I love where I live in Pennsylvania because.................... (Scranton, Penn Hills: apartment, rent)

[Mr.Retired]

I am born and raised in New York and absolutely enjoyed the availability of jobs and amenities.
Unfortunately, I am retired and it will be hard to stay here on a fixed income with the ever and always
increasing property taxes. So I am shifting my focus on retiring in Pennsylvania and would love to here from you.


Is it the neighbors, the beauty, the calmness,
the family involvement, the church or
all of the above and so much more?
Would appreciate if you took the time to let me know about this wonderful place you call home.

[mathjak107]

well we live in queens and had a home we were going to retire to in lake wallenpaupack in the poconos.

the closer we got to retirement and the more we thought about it the worse the idea became .

most of the things that would become important the area lacked .

things like:

no public transportation system if i couldn't drive

little to do all winter which was cold and long .

few choices in specialists

few choices in medical facilities

no where to work a little bit in retirement and earn a decent wage .

with so much time to fill ,even the nice weather was becoming a bore .

even housing costs were more in pa.

when we were going to relocate to the poconos where we had a house we looked at the income / expense comparison .

while it was a good 1/3 cheaper to live in PA , salaries for what i do were 1/2. the math did not work for us . we were better off here in nyc.

in fact even our housing was a better deal here .

we live in a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment with pool and tennis courts and no other charges but rent .

no one lives with us and all the kids are local .

in pa we needed a 3000 sq ft house with all the maintenance and expenses that go with a house because everyone stays over now that we were not local. our rent was cheaper .

here in queens we have buildings where people rent which can be much cheaper than homes . there are all kinds of affordable housing deals if you qualify and rent stabilization too here which can improve financial situations .

we sold the home in 2012 and while we miss it , we don't regret not relocating there in retirement for a second.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

well we live in queens and had a home we were going to retire to in lake wallenpaupack in the Poconos.………………………………...... .................................................. ..........…………...We sold the home in 2012 and while we miss it , we don't regret not relocating there in retirement for a second.

The Poconos will never be everything for everybody. If you move from a high density area to a low density area some people cannot adapt or they have issues that will not let them adapt.

For one thing, just looking at a map before one would buy, one can foresee many of the problems you encountered. From the Wallenpaupack area it is about a good 20 miles to the Scranton area and almost 30 miles to Stroudsburg. You moved into a vacation site and not a living/working area. What I am saying is that you did not do your homework before you moved or you simply did not understand your real needs as you aged. If you wanted a 'retirement' home in our area; that should have been a consideration when you bought. So your vacation/recreation home was not what you needed for retirement. Of course a downturn in the economy did not help the situation - fortunately we are now past that.

We lived our whole lives in Monroe County. Yes, I wished that our area had better paying jobs. But I always made enough money to support my family and pay our bills. I did what I had to do including working three jobs at one time when I was younger. We have no debt and how many people can say that no matter where they live? Our house is fairly large and sits on five acres. Our area is growing and there are more opportunities all the time. We also more choices for medical care than we have in the past.

Every single day I see deer cross our property. I also see other wildlife and sometimes even a bear. We preferred to wake up listening to crows and not horns. We always enjoyed our property. If we wanted recreation; we had many, many choices.

You also should consider that we are not on the coast and that the destructive hurricane winds have moderated by the time they get this far inland. Of course we can still have flooding and loss of electricity (many are not considering backup electrical generation). We have never had a major earthquake in our area while many other areas of our Country have or are worried about the next one. The whole West Coast was burning this past summer. Many times Florida also burns during the right conditions. While it could happen here; it has been a very long time since we last experienced major forest fires. Many of the Southern States worry about fire ants, invasive snakes, toxic algae, or other problems. While tornadoes are not impossible; they are usually small and infrequent in our area.

For those that want to commute to the city; most of us would not recommend it. You could spend almost as much time on the road as you do at work. Maybe not quite that long; but the commute ruins one's home life.

[mathjak107]

commuting sucks , i agree .

whether we lived in scranton or monroe county (which i don't care for ) the area still lacked what was important to us .so we found in retirement right here in queens was a better fit for us .

if anything we may rent a month or two in the winter in the villages in florida . but pocono life is out for us. after a few years the novelty wore off and there was little to do daily that was different or fresh . having so much time in retirement to fill was important to us. everything required long drives after a while .

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

commuting sucks , i agree .

whether we lived in scranton or monroe county (which i don't care for ) the area still lacked what was important to us .so we found in retirement right here in queens was a better fit for us .

if anything we may rent a month or two in the winter in the villages in florida . but pocono life is out for us. after a few years the novelty wore off and there was little to do daily that was different or fresh . having so much time in retirement to fill was important to us. everything required long drives after a while .

You have to admit that the Lake Wallenpaupack area is very remote compared to other areas in the Poconos. It's all about doing your homework and knowing what you really want.

[mathjak107]

we were only a short hop from honesdale and 30 minutes to scranton , not that either had much to offer. in fact door to door was 2 hours from queens .

but in general after 5 years we found the poconos not the retirement life we wanted

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

we were only a short hop from honesdale and 30 minutes to scranton , not that either had much to offer. in fact door to door was 2 hours from queens .

but in general after 5 years we found the poconos not the retirement life we wanted

But that is what I am saying; it all depends on what you are looking for. As far as we know you could move to Florida and hate it? We never liked Florida because of the humidity and heat. People do adapt (if you don't mind being washed out to sea by a hurricane).

[mathjak107]

well my list of reasons is why "we" did not want to retire to the poconos (anywhere ). compared to what we have here in queens/nyc it just wasn't going to be for us as we aged

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

well my list of reasons is why "we" did not want to retire to the poconos (anywhere ). compared to what we have here in queens/nyc it just wasn't going to be for us as we aged

I understand that and I am not disagreeing. The only thing I am saying is: If you bought your Wallenpaupack vacation home with the intent to retire; you did not research the location or you bought when you were not sure of your retirement needs? I just believe that your personal decisions do not fall on the backs of the location you decided that you were going to buy.

Many people move to this area and do not really know what they want. Some people move here and are very happy. I have no vested interest in pushing our area off on anybody; I'm not going anyplace. I would prefer if more people moved out; but I am glad for our workers that our area's economy is really turning around. Many of the new jobs will pay dirt wages. But the more jobs; the more employers have to compete for employees and the wages go up. Plus, even the businesses that do not pay, have some better paying jobs. It's like the new Ripley's going in: Many will be low paying jobs; but they need maintenance and specialist to keep their park going. They will also need managers as well as others that might be on the higher end of the pay scale.

I don't know if it happened; but last month they were supposed to break ground on a new hospital in Tannersville. That will also create more good jobs. Plus they are very busy preparing the old Brookdale on the Lake resort for a new rehab - more good jobs. I know that many are against a new rehab; but it is better than watching another Penn Hills crumble into the dust.

You made your decisions and I do hope that your happy. I just get angry when we get blamed for another's decisions - we didn't make them.

[mathjak107]

There is no blaming anybody. There is only pointing out to the op who is asking about retiring in the poconos some of the short falls we realized once we switched hats from vacation home to retirement home.