Soon to be a PA resident (York, Selinsgrove: renting, house, find a job)

[Lusitano_]

I am a Portuguese citizen, living in Portugal.

This is my first post in this forum. I joined while I was searching through the web demographics, statistics and all that.

I'm 27 years old and this summer I married my wife (duh).

I'm still in the process of acquiring the residency and I am still living in Portugal, since we both decided that I was going to stay back home until I had all the process clear, and at least I wouldn't be sitting around doing nothing, while back in Portugal at least I'll be working until I get the green card.

I'm moving into Selinsgrove and I have a few questions, especially regarding the normal living stuff like utilities, bills and so on.

I'm a financial man so of course I'm already doing my research in terms of services and quality and all that, so that adjustment can be better since I will have no idea at the time which might be better in terms of services like utilities, etc.

I have lived in Selinsgrove for a year already back when I was an exchange student but of course at the time, such responsibilities didn't fall on me. My exchange program is actually how I came to know my wife.

How is the cost of living generally around this area? High, normal or low?

How about offer in the utilities department? Expensive or cheap?

Is internet expensive? My wife said a price that I found it to be not just ridiculously high as also the broadband speeds look ridiculous... In Europe currently I'm paying 35 dollars for a 150 Mbps fiber optic internet connection+200 channel cable TV+phone with free landline calls to over 100 countries.

How is the job offer/market in the area? Is unemployment high/low? Is it easy to find a job?

I'm sure there are many other questions that will come along for certain ... hope you guys don't mind if I "use" you guys as my source of knowledge

Thanks

[rsrobbins]

I don't live in Selinsgrove but I do live in Central PA.

The cost of living is low compared to places like New York City.
Electricity is cheap but heating oil can be expensive during the winter.
Internet is expensive for poor service. You probably won't have many options.
Unemployment is high and it is difficult to find a job.

[WPANative]

Originally Posted by Lusitano_

I am a Portuguese citizen, living in Portugal.

No way?

This is my first post in this forum. I joined while I was searching through the web demographics, statistics and all that.

I'm 27 years old and this summer I married my wife (duh).

I'm still in the process of acquiring the residency and I am still living in Portugal, since we both decided that I was going to stay back home until I had all the process clear, and at least I wouldn't be sitting around doing nothing, while back in Portugal at least I'll be working until I get the green card.

I'm moving into Selinsgrove and I have a few questions, especially regarding the normal living stuff like utilities, bills and so on.

I'm a financial man so of course I'm already doing my research in terms of services and quality and all that, so that adjustment can be better since I will have no idea at the time which might be better in terms of services like utilities, etc.

I have lived in Selinsgrove for a year already back when I was an exchange student but of course at the time, such responsibilities didn't fall on me. My exchange program is actually how I came to know my wife.

How is the cost of living generally around this area? High, normal or low?

How about offer in the utilities department? Expensive or cheap?

Is internet expensive? My wife said a price that I found it to be not just ridiculously high as also the broadband speeds look ridiculous... In Europe currently I'm paying 35 dollars for a 150 Mbps fiber optic internet connection+200 channel cable TV+phone with free landline calls to over 100 countries.

How is the job offer/market in the area? Is unemployment high/low? Is it easy to find a job?

I'm sure there are many other questions that will come along for certain ... hope you guys don't mind if I "use" you guys as my source of knowledge

Thanks

Any other areas you may consider?

[Lusitano_]

Originally Posted by rsrobbins

I don't live in Selinsgrove but I do live in Central PA.

The cost of living is low compared to places like New York City.
Electricity is cheap but heating oil can be expensive during the winter.
Internet is expensive for poor service. You probably won't have many options.
Unemployment is high and it is difficult to find a job.

heating oil? is it the same if it is natural gas?

Damn for internet... oh well... regarding jobs, even in the financial area?

Probably will have to commute a lot huh?

[Lusitano_]

Originally Posted by WPANative

No way?

Well it could be that I were portuguese and live somewhere else ...

Originally Posted by WPANative

Any other areas you may consider?

Well, main areas would be that one because my wife is already employed there, has tenure, etc so I figured it would be easier for me to move than her...

Is the area that bad in terms of economic development and future prospects?

Where other areas would you recommend?

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by Lusitano_

Well it could be that I were portuguese and live somewhere else ...

Well, main areas would be that one because my wife is already employed there, has tenure, etc so I figured it would be easier for me to move than her...

Is the area that bad in terms of economic development and future prospects?

Where other areas would you recommend?

I think it's hard to make recommendations without more information. What is your intended career? Do you have experience in it?

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Lusitano_

heating oil? is it the same if it is natural gas?

If the house has access to natural gas it's relatively cheap especially compred to oil or electric. The electric rates and natural gas should be much lower than your home country and I don't even have to look that one up.

Assuming you will be purchasing a home if you don't have access to natural gas consider coal as you will be right near the heart of anthracite country. I know what you are thinking but it's not what you are thinking.


EFM DF 520 Biofuel Boiler System_0001.wmv - YouTube

[Lusitano_]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

I think it's hard to make recommendations without more information. What is your intended career? Do you have experience in it?

IT? Not really... Just financial ... I currently work as a stock broker.

Originally Posted by thecoalman

If the house has access to natural gas it's relatively cheap especially compred to oil or electric. The electric rates and natural gas should be much lower than your home country and I don't even have to look that one up.

Assuming you will be purchasing a home if you don't have access to natural gas consider coal as you will be right near the heart of anthracite country. I know what you are thinking but it's not what you are thinking.

Yup heating is natural gas as far as I know

As far as coal... yeah sure whatever's cheaper ahah... I know I trade coal as well and I investigated a lot into coal the past 2 years because it was one of my thesis regarding the recovery of natural gas (when natural gas got cheaper than App coal, so there was a lot of switch dispatch from coal to NG).


As for this

he electric rates and natural gas should be much lower than your home country and I don't even have to look that one up.

how can you be so sure?

I think here currently in a home of 4 we pay around 150 euros for water, gas and electricity ... I think electricity it's around 0.07 Euros per kWh in offpeak hours and 0.10 euros at peak hours. Truth be told, the consumption is just half of what we pay, since then fees, taxes, subsidies for renewable energies, etc is added which easily doubles the bill. But I think electriciy it's around 70 euros per month.

One thing that blows my mind is the metric system especially in utility bills... kWh ? I guess they don't know what that is ... cubic meters? nop try again ... it's some weird unit fraction

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Lusitano_

As far as coal... yeah sure whatever's cheaper ahah... I know I trade coal ...

This is different market mostly local, anthracite commands a premium price at least as far as coal goes. It is cheaper than the NG but not by much, however I've seen this movie before.

As for this how can you be so sure?

Because I know a lot about energy costs. Currently natural gas is rock bottom here in the US but that will likely change over the next year but not by much:
http://ir.eia.gov/ngs/ngs.html


As far as the electric goes this site has Portugal listed at .20 euro, average rate here in the US is about 11 cents, it will be right around there all costs inclusive. The question though is the Portuguese energy market in a similar situation like Spain where they allowed the state run company accrue massive debt instead of paying for it?

One thing that blows my mind is the metric system especially in utility bills... kWh ? I guess they don't know what that is ... cubic meters? nop try again ... it's some weird unit fraction

I like the metric sytem and learned it in the 70's in school when they were pushing it. It's really problematic switching fully though, if you take building materials for example there will always be a need for standard sized material since that is what everything is built with.

[Lusitano_]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

This is different market mostly local, anthracite commands a premium price at least as far as coal goes. It is cheaper than the NG but not by much, however I've seen this movie before.


Because I know a lot about energy costs. Currently natural gas is rock bottom here in the US but that will likely change over the next year but not by much:
http://ir.eia.gov/ngs/ngs.html


As far as the electric goes this site has Portugal listed at .20 euro, average rate here in the US is about 11 cents, it will be right around there all costs inclusive. The question though is the Portuguese energy market in a similar situation like Spain where they allowed the state run company accrue massive debt instead of paying for it?



I like the metric sytem and learned it in the 70's in school when they were pushing it. It's really problematic switching fully though, if you take building materials for example there will always be a need for standard sized material since that is what everything is built with.

Thanks for your input...

Well NG are not that rock bottom but i know what you mean ... it was 50-60% cheaper last year, which made a lot of energy plants switch from coal to NG since it was much cheaper around the 2 USD per mmBTu if my memory serves me right, back in April/May 2012

But as you said, we've seen this before so all can happen way down the future but not likely in the mid term.

Ah that's nice to hear... that it's 11 cents ALL INCLUSIVE (by all inclusive I mean with the fees of processing, the "renting" of the meter outside your house, etc, etc).

I don't know how the market is in Spain, but here in Portugal only this year the market started being liberalized. Before it was ran under a single company but with Government fixed prices. (0.060XX cents in off-peak hours per kWh and 0.10xxxx at peak hours).

Of course those prices was only the energy itself... then if you look at your energy bill you have everything from taxes, fees, subsidies and all that amount to more than 50% of your bill easily.

Yes, the national energy balance account is in a big deficit especially after the whole country went to a "ALL GREEN" energy type of thing with a lot of ventures between government and private companies.

Of course renewable energies are much costlier and now that the market is being liberalized, even with new companies entering the market and in competition, will be much impossible to maintain the fixed prices.

I'd say from the 80 euros a month of energy bill, 35 euros is for the electricity itself.

As for the metric system, it's gonna be hard to adapt that's for sure... it's a roller coaster in terms of measurement systems in the US.

Thanks again for your input

PS: By the way, do you know of a website like the european one http://www.energy.eu/#domestic but for PA only?