the LA area. You've now woken up without any pollution crap clogging your nose. Funny that your commute only took half an hour, and the only slowdown was a tractor pulling a haywagon. Hope you enjoy your new home!

Chris Parrish
Atlanta(formerly Groton)
cparrish60@gmail.com

Originally Posted by CBaillo

How funny, we are doing the same move. We are in Simi Valley, CA now, and we are moving to Newfield, NY (8 miles out of Ithaca) in late Jul/Early Aug. Maybe we'll see you there :P

[yankee_transplant]

If you're moving from LA, I would suggest putting your house equity into a house on the lake. Enjoy the beautiful, cool summer, and prepare yourselves for the gloomy winter. So many places to go, and so many fun things to do in Ithaca, and most of them cost nothing. I almost miss it. BTW, "Skeebo" is an Ithaca term for a redneck.

Chris Parrish
Atlanta

Originally Posted by Ome Image

Thank you for all your great information. We are already house hunting.