How about NYS? (Erie, York, Wellsboro: real estate, home, property taxes)

[chuck172]

I always thought I'd relocate and retire in North central Pa. I just love the area. Tioga, Potters etc. With all the drilling going on out there, I might reconsider. I've seen a big change in the Wellsboro area and I don't like it.
I don't know anything about New York State. How would it compare to the PA. I knew? Any recomendations on any specific areas near the PA border? How are the taxes? Cost of living? Since I liked the area surrounding Wellsboro, what would appeal to me across the border in NY?
I hope I get some advice here, my wife and I would like to explore some areas this fall.
I posted same in NY forum.

[Dawne]

My mom just got back from a day trip to Watkins Glen and said how pretty it was in that area. You might check out that area as well as Corning, Horseheads and other small towns along Route 17.

[BTA88]

Where are you coming from? Upstate NY and Upstate PA are pretty similar as far as culture, economy and scenery. The biggest knock I have on Upstate NY is NYC has too much power over the rest of the state and the gun laws up there are too restrictive for my liking.

[chuck172]

I'm from rural sussex county NJ. Gun laws bother me too. I don't like the link NYstate has to the city. How are the taxes and real estate prices in NYS?

[ki0eh]

The gas fracking is inevitable in NY State too, many outfits have set up shop in Elmira or The Valley in anticipation rather than be further into PA. Unlike PA currently, NYS has forced pooling in the Marcellus Shale too. That is a double edged sword because you might have drilling under your farmette without real say, but you also are likely in NY to get a fraction of the royalties if you're adjacent to a larger drilled parcel, whereas in PA you could be entirely out of luck.

NYS will be more restrictive on the gas drilling than PA has. The Skaneateles Lake watershed will be entirely off-limits and also some municipalities have votedn to ban it (which they can't do in PA).

Property taxes in rural NY especially the Southern Tier are among the highest in the country as a fraction of home value, significantly higher than adjacent PA. NY has local participation in Medicaid costs, with benefits set in The City. Counties maintain roads and bridges in NY, the state assumes a far higher proportion in PA. County government in NY is as a result a far bigger and more expensive production than in PA with property taxes to match.

There are aspects of rural life more heavily regulated in PA though. Septic systems are a notable example, somewhere on here when I had more time I presented a comparative analysis in more detail.

What aspects of the area around Wellsboro did you like? More locally owned stores, hiking opportunities, or what? Wellsboro's town form is basically the New England village form that is very common in NY State, far northern PA shares with central/western NY an original population of younger sons from New England so the classic town form is different from southern PA.

[chuck172]

I always envisioned living about 10 to 15 miles outside of Wellsboro. The town would be a nice place to visit. I live for the fall and especially fall bowhunting. Ice fishing in winter. Problem is I don't know where the time went. I'll be turning 60 this January, so I guess I shouldn't stray too far from medical attention. Tioga and Potters county just seems to always call me. Coudersport is a favorite area too!

[Krisps]

I appreciate your love of north-central PA, I feel the same. You mentioned Tioga & Potter counties, I would put those near Hornell, Cuba, Wellsville, Allegany, & Olean in NY, all worth checking out. Wellsville in particular has a bit of similarity to Wellsboro and is in one of the more remote parts of NY and with similar topography as NC-PA. Up north an hour from Wellsville is, like Pine Creek in PA, one of the more impressive canyons in the east (Letchworth state park). As you go west into Cattaraugus county it becomes more rugged and into the Lake Erie effect, so it's a bit cooler and with much more snow. The feature area is Allegany State Park @ 65K acres, the Kinzua reservoir, and the Allegheny National Forest in PA. Jamestown is the largest city in this area, Buffalo is not too far to the north. The parts of NY I've mentioned I don't believe are within the Marcellus shale area, which applies more towards central & eastern NY. But the national forest in NW PA does have a lot of active oil wells... still a lot of wild & scenic areas but some areas are dense with roads & oil activity.

[ki0eh]

In western NY the Marcellus formation is thinner but could still be targeted if near existing pipelines (that, and the market now glutted with natural gas, are the bottlenecks in further development in PA). Some parts of the central Finger Lakes are below Marcellus outcrop but there's always the lower Utica, to get away from it one would have to be near Lake Ontario and north.
NY, unlike PA has Sunday hunting. Both rifle and bear seasons are creeping further into NY almost by the year too.

Warsaw, NY might be another interesting area to check out for the OP. I would have said Norwich (a well kept town, bit larger than Wellsboro but equivalently isolated from larger places) & surrounding Chenango County but over there the Marcellus formation is thicker and more likely to be targeted.

Northeast of Moravia, NY in southeastern Cayuga County (a cute but not terribly prosperous town) you get into the cheaper side of the Skaneateles Lake watershed with relatively large state forest tracts for hunting and other recreation (Frozen Ocean, Bear Swamp). That area's snowier than Tioga County, PA, more like Potter in that respect - but also not so far from shops/services in larger small towns Auburn (with Bass Pro Shop), Cortland, and Ithaca - or larger scale shopping in Syracuse, or even for those inclined boutique shopping in Skaneateles village too.

The mid-Mohawk Valley (Herkimer/Fulton/Montgomery counties) especially north side is out of the shale zone, relatively cheap due to little job opportunity, and mostly still south of the Adirondack Park "blue line" and its prolixity of regulations on the half of it NY State still claims is private property. Also a bit out of the major lake effect snow belt.

[chuck172]

I appreciate your posts ki0eh and Krisps. I need some research time now. thanks.

[Krisps]

Chuck, I should mention too, you might want to visit Angelica in NY. If you're looking for a very scenic, old New England style rustic, quaint, quiet, & remote village, it would hard to beat this place. Although I love NY's southern tier, in my opinion it's still not quite as nice as north-central PA, but it does offer different things.