thoughts on New England (lease, salary, property tax)

[Native Transplant]

I'm a native and current San Diegan, and went to college in southern VT. I miss it at times. Brattleboro had some nice old brick buildings, and transplants from all over the east coast, big cities and small. It was a "college town without the college (at least in town proper)". Lots of old church steeples as well.

I do miss it at times, but I need bigger city infrastructure. Boston was OK, but seemed very touristy. Cambridge, right next door was gorgeous, though.

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by opossum_

Rattle snakes...there're hardly many of them.

On this one, I have to disagree with you. I encounter rattlesnakes all the time in San Diego County. A few months ago, I saw a huge one right in Sunset Cliffs park just a few hundred yards from the Ocean. We've had two in our yard this month. And there's this: Rattlesnakes percolating from dry Clairemont canyons | San Diego Reader

Rattlesnakes may not always get noticed by people, and they're not going to attack you unless you provoke them, but trust me, there are plenty of them here in Southern California. Saying that they aren't many of them is not only not true, it's a dangerous assumption.

[opossum_]

Originally Posted by RosieSD

On this one, I have to disagree with you. I encounter rattlesnakes all the time in San Diego County. A few months ago, I saw a huge one right in Sunset Cliffs park just a few hundred yards from the Ocean. We've had two in our yard this month. And there's this: Rattlesnakes percolating from dry Clairemont canyons | San Diego Reader

Rattlesnakes may not always get noticed by people, and they're not going to attack you unless you provoke them, but trust me, there are plenty of them here in Southern California. Saying that they aren't many of them is not only not true, it's a dangerous assumption.

I meant that not many that are in your way/ones that will cause trouble. Plus, I'm in North Cal, I think there're more of them South. I wear tall hiking boots, keep the tent closed when I camp, and watch my step generally...To think of it, last year was camping in a place in the Sierra where there were many of them seen, including right on the trail, but I was sleeping in the woods without a tent and wasn't worried about them at all. They're not really willing to attack people until you're stepping on them.

[opossum_]

Originally Posted by blueskywalker

Spend any time in the coastal redwoods? Ticks, wolf spiders (they jump! and may bite), scorpions, brown recluse spiders .... to name just a few critters that i like to avoid.
There are "nasty" creepy-crawlers all over California.

The woods and rural areas of New England are quite tame in comparison to California.

Yes, I camped in Coastal Redwoods, though prefer Sierra Nevada and mostly spend time there. Never really was bothered by any of these. Got bitten by some non-poisonous spiders several times over years. Again, ticks are present, and in some places in CA it'll take a short walk to get a bunch of them on you, but the chance of disease is minimal and it's not the variety of tick that carry Lyme either, in most cases. In CA, despite some rare dangers, not experiencing swarms of no-see-ums, skeeters, black flies, and other nasty bugs biting the hell out of you and do not have to wear full body net suit that covers your face....constant bites by them is a lot worse that remote chance of hitting a rattle snake or a scorpion. I don't know where you found an inland (not the ocean beach!) forested place in New England not having horrendously painful Black Flies (which bite whole chunk of skin out, unlike mosquitos), tons of mosquitos and gnats (combine that with short summer season, which happens to be official Lyme season from start to finish) --I would like to know where such place is. Must be some unique area, as most of NE is notorious for bug bites, or may be you're the type of person that doesn't get bitten much.

Speaking of spiders, New England has some too:
http://www.livescience.com/48548-new...ider-bite.html
and Northern Black Widow lives in New England as well. With all the transport between the states, one is in as much danger from spiders from remote areas. A woman nearly died in VT after being bit by a southern black widow she got in her groceries. Brown recluse (the worst poisonous spider) had been found in NE, arriving in shipments from the South.

Poisonous snakes--NE got them too, including "timber rattlesnake":
http://animals.mom.me/dangerous-snak...land-6086.html

I'd like to move to NE if I found a place where I wouldn't have to worry about bugs and disease they carry--would like to be somewhere by Canadian border. In Coastal Redwoods, with all the "scorpions and spiders", the price of the same size wooded acreage will be min 10X higher.

[znlwovuhrjw]

I've seen the black flies outside several times over, they've been all around me many times, but I have never been bitten. Won't stop me from fishing!

[UKWildcat1981]

Parts of New England are more socially liberal than California which surprised me especially Vermont and parts of MA.

[znlwovuhrjw]

^ Try the non-urban areas, the only exception is perhaps Vermont.

[Submariner]

I am from California, I went through college and I owned a home there for a while. Though after I retired we settled in Maine. We love it here.

The economy is depressed and has been for many decades. The housing crash of '08 pretty much skipped Maine, because home prices here never boomed as they did in most of the nation. Jobs are few, wages are low, which makes things great for us retirees.

Maine has well over 3,000 miles of coast line. Maine is over 92% forest.

While the rest of the nation is seeing farms decrease in number every year, Maine has more farms every year. We are also seeing more Farmer's Markets opening every year. A group of Maine communes originated 'Certified Organic' in the 1970s, and our regional certifying agency is still going strong today. Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association

Over half of Maine's entire population is packed into one corner of the state, within a 40-mile radius of Portland. The other 98% of the state is mostly rural and small towns. We have dozens of rivers, and thousands of lakes and ponds.

Maine has never seen drought.

We have over 16,000 miles of sled trails. Each region has local clubs that maintain the trails. Every town is interlinked via these sled trails. They represent the most direct routes between any two locations in the state, because roads can only cross rivers at bridges. Sled trails can go straight.

Most taxes in Maine are levied by the cities. You would be surprised at how low our property taxes are here, for most of the state. As for income taxes, I have not paid into Income Taxation for many years, as a retiree I simply do not earn that high an income. That is a large part of why we did not return to the West coast after I retired, my pension is way too low to support a family in California.

I have a tractor with a snow-blower, so I have not touched a snow-shovel in years. I do not understand why people shovel their snow.

If you like cities, then you would likely hate Maine.

If you are an outdoors person, we have great hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging, kayaking, dog sled races, snow mobile events, I can not list all of the outdoor activities that we have here.

You can honestly forage for food in the forests of Maine and feed your entire family all year-round.

I am an organic farmer. The 'back-to-the-land' movement is strong here, with a lot of people building off-grid farms. It is one of very few places I have seen where you can setup a 2 acre garden, and by marketing your veggies, you can support a family here.

[RunD1987]

My dad moved out there about 18-20 year's ago from Connecticut. He lived in New England close to 40 year's. Swears by Cali. I heard stories of New Englanders going out there never coming back they love it so much. Next year might be my first year going out to California, never seen the Pacific Coast.

I don't know if I move to California heard it is a higher cost of living than where I am living now. I mean taxes are outrageous 75% car and property tax in my city I live in, but some places are 25%. Thankfully car tax will be capped at 32%.

Gas tax is up there 6% dad said gas here is cheap like $2.00 less though. Rent isn't lower than $700 on average here where I live. Income tax is the highest I recall in the state I live in New England. Pay 5% now if make over $50K taxed at 5.5%. Property is a mix bag I mean mortgage rate is on average 3.7% to 4%. Housing dad says is better priced in CT not really sure about that one. I mean can get a decent 3 bedroom for about $150K to $200K. Figure paying close to $1,000 to $2,000 on mortgage and tax monthly. Utilities feel are expensive with oil heat, but price has dropped a bit. Know utilities can become expensive $300 a month in the winter for electrical heating at time's.

Job's are sparse and very limited to field's. A lot of manfacturatring job's closing or relocating in my state I live in.

Nursing here is fixated on the BSN for hospital's. College tuition for CC is about $25,000 where I live and state college is about $40K, some private are higher I think.

Not really sure how average salary is all over the board in my state.

Think Mass is a good market for job's and decent taxes probably second highest in New England I hear a lot. Heard Maine is raising taxes been considering moving to Maine once I hopefully get my nursing license within 4 year's.

I mean I travel out of my state to head to the ocean not huge fan of the coast where I live. However, some nice coastal town's. Not LA traffic or Boston or NYC traffic, but feel area is very congested until you get into our quiet corners of the state's feels like New England. Very rural love that part of New England. Down side is they get hammered with snow and snow removal is limited. Also police can be 40 minutes away.

Not a huge fan of winter in New England not much of a winter person and have to travel out of state to do outdoor winter activities. If I can find a state with a decent winter nothing more than 20 inches a year and temp. doesn't dip below 30 I am in ha.

Love the fall foliage though and apple/pumpkin harvest. Love Halloween in New England. Camping is great in the Summer can be muggy at times where I live, but can travel to NY or any upstate New England state for some deep.wood camping.

I like to move, but my heart is in New England. I don't know the winter's are wanting me to leave. I think if closer to more winter activities I be more receptive to winter's and didn't have to drive long distances in the snow be content ha.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by RunD1987

... I don't know if I move to California heard it is a higher cost of living than where I am living now. I mean taxes are outrageous 75% car and property tax in my city I live in, but some places are 25%. Thankfully car tax will be capped at 32%.

I do not understand what you are saying. 75% of what?

We have a new [2007] house with 2400 sq ft, property taxes run around $600/year for the house.

We have 150 acres of land with 1/4 mile of river frontage, property taxes on the land are $1.05 per acre, or roughly $157/year.

I would consider these property taxes to be fairly low.