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Ok, so yes I am scared of the winter! I am a born and raised Floridian but my husband is from Buffalo! He has had a deep desire to move back but I always told him I would never be able to survive in the winter (I am still afraid of this) Long story short,I feel he will always live with that "what if" feeling if we don't try it! He was able to transfer with his job so no problem there... They actually offered him a promotion!
So here is my question: We really want to rent for at least the first year! I want to make it through a winter before we buy a home, and we want to get to know the area! He leaves in 2 weeks and we still have not found many options for renting! We prefer a 3bedroom single family home and not a duplex or an upper/lower or apartment. We have two young children so we want to live in a neighborhood where they can go outside and play with their friends, have a back yard etc. I also want to be close to the church we are planning to attend which is in Getzville... ANY suggestions on where to look for rental homes? I just can't seem to find much online! Please help!
Thanks
P.S. I'd love to hear why you love Buffalo so much! I have heard the bad plenty: bad winters/high taxes/crummy politicians but please tell me the good! I really want to like living here!
Ok, so yes I am scared of the winter! I am a born and raised Floridian but my husband is from Buffalo! He has had a deep desire to move back but I always told him I would never be able to survive in the winter (I am still afraid of this) Long story short,I feel he will always live with that "what if" feeling if we don't try it! He was able to transfer with his job so no problem there... They actually offered him a promotion!
So here is my question: We really want to rent for at least the first year! I want to make it through a winter before we buy a home, and we want to get to know the area! He leaves in 2 weeks and we still have not found many options for renting! We prefer a 3bedroom single family home and not a duplex or an upper/lower or apartment. We have two young children so we want to live in a neighborhood where they can go outside and play with their friends, have a back yard etc. I also want to be close to the church we are planning to attend which is in Getzville... ANY suggestions on where to look for rental homes? I just can't seem to find much online! Please help!
Thanks
P.S. I'd love to hear why you love Buffalo so much! I have heard the bad plenty: bad winters/high taxes/crummy politicians but please tell me the good! I really want to like living here!
I love having 4 seasons (and a relatively cool summer). After living in Texas I was more than happy to trade the oppressive heat & humidity for snow. I also like the fact that in this part of the country everything is so close together. Its no big deal to take a day trip to Toronto, Cleveland or Pittsburgh or a weekend in NYC, Philly, Boston or DC.
Housing is dirt cheap & you don't have to make $250K+/year to live a good life. That being said the job market is definitely tougher than in other areas but if you can get a decent job you can live like royalty on an modest salary (and it sounds like you guys are covered on that end).
Plenty of people complain about the taxes but I personally don't have a problem with them. While they are high by national standards they vary greatly from town to town, if you choose to live in a town with an insane tax rate that you can't afford well that's no one's fault but your own. While my taxes here are high on the national scale they are low by NY standards. I know that my daughters are attending an excellent school district which to me is worth paying a little more in taxes as most low tax states have terrible schools.
I also believe that this is a close knit community. My neighbors are genuinely friendly & helpful but they also mind their own business. Everyone seems to look out for each other & are more than willing to help out if its ever needed.
Hey I am glad to see that I'm not the only one!! I recently relocated back here from FL... I grew up in WNY so it's a little different. I don't know how you'll take to it. There's a lot to love about the area. The weather is really not one of the things to love except in the (very short) summer time. I'm not trying to be a naysayer, but it's going to be really really hard during the winter for you. The cold is something you really can't get "used to". And the lack of sun and green vegetation.
Also, I don't mean to disagree with a previous poster, but the housing might not be considered "dirt cheap" depending on your perspective. In the part of FL that I came from there are much better deals on houses, although they don't come with a basement down there so that adds some space to your house.
Anyhow, I hope you will take advantage of the great things this area has to offer, like cultural opportunities and so on. And the convenience and easy commutes to anywhere in the area are just great. I am really enjoying that.
And we have a great sense of community here which you will likely feel a part of and may like. WNY'ers have a lot of pride in the place. So many people in FL come and go and just don't feel any connection to it. All they go around saying is "that's not how we did it up north!"
Oh and the other thing I've enjoyed is being around young families like mine. It's definitely NOT a retirement community. There seems to be SO much more for kids around here.
Good luck with the house rental... we couldn't find a lot although we were looking in the southtowns. You could have your hubby check out bulletin boards at University of Buffalo where somebody might advertise rentals in that area. If you really end up not being able to find a house, you could look at some of the apartment complexes in the area for a shorter term trial... some of them are very nice although pricey.
Feel free to pm me for more info or moral support!! I wish you the best and despite my grim sounding remarks I really do think you might like it here.
Also, I don't mean to disagree with a previous poster, but the housing might not be considered "dirt cheap" depending on your perspective. In the part of FL that I came from there are much better deals on houses, although they don't come with a basement down there so that adds some space to your house.
I guess its all a matter of where you came from/have been & I can't say Im familiar with Florida real estate at all. I grew up in Baltimore & spent a lot of my adult life in Austin, Texas .... to me housing is dirt cheap. I live in a 1200 sq ft 3br Colonial that is less than 15 years old, we paid just under $150K for it ..... in Baltimore/DC you'll be lucky to buy a box under the Beltway for that. Austin was more affordable but a lot of the affordable areas where either bad parts of town or cookie cutter subdivisions with no character.
Its funny how you bring up the lack of sun. My mother in law moved to the Angola area (from Texas) a few months ago, everytime she talks to her friends back in Texas she's complaining about the cold & lack of sun. I just laugh at her as I walk out into the 50 degree weather in my shorts & t shirt
Thanks for your replies! I must agree that houses in Buffalo are not "dirt cheap" unless it is an old fixer upper in a not so good neighborhood... At least that is what we've noticed in our search! Right now Florida houses are so cheap bc of the housing bust! Our 2,000 sf home is being sold at 150,000... Now if we would have sold 5 years ago we could have sold it for 250,000... That's how bad the housing market is in Florida right now! So needless to say we are struggling finding a house in the Buffalo area somewhat equivalent to ours for the same price! And renting is becoming a challenge for us to find as well! I just pray when my husband gets up there he will find SOMETHING!
As of missing the sun... That's what's going to be the hardest for me... Not so much the cold, I can deal with that but not seeing the sun for days sounds depressing! My number one goal is to get connected to people and the community as much as possible! That is the exciting part for me, I love new people and learning about their culture! I will let you know when I get up there, it will be nice to have some support from another Floridian!!! Oh and I love the sound of the young family thing because I have a 4 year old and a 10 month old and my 4 year old is a social butterfly... She will need playmates!!! Thanks y'all! (Y'all!!! They will make fun of me for saying that for sure!) lol!
Thanks for your replies! I must agree that houses in Buffalo are not "dirt cheap" unless it is an old fixer upper in a not so good neighborhood... At least that is what we've noticed in our search! Right now Florida houses are so cheap bc of the housing bust! Our 2,000 sf home is being sold at 150,000... Now if we would have sold 5 years ago we could have sold it for 250,000... That's how bad the housing market is in Florida right now! So needless to say we are struggling finding a house in the Buffalo area somewhat equivalent to ours for the same price! And renting is becoming a challenge for us to find as well! I just pray when my husband gets up there he will find SOMETHING!
As of missing the sun... That's what's going to be the hardest for me... Not so much the cold, I can deal with that but not seeing the sun for days sounds depressing! My number one goal is to get connected to people and the community as much as possible! That is the exciting part for me, I love new people and learning about their culture! I will let you know when I get up there, it will be nice to have some support from another Floridian!!! Oh and I love the sound of the young family thing because I have a 4 year old and a 10 month old and my 4 year old is a social butterfly... She will need playmates!!! Thanks y'all! (Y'all!!! They will make fun of me for saying that for sure!) lol!
Thanks for your replies! I must agree that houses in Buffalo are not "dirt cheap" unless it is an old fixer upper in a not so good neighborhood... At least that is what we've noticed in our search! Right now Florida houses are so cheap bc of the housing bust! Our 2,000 sf home is being sold at 150,000... Now if we would have sold 5 years ago we could have sold it for 250,000... That's how bad the housing market is in Florida right now! So needless to say we are struggling finding a house in the Buffalo area somewhat equivalent to ours for the same price! And renting is becoming a challenge for us to find as well! I just pray when my husband gets up there he will find SOMETHING!
x2
Florida is a friggin' mess, right now, and for the life of me I can't see how anyone would want to move to there for the foreseeable future.
$150,000 can go pretty far in Upstate, just watch out for the taxes. As others have noted they vary, sometimes wildly, from town to town. Still, $150,000 will buy a nice pad, maybe 3 BR, 2 bath, 2 car garage, on a 1/4 acre lot.
Prices were way out of whack in Columbia and Greenville when we moved south, and we're glad we waited until late-'08 to buy. $150K would get someone a decent house in a decent to good neighborhood in '07, although one might find themselves near a bad area (or two, or three). Add to that original single-pane windows with no screens, few updates, a car port, two-prong outlets in bedrooms, pine needles instead of grass, HVAC needing updating, etc., etc., etc.
Nowadays people with good credit are snapping up good deals here.
well I hate the snow and the winter and every year my wife and I along with our kid make the annual trek down to the sun. We come back so energized and hate to leave....but we do. The north east is full of hearty souls and good characters. I have been all over this country and I can tell you, you will never meet more true friends. I love the sense of community, the culture, the arts, the festivities (just wait...wny rocks for festivals) and by far the food. Nobody goes to Florida for the food. WNY will blow you away with the wonderful food options from fine dining to guilty pleasure pub food. Our architecture is like very few other cities, we are an Olmstead city with a park system that offers much to explore. Our proximity to other metropolitian areas makes day trips hard to resists. The camping, the short drive to the mountains, the fall foliage, the lake, the sunset, the fishing, the amusement parks, the Elmwood village, the Akron flea market, the estate sales, the golf courses, the theatre district, the art galleries, the live music venues, the night life and oh...you like churches?? you haven't seen a church until you visit our many wonderful grand turn of the century cathedrals...need I go on?
The last post... those are some great points!! Architecture here is pretty amazing and the festivals are great.
Anyhow I just wanted to mention that another good place to check for houses for rent is the pennysaver. I'm not sure which one you would be using so just google the name of the town and pennysaver and it should come up.
Definitely pm me when you get here so we can set up a playdate or take a trip to the museum of science or the children's museum. Those are great for kids.
:-)
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, few updates, a car port, two-prong outlets in bedrooms
, pine needles instead of grass
, HVAC needing updating, etc., etc., etc. 
