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They are much bigger and that’s why you can buy a more affordable home close to city center in DC. For NYC, even 40-50 miles out in towns like Westport, CT, you’re paying a million dollars for a small modest home.
It’s funny how you’re cherry-picking some of the more expensive towns in the tri-state area to compare to undistinguished portions of Loudoun County, Virginia. Let’s not act as if one can’t move to Parsippany and get this: https://www.redfin.com/NJ/Parsippany...m_content=link
Last edited by gladhands; 08-02-2018 at 09:27 AM..
It’s funny how you’re cherry-picking some of the more expensive towns in the tri-state area to compare to undistinguished portions of Loudoun County, Virginia. Let’s not act as if one can’t move to Parsippany and get this: https://www.redfin.com/NJ/Parsippany...m_content=link
First, Ashburn has top public schools. Parsippany schools, while good, are a step down. Second, that’s an older home that needs updating - the kitchen needs a gut so there’s 50k off the bat. It’s 26 years old and it shows. The home in Ashburn is new, shiny and updated. Third (are you ready for this?), the property taxes on a home in Ashburn are around 6k. That home in New Jersey has a tax rate of over 13k (more than double). That’s a monthly payment difference of $500 [for a much older home]. That’s a full condo mortgage in other states. Imagine that.
It’s funny how you’re cherry-picking some of the more expensive towns in the tri-state area to compare to undistinguished portions of Loudoun County, Virginia. Let’s not act as if one can’t move to Parsippany and get this: https://www.redfin.com/NJ/Parsippany...m_content=link
You are right that it appears you can get more for your money in Jersey, but check out the tax rates and you'll see why. The rule of thumb in the NYC area is Jersey has the high tax rates but you can more easily buy into a safe town, whereas Connecticut has the sky high home prices with more reasonable tax rates (still insanely high in comparison to Virginia). Adding in that tax rate, which I presume is about 600 a month, that 675k home just became a whole lot more expensive.
I lived in NOVA, southwest Connecticut for career advancement, and now South Florida, still have most of my family in NOVA. While it's gotten very pricey there in comparison to decades past, it's still a lot more affordable for a middle income family when taking into account overall cost of living. We have a handsome six figure income (household) and I felt like we were not living the lifestyle we should've been able to in Connecticut. We would have been able to live much better in NOVA.
If you go to the CT forum, there's a thread where a poster is trying to find a reasonable commute to the Bronx with a 500k budget, and they are essentially being laughed out of the forum.
They are much bigger and that’s why you can buy a more affordable home close to city center in DC. For NYC, even 40-50 miles out in towns like Westport, CT, you’re paying a million dollars for a small modest home.
Just to keep in mind, here are the land areas of each metro area, DC: 5,598.32 square miles
NYC: 6,686.89 square miles
LA: 4,848.45 square miles
SF: 2,470.54 square miles
It looks like Ashburn to DC in regards to a work commute is at least around an hour and the quickest route that you take to DC is a toll road(Route 267).
Just to keep in mind, here are the land areas of each metro area, DC: 5,598.32 square miles
NYC: 6,686.89 square miles
LA: 4,848.45 square miles
SF: 2,470.54 square miles
It looks like Ashburn to DC in regards to a work commute is at least around an hour and the quickest route that you take to DC is a toll road(Route 267).
The commute is much closer to two hours at rush-hour.
You are right that it appears you can get more for your money in Jersey, but check out the tax rates and you'll see why. The rule of thumb in the NYC area is Jersey has the high tax rates but you can more easily buy into a safe town, whereas Connecticut has the sky high home prices with more reasonable tax rates (still insanely high in comparison to Virginia). Adding in that tax rate, which I presume is about 600 a month, that 675k home just became a whole lot more expensive.
I lived in NOVA, southwest Connecticut for career advancement, and now South Florida, still have most of my family in NOVA. While it's gotten very pricey there in comparison to decades past, it's still a lot more affordable for a middle income family when taking into account overall cost of living. We have a handsome six figure income (household) and I felt like we were not living the lifestyle we should've been able to in Connecticut. We would have been able to live much better in NOVA.
If you go to the CT forum, there's a thread where a poster is trying to find a reasonable commute to the Bronx with a 500k budget, and they are essentially being laughed out of the forum.
First, Ashburn has top public schools. Parsippany schools, while good, are a step down. Second, that’s an older home that needs updating - the kitchen needs a gut so there’s 50k off the bat. It’s 26 years old and it shows. The home in Ashburn is new, shiny and updated. Third (are you ready for this?), the property taxes on a home in Ashburn are around 6k. That home in New Jersey has a tax rate of over 13k (more than double). That’s a monthly payment difference of $500 [for a much older home]. That’s a full condo mortgage in other states. Imagine that.
Did you ever wonder why there’s so much new construction 30 miles outside of DC? It’s because most of that was farmland 15 years ago. You simply aren’t going to find much new construction in established areas, and your insistence on new construction is pretty much going to rule out every long-established metro. That’s also part of the reason the taxes are lower; less established municipalities have a lower legacy costs. Property taxes in say, Fairfax County would not be that much lower than in New Jersey.
Really don’t understand what you’re doing here. You started out by saying that Northern Virginia was inexpensive because you can get $700,000 mcmansions there. When I pointed out that you can do that within 30 miles of any major city, you start cherry picking expensive areas in the New York metro. When I started showing more affordable areas in the New York metro, you start posting about taxes. Literally no one is arguing that metro NY is cheaper than metro DC. I’m simply saying that your benchmark for affordability is acheivable in almost every metro. No you’re insisting that a two hour commute is normal in most metros. I’m kind of done with this.
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