Long Island vs NEPA -- please help taxes & more!! (Scranton: for sale, real estate)

[Positiveone]

Hi!!

Is anybody now living in NEPA but originally from Long Island NY? I was wondering what area has the lower cost of living? Some people told me that the property taxes are much , much lower in NEPA, yet others said the taxes are not so low and are going to be as high as Long Island within 5-10 years due to the growth.

My parents paid $5000 on Long Island for a house they just sold in Huntington LI for 360,000, it was a 3 bed 2 bath 1400 square foot house with basement, nice sized lot. Now what would the property taxes average on that same house in NEPA?


If you are from LI and now PA, where exactly in Pa are you and whats your opinion? Please tell me what NEPA has to offer overall when compared to where you lived on Long Island.


Thanks !!!!! Have a safe Day!!!!!

[memoriesbre]

Long Island is much much more expensive in everyway vs. NEPA. The taxes alone will kill you out on Long Island. We used to live in Queens, then moved to NJ which wasn't any better than Long Island. My brother-in-law lives in Mastic Beach and his taxes are killing him. You can do much better in NEPA with the taxes and the prices for homes and still be in the city in about 2 1/2 to 32 hours or less.

[mathjak107]

i live in queens and have a house in pike county. city tax plus real estate taxes about 11,000 per year in nyc. thats not including ny state tax....

our pike county home is 2800.00 with school tax

electricity 10 per kwr in nepa .20 in nyc. insurance about 1/2 in nepa.

everything else pretty close in price, maybe 10-15% less in nepa at best.

thats why i say i can make do with about 30% less income in nepa if i lived here full time but unfourtunatly i cant find a job for less than 1/2

[okaydorothy]

We live in Medford, Long Island ; its exit 65 on the lie. We have a 2400 sq ft house on .6 of an acre. Our taxes here are $10,500.

In the Poconos we just bought a 1400 sq ft house on 1/4 acre in a community. Our taxes there are $1800.

Oh by the way ; we also send our boys to catholic school at the tune of $6000 a year.
All in all, I cant wait to leave here. Ins on our house in Ny is $1300, PA is $231. In the past I have done most of my grocery shopping in pa.

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[ScranBarre]

Hello Tony!

I'm sorry that I never returned your DM, but I've been quite the busy beaver recently. You specifically asked me for my overall opinions of the North Pocono School District. I personally feel as if this is currently a wonderful place in which to raise a family, but it is also one of the most sprawl-threatened parts of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, especially now that I just learned from weluvpa that the Jefferson Township/Mt. Cobb area just got a new sewage system that will encourage more large-scale suburban development. A new high school is being built in the school district now in order to accomodate anticipated growth in the coming years, and I feel as if that's a smart move---it would be better to have your taxes raised moderately NOW to fund a new school as opposed to waiting until there's major overcrowding issues a few years down the line when land values and overall construction costs are higher, leading to a HIGHER increase in taxes to build it later.

Long-range projections I've seen show the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area losing much more population by 2020, but I think that is based upon extrapolating outdated data. The past two years have shown modest population growth here, and I anticipate that trend to now continue to buck the 2020 forecast. The most rapid growth will continue to be in North Pocono and Southern Luzerne County (Drums/Mountain Top/Hazleton), and I think the Abingtons will start to cool off until housing prices start to stabilize after years of over-speculation.

[loveinbloom]

Positiveone,

There is no comparsion IMHO to that of Long Island vs. Nepa. We still own our house in Medford (closing was put off again till 5/1) our taxes on a 3bdrm 1 bath 1970's ranch in the Pines wast about 7K a year. That is including the Star exemption and my hubby's Va exemption.

I moved up here in late June with my 7 year old, hubby was here since April. We live in Scranton and I LOVE IT! My husband is from Scranton and 7 of his 8 siblings live within 5 miles of us. His eldest sister lives in Waverly and that is not to far (about 15 miles?).

My oldest two are still back on L.I and when the sale of the house goes through my daughter will attend Penn State at Worthington. She is currently in SCCC. My eldest well...we pray he follows us up. When Mommy and Daddy do not pay his housing costs anymore...ya know!

I could not have picked a more family friendly area for us to continue raising our youngest. He loves his elem. school, the pace of life is soooooooooooooooo much healthier than L.I. and as long as you can appreciate "different" you will fit right in. One word of caution, accept NEPA as it is... try not to bring the L.I. attitude with you...it doesn't go over well, and after all isn't that one of the reasons to leave the Island. It sure was for me!

Best of luck!

[NYRangers 2008]

I'm also originally from Long Island (Medford). The cost of living is much greater and the taxes are outrageous. That is why my parents moved to NEPA many years ago. They simply couldn't afford it anymore. We lived in a modest, single level house in an average neighborhood, Princeton Park(should ring a bell with my fellow posters from Medford) and still felt the burden moneywise.

[sgtgeorge]

I live in East Meadow and can't wait to get the hell out of here. My husband retires in 2+ yrs and we will moving to either Hemlock Farms or Masthope. Long Island is so expensive to live and to raise a family. We can surely provide a better way of life for our children once we get off of Long Island.

[BLUEDIAMOND64]

While our house was for sale I can not tell you the amount of Long Islanders that were looking at the house. All they did was complain about the electric, taxes, etc. There are quite a bit of families from L.I. that relocated to this area and that is why NEPA is very desirable and still a valuable market for real estate.

[mathjak107]

cost of living is all proportional to your financial situation.... since wages are usually very low it is possible to be further ahead earning a living in long island and paying the bills.

in our case we live in bayside queens and have our future retirement home in nepa. if we were to move now before retiring and still had to work the pay is so low we fair better here in queens at our jobs. our pay vs expenses in ny is more favorible than nepa pay vs expenses even though ny is higher. i can make due with about 1/3 less pay here in nepa but not less than 1/2 pay.. no question when the paycheck stops nepa will be cheaper.


most daily expenses, food, energy, car repairs, home repairs, health insurance, college,phone, cable etc are pretty close ,usually within 10-20% of ny.