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And that's all fine. But you're comparing apples and oranges by comparing your old rural burb to where you live now. The move from a rural to urban area explains some of those changes. Gas is the same price here as in Massachusetts; your savings of $4,000 are not due to some intrinsic advantage of the southern states over the north. The best explanation for your decreased vehicle expense is that you need to do much less driving now versus your previous residence. Again, those things have nothing to do with advantages of NC over Mass. If you moved to Needham or Newton or Woburn, your vehicle costs would have decreased similarly. (By comparison, speaking personally, my gasoline costs and vehicle expense costs have increased infinitely since I moved from Massachusetts, because I had no gasoline costs, and I had no vehicle expense costs, because I didn't need own any cars. Here, I do.)
I don't doubt your saving money on utilities (although I'm not sure your years of comparison, because costs of utilities were higher everywhere last year and the year before than they are this year, so comparing NC now versus MA two years ago isn't a straight comparison).
Then, there's property tax. I just looked at the Cary & Charlton web sites. The Cary tax rate (FY 2009), plus the Wake tax rate, is 0.864 per $100. So that means you'd pay $2,500 in property tax on a house assessed at approximately $290,000. The Charlton property tax rate is $9.05 per $1,000 (aka 0.905 per $100). So that means you'd pay $5,000 in property tax on a house assessed at about $550,000. (Not counting homestead exemption, if available). You say your home in Cary is "appraised roughly the same as my last home in MA." Perhaps property taxes are double somewhere outside Charlton town limits where you lived, but given Prop 2 1/2, I doubt it. So just how is it that your property taxes are half, on a home assessed the same value, given the closeness of the tax rates.
And, of course, while you say you can pay a slightly higher sales tax and income tax, you don't itemize those added expenses, or any other added expenses you might be incurring down south, so that skews the figures again. (You note that it's not fair to just compare tax rates, which is fine, but then please then let us know if you paid a higher or lower percentage of your pre-tax income in income taxes in NC versus MA. You obviously don't have to, but it makes your comparison look like a cherry-picking exercise.)
Your claim that it's $14,000 cheaper to live in NC versus living in MA appears to be based on flawed comparisons.
I live in a burb now.
The last place I lived in MA was not Charlton.
If I lived near Boston to reduce the vehicle expense, then I would have had to pay 4 times the price to have the same type home, so that would have cost me even more.
My comparison is just that. MINE. This is what moving to Cary from MA did for me. I cannot add more disclaimers than I do, but people just don't seem to want to pay attention to that. They seem to want to think that I am stating that every single person on the planet will save as much as I did. I guess it's easier to play that game, then just accept the fact that I was able to move from an area that cost me a lot more money and offered absolutely nothing, to an area that absolutely blows away where I lived in MA and saved a lot of money doing it. And it has nothing to do with selling an expensive house there to buy a cheap one here, as I am in the same ballpark with home prices. Had I moved from near Boston to here, I wouldn't even be working now because of the windfall.
Summary - Life where I lived in MA was expensive, hard, cold and boring as could be. Life in Cary (and it could be really good in other towns here as well) is inexpensive, easy, pleasant, exciting and everything I could ask for.
When I lived in Boston for three years, I did not require or own a car. Since moving to NC, my vehicle and gas expenses went up by infinity.
But had I moved from where I lived in MA to the same type home in Boston, I would have to spend at least an additional $1,000,000 to get it. That outweighs the vehicle cost and was not anywhere close to being affordable for me.
It's too bad more people don't do public transportation That's what I miss most about living in Toronto.
I am all for public transportation.............for other people. I will be glad to pay a little extra tax to build a system here..........for other people.
Yeah, and when I lived in Detroit it was horrible... the northern suburbs didn't want to be connected to the city in case they got "riff-raff". I'd be more than happy to take public transport for the environmental benefits if there wasn't so much sprawl here too
Please don't move here. If you HAVE to move, please have a job before you move.
The IT field used to be strong here, and it isn't anymore. People in the IT field are having trouble: project managers, developers, technical writers.
If you're a teacher or a nurse, find a job and move on down. Otherwise, please stay put.
Thank you.
You got it!
I came here in 1989 after being laid off in New Orleans when the local economy went bust. Was working for Entergy, the fourth largest electric utility in the USA. So much for job security.
Found Raleigh by accident since a division of First Citizens had an opening and would pay relo.
It was a great move because the religious climate here brought us back to Jesus after 20 years.
Hope those considering the Triangle aren't just coming to get a McMansion.
We still rent after 20 years here and live near both Mini-City and Brentwood.
If we ever bought, Brentwood would be on our short list because of dedicated residents like you who value and support your community.
I serve as a Neighborhood Watch captain in my community.
Please reserve judgement and assumption. Not everyone comes here to buy a McMansion -- even those in Cary! My husband and I searched this area for him to have a shorter commute and spend more time with family. And I must admit I don't like the cold. He applied for a job that offered a relo package. And we feel that God lead us here. Timing is everything. I don't know if we would be able to make this move today because of the economy. But we wouldn't have done it without a job reagardless.
Quote:
Originally Posted by saturnfan
You got it!
I came here in 1989 after being laid off in New Orleans when the local economy went bust. Was working for Entergy, the fourth largest electric utility in the USA. So much for job security.
Found Raleigh by accident since a division of First Citizens had an opening and would pay relo.
It was a great move because the religious climate here brought us back to Jesus after 20 years.
Hope those considering the Triangle aren't just coming to get a McMansion.
We still rent after 20 years here and live near both Mini-City and Brentwood.
If we ever bought, Brentwood would be on our short list because of dedicated residents like you who value and support your community.
I serve as a Neighborhood Watch captain in my community.
Best regards.
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