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So, our family is planning a move to Rhode Island (looking so far around the Warwick area - something within easy commute to airport but close enough to water to enjoy what we've never had access to)... We have no school age children so anyplace is up for grabs at this point.
We are coming from Western New York, and when we initially visited the area, we were told by a realtor that Rhode Island is outrageously expensive (seemed odd to be cramming down our throats). We were a little puzzled by this, as we had previously 'done the math' before visiting to scope out the areas.
I know people on the boards have complained about taxes being outrageous at 2-3,000/year, however on a $225,000 house here, our property taxes (including school taxes) are almost $7,000/year. Clear across town, a relative owns a house worth about $140,000 and he is paying $6,000/year. Here you can expect to pay $5,000/year on average just for that.
Our gas prices, inexplicably highest in the nation. Recently when our gas prices were $2.59, we looked on the 'gas map', and Rhode Island boasted near $2.05/gal.
Here, we pay $6.99/gal for organic milk, and it was definitely cheaper there.
We reviewed $ per kw for electric, compared heating fuel prices and still don't see anything different aside from the car tax in Rhode Island.
Your income tax is lower than ours. I don't know yet about corporation tax, as we do have a business so will be affected by that.
We will be looking for a house below $200,000, between 1500 -1800 sq. ft. We have a 2003 and a 2006 low profile vehicle. We do not need cable, but curious about expenses of it. We do need high speed internet and keep our house moderately heated/cooled, use of electricity (no hot tubs, pools, etc.)
******* So this is what I am asking: can you average out your costs of living so we can get a clear understanding of what we are looking at, and what people are complaining about (because I think moving there will actually save us $) - what do you pay for monthly gas, electric, car insurance, homeowners insurance, flood insurance, itemized groceries (mainly organic)..
I can't thank you enough, in advance for helping us sort this out !
Mr. and Mrs. Whiskers
I have lived in a number of different states and cities and the prices are more or less the same in ri.
Gas right now is around 2.19 and I pay no more or less for natural gas and electric than I did elsewhere. Same applies for water, cable tv and Internet. I do find car insurance and home insurance cheaper in ri.
Property taxes are high again more or less in line with other states I have lived in with the exception of one mid Atlantic state.
Stop and shop sells organic milk for around 6.99. Whole foods sells a bigger jug of organic milk for 4.99. I only buy organic from whole foods and my weekly bill is slightly higher than previous states but this may be attributed to my shopping habits which have changed slightly.
So, our family is planning a move to Rhode Island (looking so far around the Warwick area - something within easy commute to airport but close enough to water to enjoy what we've never had access to)... We have no school age children so anyplace is up for grabs at this point.
We are coming from Western New York, and when we initially visited the area, we were told by a realtor that Rhode Island is outrageously expensive (seemed odd to be cramming down our throats). We were a little puzzled by this, as we had previously 'done the math' before visiting to scope out the areas.
I know people on the boards have complained about taxes being outrageous at 2-3,000/year, however on a $225,000 house here, our property taxes (including school taxes) are almost $7,000/year. Clear across town, a relative owns a house worth about $140,000 and he is paying $6,000/year. Here you can expect to pay $5,000/year on average just for that.
Our gas prices, inexplicably highest in the nation. Recently when our gas prices were $2.59, we looked on the 'gas map', and Rhode Island boasted near $2.05/gal.
Here, we pay $6.99/gal for organic milk, and it was definitely cheaper there.
We reviewed $ per kw for electric, compared heating fuel prices and still don't see anything different aside from the car tax in Rhode Island.
Your income tax is lower than ours. I don't know yet about corporation tax, as we do have a business so will be affected by that.
We will be looking for a house below $200,000, between 1500 -1800 sq. ft. We have a 2003 and a 2006 low profile vehicle. We do not need cable, but curious about expenses of it. We do need high speed internet and keep our house moderately heated/cooled, use of electricity (no hot tubs, pools, etc.)
******* So this is what I am asking: can you average out your costs of living so we can get a clear understanding of what we are looking at, and what people are complaining about (because I think moving there will actually save us $) - what do you pay for monthly gas, electric, car insurance, homeowners insurance, flood insurance, itemized groceries (mainly organic)..
I can't thank you enough, in advance for helping us sort this out !
Mr. and Mrs. Whiskers
You may be hard pressed to find a nice house below $200K with that much sq. footage, in nice condition, is modernized and doesn't need work. There are cost of living calculators online that will give you a pretty good measure of what to expect between the two states. Simply use Google: cost of living calculator(s) enter your city and state now, and enter a few towns in RI to get results by percentage of difference. You can also go to www.riliving.com and put in your criteria and towns, and current home listings with photos will come up. In that search in the home(s) description is a link to "features and amenities" where you will find the most recent tax bill for each home. RI Living dot com also has a full list of property taxes, motor vehicle taxes, etc. by city and town in the "about RI"column.
Armed with that information, you may be surprised to learn that you may be going from the frying pan into the fire. Do some serious homework.
Last edited by QuilterChick; 02-03-2015 at 06:11 PM..
Rhode Island is likely overall more expensive than western NY, but not by much. As QC commented, with your budget, finding anything but a fixer with the desired square footage will be a considerable challenge. If by chance you do, it may be in a community with high property tax. One advantage you have is no children and worry about schools. This will allow you to look for a house in towns with poor public schools: Providence (Elmhurst), Woonsocket and West Warwick (all within 45 minutes of the water).
Hello there - Thank you for the replies - let me get to our backstory....
About a year and a half ago, we decided to get out of western new york. Previously, helping deal with illness in the family kept us here, but our family member passed and we found no other reason to stay. Although we are involved in many things in the community, we just don't find it offers enough to keep us as busy as we want to be. I am lucky enough to have a job through which I can transfer to any one of various cities around the country (airlines), we have an online retail business that can travel anywhere and our son has an antique book and paper business. Needless to say, we are not dependent on an area for a job.
We spent a year flying in and out of cities in various states, and just did not feel like anyplace had enough of what we were looking for.
My wife's family used to vacation in New England as she was growing up and she had fond memories of it. Additionally, our son's business brings us back and forth to New England and NYC regularly for antique shows (which has become very much a family involvement, as we have all grown to love the business). We talked for a long time about moving to New England but did not think we could afford to live there, and we thought the winters were harsher than here. (we did even entertain Florida but decided we are a cold-weather family).
We decided that Rhode Island would be most centrally located for trips to Boston, NYC, Albany and various antique shows, as well as new experiences within the state itself.
We traveled there last year and we all fell in love with it - we drove north, south, east, west, went to stores talked to many people (very friendly - much friendlier than here).
- We even went to a pet store and found even goods there to be less expensive than home here (we even filled the car with dog food because it was such a deal)
- we found the roads to be no worse than here, which are positively horrendous (I know a major complaint, there)
- we found it easy to get around (at our age, we know where everything is and a little worried about finding our way around again)
- we loved the air, which is another reason why we want to be near the water. We all have sinus problems and in the short time we visited, we were completely cleared out, like when we vacation in Florida. It's like Flonase made by mother nature.
We have spent a long time taking care of family and when it was finally time for us to start getting out and living here, we were stumped - we had drained the area. We have Niagara Falls here, but once you've been a dozen times..... We have literally done everything there is to do and we are tired of passing time at home when we all have a day off. We want to get back to being an active, history-loving family again and experience new museums, new history, new shores and more. Rhode Island is located where, if we don't want to 'do' anything, we can go for a scenic hike or sit on a rock and enjoy the ocean (which I know people take for granted, but we would enjoy).
- we did find that, even with your recent storm, the weather is much milder there. Every morning we track the weather in Rhode Island and it is always at an advantage.
- the medical facilities in Boston are also what we are shooting for. Our son has had very complex heart surgeries and his best long term care is not going to be here in wny for his situation. We travel to Cleveland Clinic but would like to transition him to Boston.
**** We will admit, that our trip to Rhode Island yielded disappointment. We did find some nice fixer-uppers in Warwick but overall were completely sidelined by the dismal housing market. We described the neighborhoods we could afford as 'dumpy' (don't be insulted, and we didn't look everywhere). Here we live in a 2300 sq. ft house with central heat/air in a great suburban neighborhood. We were stunned by what we would be getting there in RI.
- Before we had even gone there, we had already decided to completely scale down on our cavernous unused space. We decided what we needed was going to be simple - small ranch house with finished basement for the boy, and a yard for the dogs - we are pretty minimalist overall. Even with those small specs, we came back home thinking Rhode Island was out of the question. We thought about going up in price, but we had already committed, at our age, that we are paying cash for our next home and not budging from our budget.
We came home from that trip 6 months ago thinking that Rhode Island was off the table. We decided to stay here and have been very unhappy since making that decision. We spend our days off sitting in our house wishing for new stomping grounds, and remembering what we loved in RI. We remembered that we only go at this life once, and decided that we wanted to go there so we can live and enjoy what the area has to offer. We are willing to sacrifice our dream home for our dream life, as long as we are comfortable (and we are absolutely not afraid of a fixer-upper).
We knew this would not be a more economic move, it would be more of a lateral move, except for the housing market. We understand that the expense in RI is in the real estate for the ability to live in that vicinity. We can accept that - we'd rather 'live' than pass time.
My reason for asking all the questions previously was to get an earnest gauge of what people are paying for basic living expenses. We have done all the property tax, etc. research and we still find ourselves making a lateral economic move, especially when you consider we already pay $7,000 in property taxes. I was interested to see real numbers, how much is your gas bill, electric bill, water bill etc.... see if there was something we were missing here.
Well, this was a much longer post than I expected. Thank you to anyone who has stayed with me to the bottom, and for all your directions.
Your entire post was digested. Based on everything you said, your wants, needs, etc., may I suggest that you look in the southeast portion of MA, along the coast near RI. Swansea, Somerset, Fairhaven, some areas of New Bedford near the CC's and Buttonwoods Park, South Dartmouth and Westport are beautiful and so forth. Highway access to Boston for hospitals is excellent, and a lot more convenient than getting from RI to any of the MA hospitals. You would be near the shore, closer to Cape Cod and easy access to Providence. Choice of airports. I am not trying to discourage you from RI, but the southeast coast of MA has much more to offer and a better location for your needs.
Thank you for that, we did look in MA. I need to be within drive time to PVD or Boston airport - don't know much about rails and commuting there. Right now I've got a 30 min. commute - can do more if worth it.
Mr. Whiskers
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Do some serious homework.
