Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ok, so you are in the northern end of Rockland County but your really not in the boonies! Your about 40 miles from NYC and fairly close to Northern NJ where there are several large corporate headquarters in several different industries.
I can’t imagine you’d take a huge loss in unloading your house. You might not recover all that you put into it, however it is within a reasonable commuting distance to several different areas that command an above average salary.
Pretty close to Stony Point. Maybe a block or so. Beautiful area, but due to the taxes, it deters most buyers. One or a couple would need a jumbo mortgage, which also makes my pool of potential buyers even smaller. The commute, per se, isn't that bad. I'm at the GWB in about 25 minutes. But, people are lazy and when you tell them Thiells or North Rockland, they think the boonies and pass. I did a test on one of those dating apps. When I was in Stamford, CT or Fort Lee, dozens of matches. When I told them I live in Thiells, 99% ghost or said it's just too far. One woman even said why the hell would you move there? Are you a hill billy or something? Don't get me wrong, I love the house, I really do. I just outgrew the use of the area. I also find that it's not helping my social situation, and the tax situation is not getting any better. While I can afford the taxes, it does concern me greatly that there are so many pre-foreclosures and foreclosures around Haverstraw, West Haverstraw, Thiells, Garnerville, Stony Point and Tomkins Cove. Those are the towns and villages in North Rockland. Half of Pomona as well is in North Rockland's School District, so they are hit as well. The other half is in Ramapo, and they have their own issues..
Seems I put myself between a rock and a hard place so to speak.
we had bought a 2nd home in the poconos back in 2007 which we thought we would retire to..
after all it was just 2 hours to nyc and it was beautiful ...
well years later when we thought about retiring there we had different views once our retirement hats were on .
if i could not drive there was no public transportation and everything requires a drive .
there were few choices in hospitals , specialists , medical facilities .
winters were long , cold , and icy with nothing to do .
if i wanted to work a bit in retirement there were only low wage jobs .
the list went on and on and we realized rural may be nice when you are younger but it may not be the best idea as you age so we sold and don't regret it at all . we retired right here in queens ny where we lived .
Right?! I grew up there. So glad I left 19 years ago! It's not all it's cracked up to be. So many people do the same as you and end up leaving. It maybe nice to visit (in the summer) but to live there is a whole other story.
Look around and you could find an area to live and a house that will be much closer to a city, but yet still be rural. And there are parts of your region where real estate prices and taxes would be much lower. But take your time and make a good decision, so you get everything you want and avoid what you don't want. There's no reason why a single guy like you, can't have things the way you want them.
Just a dumb move on my part to move here. Feel completely stupid in doing so.
Don't feel stupid. You tried to do what you thought was best. You live and you learn. You need to be happy. If you lose some money in the process, so be it. I'd get a plan in place, sell and find something closer to things.
I know how you feel because I grew up in the Poconos and experienced the same thing. I am much happier that I left. There is no reason you shouldn't be happy either. Good luck!
Pretty close to Stony Point. Maybe a block or so. Beautiful area, but due to the taxes, it deters most buyers. One or a couple would need a jumbo mortgage, which also makes my pool of potential buyers even smaller. The commute, per se, isn't that bad. I'm at the GWB in about 25 minutes. But, people are lazy and when you tell them Thiells or North Rockland, they think the boonies and pass. I did a test on one of those dating apps. When I was in Stamford, CT or Fort Lee, dozens of matches. When I told them I live in Thiells, 99% ghost or said it's just too far. One woman even said why the hell would you move there? Are you a hill billy or something? Don't get me wrong, I love the house, I really do. I just outgrew the use of the area. I also find that it's not helping my social situation, and the tax situation is not getting any better. While I can afford the taxes, it does concern me greatly that there are so many pre-foreclosures and foreclosures around Haverstraw, West Haverstraw, Thiells, Garnerville, Stony Point and Tomkins Cove. Those are the towns and villages in North Rockland. Half of Pomona as well is in North Rockland's School District, so they are hit as well. The other half is in Ramapo, and they have their own issues..
Seems I put myself between a rock and a hard place so to speak.
Well, since you’re looking for opinions, I’ll put mine in.
Consider your total financial picture before deciding. You know if you put practically every penny into the house and selling will really hurt. If you didn’t, and have a lot of other assets, meh, sell, take the loss and move on.
And if you don’t want to sell — what about renting it out?
Pretty close to Stony Point. Maybe a block or so. Beautiful area, but due to the taxes, it deters most buyers. One or a couple would need a jumbo mortgage, which also makes my pool of potential buyers even smaller. The commute, per se, isn't that bad. I'm at the GWB in about 25 minutes. But, people are lazy and when you tell them Thiells or North Rockland, they think the boonies and pass. I did a test on one of those dating apps. When I was in Stamford, CT or Fort Lee, dozens of matches. When I told them I live in Thiells, 99% ghost or said it's just too far. One woman even said why the hell would you move there? Are you a hill billy or something? Don't get me wrong, I love the house, I really do. I just outgrew the use of the area. I also find that it's not helping my social situation, and the tax situation is not getting any better. While I can afford the taxes, it does concern me greatly that there are so many pre-foreclosures and foreclosures around Haverstraw, West Haverstraw, Thiells, Garnerville, Stony Point and Tomkins Cove. Those are the towns and villages in North Rockland. Half of Pomona as well is in North Rockland's School District, so they are hit as well. The other half is in Ramapo, and they have their own issues..
Seems I put myself between a rock and a hard place so to speak.
Pretty stupid got someone to ask if your a hillbilly or ask why you live in the boonies, 40 miles from NYC?
Can’t pay attention to stupid comments, many people who work in cities prefer to live in the suburbs and are willing to commute to have their privacy and a decent sized home.
Just find a good realtor and list the house and at least you have a chance to find a family who would be looking for exactly what you have there to offer.
Pretty stupid got someone to ask if your a hillbilly or ask why you live in the boonies, 40 miles from NYC?
Can’t pay attention to stupid comments, many people who work in cities prefer to live in the suburbs and are willing to commute to have their privacy and a decent sized home.
Just find a good realtor and list the house and at least you have a chance to find a family who would be looking for exactly what you have there to offer.
Welcome to the dating life in NY Metro. Lol. I'm meeting with another realtor on Saturday and see what they say. So far, I'm looking at a 60k loss with realtor fees and taxes.
Waiting to see what the realtor's comps are. Luckily, there were a few homes that sold really high recently. Perhaps there's hope to recoup some of what I paid.
...I got it into my head that I should buy a house at 27 and that would help level off the costs. For some strange reason, I picked North Rockland in Rockland County, NY partly because the taxes were low and I wanted some piece and quiet. ...
Open to ideas.
Your situation is the classic quandary of living in the Heartland. Houses are cheap, so even a younger single-person can afford to buy one. Because they’re so cheap, it’s easy for a person of barely above-average means to over-buy, landing in a place excessively large and excessively costly to maintain. And most importantly, because the market is stagnant, there’s no investment-value in the house.
To reiterate: were you to have done the same thing in a thriving area, housing-appreciation would have lifted your prospects, so that you could sell the place without guilt or fuss, more than recouping your various costs of ownership, walking away with a smile of satisfaction and relief. But because of the locale, you’re saddled with more of a liability than an asset, even if you own it outright. If you sell and relocate to a nice area, the sales-proceeds would barely be sufficient to cover a 20% down-payment on your prospective new place. If you remain in the same area, you might as well hunker-down, staying in the same house.
And because the area is economically stagnant, the tax-base is declining. Kids still have to go to school, so property taxes have to rise… sometimes, considerably. Your house is paid off, but your housing-cost rises almost at the rate of rental-price increases… because of runaway taxes. And that’s assuming that maintenance costs and insurance costs are kept under control.
But it gets worse… a large-ish house in a remote, rural area is difficult to rent out. Trendy youth looking to rent a single room, won’t care to do so in the countryside, even if the house is tidy and the property is pleasant and serene. A blue-collar self-reliant type who wants country-living wouldn’t demean himself by renting. A young family who needs the bedrooms could probably afford to buy a house, with prices being low… unless they’re transient (military, for example)… in which case they’d probably look for a rental in the better school districts.
For a single person (male or female), country-living is a stark disadvantage. Locals are unlikely to be suitable dating-material, even if they’re available – which likely they’re not. In online dating, which is the natural recourse for people whose local prospects are dim, the rural zipcode can be devastating.
All gloom and doom? Not quite. If your house is as pricey as some of the numbers mentioned in this thread, then sales-proceeds aren’t necessarily going to be vastly smaller than the cost of a smaller house closer to town.
Consider… suppose that you’d bought a $200K house, made $200K in improvements, and 11 years later, it’s only worth $150K. Now THAT would have been a serious gaffe!
Sell.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Synott
...If the house is not located in a desirable area (which it isn’t by your description) why have the taxes increased so much?
Besides the OP's specific situation, what often happens in stagnant/declining jurisdictions, is that the municipality needs to raise taxes just to cover operating costs. The more affluent people leave, the poorer ones remain. Tax-base falls, tax-rates rise. Those few affluent people who do remain, end up getting taxed exorbitantly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twingles
..Plus you're pushing 40 - what kind of friends are these and where do they live that your place is too far for them?
Likely they're married with children. Their evenings are consumed with soccer-practice, Little League, ballet, wrestling, debate-team, orchestra, piano-practice, tutoring and eventually SAT-prep. They lack the time or energy to drive 40 miles each-way, for a couple hours' relaxation in wicker-chairs on a back-porch facing acres of woodland.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So glad I left 19 years ago! It's not all it's cracked up to be. So many people do the same as you and end up leaving. It maybe nice to visit (in the summer) but to live there is a whole other story.
Solly says — Be nice!
