Where in Eastern PA for single bookkeeper country dreaming girl? (Lancaster: health insurance, mortgage)

[lialleycat]

I've been on these boards for awhile. The more time I spend on them, the more places I learn about the more I think they'd be nice to see and perhaps to move to. I want to get some ideal areas that will work for what I've decided I want in life. Then I'll start working with headhunters in the areas and the first good offer will be the winning location!

What I want:

A nice house for a single person with at least half an acre where I can have a kitchen garden and a few chickens for around 200K (I know this knocks a lot of places out of the running)

I also need to be employed (since I haven't won lotto - yet). I've been a bookkeeper in the past and am getting back into that field. I'm evaluating my training gaps now so I can get my skills up to date. May also get my Certified Bookkeeper designation, if the headhunters think it will make me more employable and therefore worth the financial and time investment. I would like a commute of about 20-30 minutes. 45 minutes being at the edge of my patience.

I need a place where I can live on my bookkeeper income if I put 25% or more down on my house.

Places where I, as a vegetarian, can get fresh local produce, organic goods and maybe even go out to eat once and awhile without being looked at as if I have some sort of weird disease. I am NOT some PETA nut that plans on preaching my diet. My diet is my business, yours is yours and I'm quite happy with that.

An environmentally aware town or at least a place becoming environmentally aware. I'd like to be able to drop off my recyclable paper, cans and such. I'll compost my own kitchen scraps. I have very little regular 'garbage'

I don't need much entertainment. I'm happy with a good local library full of books, some book or garden clubs and places to go hiking (which I'm willing to do a lot more traveling for than I am for work!)

Schools are not important. I do not have children, nor do I intend to produce any.

I need a safe place where a single woman can live alone and not be harrassed or targeted.

I'd like to be within a 4 hour drive of Long Island since I still have family there.

I've been thinking about:
NEPA - but am unsure of the job prospects
Philly / KoP- but am unsure of the affordability
the Valley - but am unsure of the affordability
Lancaster, but am unsure of both the job prospects AND the affordability and perhaps the distance back to Long Island

Thanks for reading my wish list. I'm hoping to hear back soon. I've started working with Robert Half Intl. and will need to add locations to their search area.

[ki0eh]

I wonder if Harrisburg might be better than Lancaster. Somebody's got to account for all that stimulus money flowing through the state government. Might be tough to get within 45 minutes of the few blocks of very built up downtown for both $200k and chickens, but surely can for suburban office parks from Perry or upper Dauphin counties. Halifax Township still has no zoning; neither does Oliver Township west side of Newport; neither does Centre Township around New Bloomfield.

[lialleycat]

^^^^ I had thought of Harrisburg, but was afraid of the housing cost and of the distance from NYC, so I kinda took it off the list. Maybe I'll give it a second look. Can you name some towns in those townships so I can mapquest and search realtor.com? I'm can't seem to easily find a list of townships with the associated towns for PA to do that.

[ki0eh]

Halifax 17032, Newport 17074, New Bloomfield 17068. Depending on how far out on the Gisland you're trying to get, the Halifax area should be sub 4 hr on weekends to Nassau, Newport/New Bloomfield would be pushing a bit more, either would be obviously more to Suffolk.

Halifax Twp might be forced to adopt zoning soon due to a new state law that municipalities along the Appalachian Trail need to have zoning. Halifax Township |

From Harrisburg but obviously better from Lancaster, Amtrak is a good option for getting to NYC.

[lialleycat]

^^^^ Thanks. I'm on in Suffolk. Family is in Rocky Point, Medford and Patchogue so probably looking at 4.5hrs to Halifax. That's probably about as far as I want to be. Will take a look there though.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

As I always recommend, find job prospects first and then go house hunting.

I think the house hunting will be the easy part, unless someone from the area has offered to connect you with a prospective employer.

Plan to put much more down than 25% on a $200K property. I don't know how much bookkeepers make in the Harrisburg area, but the West Shore branch of the accounting firm that does my taxes starts its new hires (with a 4 year degree in Accounting) at around $30K. I don't think that would qualify for more than $100K mortgage... I mean, I personally would feel way over extended if I had even a $100K loan on less than $50K.

[lialleycat]

Originally Posted by BackToTheCityMouse

As I always recommend, find job prospects first and then go house hunting.

I think the house hunting will be the easy part, unless someone from the area has offered to connect you with a prospective employer.

Plan to put much more down than 25% on a $200K property. I don't know how much bookkeepers make in the Harrisburg area, but the West Shore branch of the accounting firm that does my taxes starts its new hires (with a 4 year degree in Accounting) at around $30K. I don't think that would qualify for more than $100K mortgage... I mean, I personally would feel way over extended if I had even a $100K loan on less than $50K.

I guess I'm used to being overextended. Where I live now I have 180K in mortgages with 6K in taxes. Having a loan of 150 or less with half the taxes would be a break for me!

I wanted to do a quick housing search to make sure that I don't get a job in an area where I won't be able to afford a nice little house (2br would be fine for me). I don't want to move and have the same situation I do now - working to pay my house with nothing leftover to enjoy life with.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

Because finding -- and keeping -- employment can be a problem for an outsider, you can't risk the kind of debt load here that you might further East.

You really need to work up a detailed budget that includes any potential expenses you might have (like buying your own health insurance, cost of driving East to visit family, etc.) to find out how much you can afford. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that lower salary - lower housing costs = a wash, but it's really not that simple. Your mortgage and taxes are only part of your living expenses.

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by BackToTheCityMouse

Because finding -- and keeping -- employment can be a problem for an outsider

That's an interesting observation, since my experience has not been quite as bad in that respect in the Harrisburg area than elsewhere. I've worked at three firms around here, moved by my own choice each time, and I'm not from here. But at each one of those firms, fully half (one out of two in each of the three cases, but that's still half ) of the admin/accounting people have not been from the Harrisburg area. Both here and where my wife works, fully half in my case, or more in hers, of the technical folks are also from out of the area.

My feeling is that not hiring "outsiders" might be more of an issue in, say, NEPA than around Harrisburg, but I'm not sure how fact-based that supposition would be.

[lialleycat]

Originally Posted by BackToTheCityMouse

Because finding -- and keeping -- employment can be a problem for an outsider, you can't risk the kind of debt load here that you might further East.

You really need to work up a detailed budget that includes any potential expenses you might have (like buying your own health insurance, cost of driving East to visit family, etc.) to find out how much you can afford. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that lower salary - lower housing costs = a wash, but it's really not that simple. Your mortgage and taxes are only part of your living expenses.

I don't like the sound of the 'and keeping' part. I sort of thought once I got a job that I'd be all set. Please elaborate, I'd like to know if there's something I should be wary of here.

I track every penny I make every month, so I am good with budgeting. I have worked up a very detailed budget - including everything I budget for here and more - and I believe that I'll be much better off - otherwise I'd stay put. I have no other debt other than my house and I intend to keep it that way. I'm underemployed here since the market on the east end of the Island is terrible so I'm thinking that the salary difference won't be that large. Again, if I'm terribly wrong (but I don't think so from what I see on Careerbuilder and Monster), I won't accept an offer and won't move.