Poconos 2018 (Lancaster, Middletown, Luzerne: section 8, real estate, renting) - Northeastern Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania (PA) -Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pocono area - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

mathjak107 · 03-08-2018, 03:10 PM

our taxes were 2800 when we were there , they are about 3200 today.

it is funny , we figured out we could live about 30% cheaper there , however pay in my field was 1/2 . so that sucked .

we would have saved nothing on housing moving there either . here in nyc no one lives with my wife and i . we have a nice 2 bedroom ,2 bath apartment with pool and tennis courts . however in pa , all the kids and grand kids stayed over so we needed a 3000 sq ft house that cost us more than our apartment here ha ha ha .

my daughter inlaw works for one of the most well known hedge fund managers in history as a cpa auditor ..

fisheye · 03-08-2018, 03:49 PM

While we are not talking about half a million dollars; I bought one commercial property in 1970 and, after investing $40K on updating, sold it five years later for slightly over double my total investment. I bought one parcel of commercial land about two years earlier and ten years later sold it for fifteen times my original investment. Both were in Monroe County. The house we live in now is worth over double what we paid for it; but we are not looking to sell. Maybe it will not bring in that much money; but so what? Last year we (me and my three sisters) sold our mother's house for $210K (we did come down $30K for a quick sell in three months).

In any real estate market there will be winners and losers. You do your homework and do the market research. I preferred commercial property rental because the tenants did not enjoy the same protection as in residential rental. But it pays to be young and capable of doing much of the work yourself so you can bank those profits and save a pile of money.

I/we have made mistakes with car dealerships. But we do not blame every car dealer in our area because of one bad apple. We simply have never repeated our mistake with the one or two dealerships we feel did us wrong. People make mistakes buying/leasing property in NYC; not everybody wins all the time. It is so easy to blame others for our mistakes instead of taking the responsibility for those mistakes. Many humans never like to acknowledge that they are human!

tewplanman · 03-08-2018, 04:18 PM

I run a small (mostly my own money) private fund that I run and can work anywhere. Lots of telecommuters in our area as well. The local service economy has always been reliant on a small number of retirees and summer people from NY and Philly. Most rely on low paying service jobs, selling firewood, landscaping and home improvement jobs etc. Oh and they love their hunting here in Pennsyltuckey

mathjak107 · 03-08-2018, 04:26 PM

it was funny because we bought the house because i like hunting but not being full time residents we could not legally get a drivers license in pa and without it we could only get non resident permits .they were a few hundered for the two of us

tewplanman · 03-08-2018, 04:34 PM

Unless you work a city job with a living radius requirement, nothing would stop you from declaring your PA home as your primary. Any taxes paid to NY are a resident credit on your PA return.

mathjak107 · 03-08-2018, 04:39 PM

it would be auto insurance fraud . our license has to reflect our primary and the car has to be insured where it is garaged primarily which means where we are licensed in this case .

if you lie it is fraud because federal law requires that when you drive through states where the minimum requirements are higher you must be elevated to those levels for free . if there is an accident in ny the state of pa and the insurer have to share the overage if the limits are hit .

the fact you are not a full time resident makes it fraudulent . so many we know claiming pa as a primary residence but work and really live in ny had a state tax audit . it is so easy to catch you today because the burden of proof is on you to prove full time residency . not easy to do with ez-pass , cell phone towers , banking ,etc . today it can be pretty hard to document someplace you are not .

tewplanman · 03-08-2018, 04:56 PM

Its not insurance fraud if you tell the company where you primarily use the car and it is garaged. I know many who split their time between FL and PA. NY has a 180 day presumptive day rule for tax residency and as long as you are paying NY tax on your income they are happy to take it and PA will not argue the credit if the tax is actually paid. NY is a real pain in the butt about getting their taxes. I would presume you have adequate insurance coverage that exceeds all the state minimums.

Chefkey · 03-08-2018, 05:44 PM

Yeah sour grapes we get it. The Poconos for me, I live it and love it. It's not for everybody but for me I love the mountains and the forests on them. I love driving through them and smelling the air in the nice weather, I love catching the views and vistas and overlooks. It's the best place I've lived and likely the last. People that weren't happy here, that's ok but no need to stay in the parade on the pity party float just move along. As for the OP, yes the area has grown and I think improved. There are a lot of nice places popping up these days. I think the more spill over from New Jersey and New York that comes to the Poconos the more money there is to be spent on those new places. They seem to be doing good and most always look busy.

mathjak107 · 03-08-2018, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tewplanman

Its not insurance fraud if you tell the company where you primarily use the car and it is garaged. I know many who split their time between FL and PA. NY has a 180 day presumptive day rule for tax residency and as long as you are paying NY tax on your income they are happy to take it and PA will not argue the credit if the tax is actually paid. NY is a real pain in the butt about getting their taxes. I would presume you have adequate insurance coverage that exceeds all the state minimums.

Pa and ny don't work like that . The car must be insured licenced and registered in pa and must be principally garaged in pa .ny works the same . Unlike florida where you can have a ny or pa licence and register and insure a car kept in florida with an out of state license.

Some states allow for keeping a vehicle garaged in that state and allow you to register it with an out of state license but pa and ny are not one of those states

rainrock · 03-24-2018, 08:35 PM

Can anyone comment on increased crime in the Poconos? We used to have a nice house in Split Rock back in the 90's-00's which we sold. Never ever had any problems and had a fantastic experience with that house and the whole Pocono vactation concept.

We took a ride up to Lake Harmony this past week to maybe see what is on the market and a couple disgruntled locals pegged us as outsiders and read us the riot act like the Poconos was the 7th ring of hell. Do NOT MOVE Here was the general sentiment this place has died. Druggies + crime have taken over.

Imo it looks like real estate values in Lake Harmony have fared well but i did notice some incredible housing value in other parts of the area.