Despite the flaws, Rochester is amazing (New York, Buffalo: apartments, motorhomes, job market)

[lovebrentwood]

I grew up in Rochester. I loved it. I thought I would never leave. But I moved to Raleigh, NC, for work in 1993.

Here's how Raleigh stacks up:

1) Property taxes - not high; I pay $1450 on a 2550 sq ft house on a little lake in the city. I am shocked by the outrageous taxes in Rochester.
2) Weather - It is sunny here in the winter, summer, fall and spring
3) Downtown (Main Street) is struggling - our downtown has grown, is new, updated, and beautiful
4) The metro area is barely growing - the metro area has boomed for years; it slowed in the recession, but it's still growing substantially.

Lots of people have moved here from Rochester, just to save on taxes; nothing complicated about that. It's not perfect here, there are far fewer employment opportunities here than many places in the U.S.

But there are enough reasons for people, apparently, to ditch Rochester and move here.

I think it's very sad. I miss Rochester's river, lake, the Finger lakes, Seabreeze, museums, inexpensive and older homes, Italian restaurants, proximity to Canada, surrounding small towns and suburbs, and general "personality" of its inhabitants -- honest, happy, hard working, and ready to really enjoy and appreciate the beautiful summers and falls.

Maybe the changing weather patterns -- and milder winters -- will bring people back to Rochester? I hope so.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by lovebrentwood

I grew up in Rochester. I loved it. I thought I would never leave. But I moved to Raleigh, NC, for work in 1993.

Here's how Raleigh stacks up:

1) Property taxes - not high; I pay $1450 on a 2550 sq ft house on a little lake in the city. I am shocked by the outrageous taxes in Rochester.
2) Weather - It is sunny here in the winter, summer, fall and spring
3) Downtown (Main Street) is struggling - our downtown has grown, is new, updated, and beautiful
4) The metro area is barely growing - the metro area has boomed for years; it slowed in the recession, but it's still growing substantially.

Lots of people have moved here from Rochester, just to save on taxes; nothing complicated about that. It's not perfect here, there are far fewer employment opportunities here than many places in the U.S.

But there are enough reasons for people, apparently, to ditch Rochester and move here.

I think it's very sad. I miss Rochester's river, lake, the Finger lakes, Seabreeze, museums, inexpensive and older homes, Italian restaurants, proximity to Canada, surrounding small towns and suburbs, and general "personality" of its inhabitants -- honest, happy, hard working, and ready to really enjoy and appreciate the beautiful summers and falls.

Maybe the changing weather patterns -- and milder winters -- will bring people back to Rochester? I hope so.

What's ironic is that the overall cost of living in the Raleigh-Durham area is higher than the overall COL in the Rochester area.

Weather is subjective in terms of a factor for moving or not.

[purdue512]

I agree on the weather point 100%. I HATED the weather in Washington, DC. I know NC is even hotter.

[lovebrentwood]

Originally Posted by purdue512

I agree on the weather point 100%. I HATED the weather in Washington, DC. I know NC is even hotter.

Oh, I hate the NC hot weather. But I hate the freezing-cold-snowy-I'm-gonna-die-on-these-icy-roads weather much more.

And according to the cost of living calculators, housing and food cost more here in Raleigh. But the cost of living calculators don't seem to factor in real estate taxes.

I think it's still cheaper to live here even with the higher cost of housing when compared with the crazy NY taxes. And over the years, I've noticed newer housing in Rochester seems to have risen to be much closer to Raleigh prices where most of the housing stock is relatively new.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by lovebrentwood

Oh, I hate the NC hot weather. But I hate the freezing-cold-snowy-I'm-gonna-die-on-these-icy-roads weather much more.

And according to the cost of living calculators, housing and food cost more here in Raleigh. But the cost of living calculators don't seem to factor in real estate taxes.

I think it's still cheaper to live here even with the higher cost of housing when compared with the crazy NY taxes. And over the years, I've noticed newer housing in Rochester seems to have risen to be much closer to Raleigh prices where most of the housing stock is relatively new.

It depends on the COL calculator. This one does include taxes: Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Keep in mind that this is for the village of Pittsford. So, the property taxes are most likely higher.

[just_sayin']

Property taxes are definitely factored into COL calculators.

As far as the Rochester to Raleigh COL differences, I personally have a lower cost of living in Rochester than in Raleigh. However, we lived in relatively more expensive areas of the Raleigh area when we lived down there (N. Raleigh, Cary, Apex)....vs here where we live in the relatively lower COL area of Rochester......Greece. I know the area of Raleigh where Ilovebrentwood lives (Brentwood is the name of an older subdivision in Central/NE Raleigh, I'm assuming that is the brentwood her username refers to)...it is generally cheaper than the western/northern suburban areas where I lived. If comparing Greece to Cary/Apex.......Rochester is going to be cheaper. If comparing the P-towns to East Raleigh/Garner/Knightdale....Raleigh is going to be cheaper.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by I'minformed2

Property taxes are definitely factored into COL calculators.

As far as the Rochester to Raleigh COL differences, I personally have a lower cost of living in Rochester than in Raleigh. However, we lived in relatively more expensive areas of the Raleigh area when we lived down there (N. Raleigh, Cary, Apex)....vs here where we live in the relatively lower COL area of Rochester......Greece. I know the area of Raleigh where Ilovebrentwood lives (Brentwood is the name of an older subdivision in Central/NE Raleigh, I'm assuming that is the brentwood her username refers to)...it is generally cheaper than the western/northern suburban areas where I lived. If comparing Greece to Cary/Apex.......Rochester is going to be cheaper. If comparing the P-towns to East Raleigh/Garner/Knightdale....Raleigh is going to be cheaper.

So, what would it be if you compare relatively similar suburbs? According to a COL calculator I used, it looks like Cary has a higher overall COL than Pittsford(village). I think a reason for this is due to the fact that many people that move from the Northeast move to Cary and in particular, these Northeastern transplants come from the more expensive Bos-Wash corridor of the NE. So, Cary probably still seems to be less expensive to such folks and said people in NC know that they can get away with that for that reason.

[just_sayin']

Cary to Pittsford isn't quite the apples to apples....Cary is much larger than Pittsford in population. If you compared Cary to all of the P-towns combined it would be a more fare comparison. Overall I think you'd find the COL to be about equal between the two places....the P-towns certainly have better schools overall than Cary/Wake County though.

[Fallingwater79]

Originally Posted by lovebrentwood

Oh, I hate the NC hot weather. But I hate the freezing-cold-snowy-I'm-gonna-die-on-these-icy-roads weather much more.

And according to the cost of living calculators, housing and food cost more here in Raleigh. But the cost of living calculators don't seem to factor in real estate taxes.

I think it's still cheaper to live here even with the higher cost of housing when compared with the crazy NY taxes. And over the years, I've noticed newer housing in Rochester seems to have risen to be much closer to Raleigh prices where most of the housing stock is relatively new.

This winter was unprecedented in both temperature and lack of snow and has happened move often than not in recent decades. Those of us older than 45 remember Rochester winters as snowing from November to January, a short "January thaw" and then three more months of cold. We seem to be moving towards milder winters. The month of March has seen record temperatures for weeks on end a most certain first in the weather books!!!

Also, our economy never really fell as far as NC and the area continues to chug along in a moderate yet steady growth, another plus.

For me, with family and grand kids arriving, our moving out of state consideration is dimming.....weather has been my discontent as I get older and we never even put the snow boots on or plowed the driveway more than twice this year: it snowed and melted before we had to!!!

As for the beauty of the area, was in the Highland Ave/ East Ave section yesterday and I am always blown away by the utterly stunning homes in those areas backing up to the parks......everyone maintained to the hilt and the only for sale sign I saw was " sale pending"!!

[Fallingwater79]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

So, what would it be if you compare relatively similar suburbs? According to a COL calculator I used, it looks like Cary has a higher overall COL than Pittsford(village). I think a reason for this is due to the fact that many people that move from the Northeast move to Cary and in particular, these Northeastern transplants come from the more expensive Bos-Wash corridor of the NE. So, Cary probably still seems to be less expensive to such folks and said people in NC know that they can get away with that for that reason.

Yep.... It's called "charging what the market will bear" and the folks from the really expensive NYC/LI/Boston areas think they are getting a deal when unreality, it's higher than normal in the sought after areas. I know someone who just bought a townhouse in Cary and paid a comparable price to upstate and some!

Bet you never hear of many home building companies complaining about all those northerners flooding the area