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My son will be moving to Colorado Springs. He tells me the cold there isn't like the cold in New York; that it is a drier cold and the sun shines more. I have only lived on the East coast of the U.S. my whole life so that is all I'm familiar with. As far as Pueblo's heat it's not for 6-8 months is it? That long summer here in Florida combined with the humidity makes me crazy. I would really like to get out of here before June; I just can't deal with another summer here.
What are the heating expenses there and how are most houses heated? I lived in New York and back then (in the early 80's), many places used oil.
Thank you for the link mtngigi.
I've lived on the East Coast, too, and moved around quite a bit, but this is the first place where I've lived in an arid environment. I've found it...interesting.
I actually like the humidity, I find that the dry air irritates my sinuses (people get nosebleeds here more) and yeah, lotion and conditioner like crazy to deal with dry skin and hair.
But what is interesting, kind of cool I guess, is that unlike in humid places, being in or out of direct sunshine makes an enormous difference. On a very hot day, it's still fairly nice in a shady spot. In the winter, it makes a big difference which direction your house faces. If your driveway is on the north side of the house, the snow won't melt, if it's on the south side of the house, it'll melt away right after it snows, often the next day. If you have windows that face south that you can open your curtains and let the sun in, in the winter, it will seriously lower your heating costs.
Definitely read up on adjusting to altitude, if you are not familiar with how that goes. Bit of a process. Took me a few months to acclimate.
Something I've been wondering about, with regard to rent prices and maybe real estate in general... I wonder if very many white collar businesses are going to realize that their employees have been just as productive at home, and so they really don't NEED to maintain an office or tether their workforce to one. And if perhaps that will cause a lot of those folks to move to more rural areas where they can get more house for less money (taking their now work from home job and spending power with them) and if so, how that will change markets all over the nation?
The company my wife works for is closing their Colo Spgs office and moving several hundred of those staff members to work from home from now on. Due to her job functions, she has worked from home for the last 10 years. Now they have seen the value in that across the board and are pursuing it.
This is an aspect of Colo Spgs that doesn't get much press, but the military infrastructure here has demanded a very robust communications network infrastucture to be in place and numerous civilian companies benefit from that.
I've lived on the East Coast, too, and moved around quite a bit, but this is the first place where I've lived in an arid environment. I've found it...interesting.
I actually like the humidity, I find that the dry air irritates my sinuses (people get nosebleeds here more) and yeah, lotion and conditioner like crazy to deal with dry skin and hair.
But what is interesting, kind of cool I guess, is that unlike in humid places, being in or out of direct sunshine makes an enormous difference. On a very hot day, it's still fairly nice in a shady spot. In the winter, it makes a big difference which direction your house faces. If your driveway is on the north side of the house, the snow won't melt, if it's on the south side of the house, it'll melt away right after it snows, often the next day. If you have windows that face south that you can open your curtains and let the sun in, in the winter, it will seriously lower your heating costs.
Definitely read up on adjusting to altitude, if you are not familiar with how that goes. Bit of a process. Took me a few months to acclimate.
Something I've been wondering about, with regard to rent prices and maybe real estate in general... I wonder if very many white collar businesses are going to realize that their employees have been just as productive at home, and so they really don't NEED to maintain an office or tether their workforce to one. And if perhaps that will cause a lot of those folks to move to more rural areas where they can get more house for less money (taking their now work from home job and spending power with them) and if so, how that will change markets all over the nation?
My thoughts exactly. We currently live in Portland and my hubby works from home. His company closed the office here. If we could maintain his salary we could live just fine in many places (cost of living is getting very high here). The only drawback to smaller more "remote" towns or cities is internet access. he absolutely has to have fast internet for his job. So I have started looking into moving. The only way I would do it is if we save a lot of money on rent and maybe taxes but not sure how the income tax works if we move to a state like NH for example that has none is that based on where you live as far as the company goes? i have no idea. i guess that's his department. Colorado tax is fairly low. But you have a sales tax. there is no sales tax in Oregon. Colorado Springs is on my list because of the beautiful area. Of course I am not thinking about the cost of moving but with some advanced planning it shouldn't be a big deal. My ultimate wish for that is pay someone to do the whole thing.
My thoughts exactly. We currently live in Portland and my hubby works from home. His company closed the office here. If we could maintain his salary we could live just fine in many places (cost of living is getting very high here). The only drawback to smaller more "remote" towns or cities is internet access. he absolutely has to have fast internet for his job. So I have started looking into moving. The only way I would do it is if we save a lot of money on rent and maybe taxes but not sure how the income tax works if we move to a state like NH for example that has none is that based on where you live as far as the company goes? i have no idea. i guess that's his department. Colorado tax is fairly low. But you have a sales tax. there is no sales tax in Oregon. Colorado Springs is on my list because of the beautiful area. Of course I am not thinking about the cost of moving but with some advanced planning it shouldn't be a big deal. My ultimate wish for that is pay someone to do the whole thing.
With regard to state income taxes, if you live in one state and work in another and both have an income tax and there is no reciprocal agreement between the two states, then you'd have to file for both. However, you would get a credit on one of them that is equal to the tax that the other charged you so that you would not have your income taxed twice at the state level.
I would not actually be looking at tax as the main factor for cost of living in a particular place, but the price of housing. I'm not saying that taxes don't matter, or aren't a significant thing, but housing costs can be a more serious difference I think. I'd check that out first. I'm not sure that living here in Colorado Springs would be much cheaper than Portland. For a city that is not in a coastal state, it's expensive here!
I don't really think that I would care to live in most rural parts of Colorado, but I could be wrong. I have not explored the entire state, after all. I would not want to live out on the plains, though. And places I've been up in the mountains (rural mountain vacation homes), don't always have good reliable cell or high speed internet signal. I think of places south like Pueblo and Walsenburg as "hm...meth?" but I'm probably wrong, there are probably lots of perfectly nice places to live down around there.
What I was actually thinking of, is for those who don't really care about city life that much, I often have seen listings for gorgeous houses, shockingly cheap, but then you see the location and they are in a little tiny town in Indiana or something like that. It's a Victorian mansion for under 200K, sure, and maybe it's not even a money pit (but you're rolling the dice)...IF you're OK living in the two stop light town with nothing but a little white church building and an old family owned hardware store... (LOL I'm over here like Delia Deets talking about the town in the movie, "Beetlejuice.") Winter River, CT. Which I read was actually filmed in East Corinth, VT. OK then.
I don't feel any desire to live in the BIG city, but I find small to medium sized cities very appealing. I would not want to live out in the country or near just a small town, even if I can work remotely...but I know others who have done exactly that, and it can be a smart move.
With regard to state income taxes, if you live in one state and work in another and both have an income tax and there is no reciprocal agreement between the two states, then you'd have to file for both. However, you would get a credit on one of them that is equal to the tax that the other charged you so that you would not have your income taxed twice at the state level.
I would not actually be looking at tax as the main factor for cost of living in a particular place, but the price of housing. I'm not saying that taxes don't matter, or aren't a significant thing, but housing costs can be a more serious difference I think. I'd check that out first. I'm not sure that living here in Colorado Springs would be much cheaper than Portland. For a city that is not in a coastal state, it's expensive here!
I don't really think that I would care to live in most rural parts of Colorado, but I could be wrong. I have not explored the entire state, after all. I would not want to live out on the plains, though. And places I've been up in the mountains (rural mountain vacation homes), don't always have good reliable cell or high speed internet signal. I think of places south like Pueblo and Walsenburg as "hm...meth?" but I'm probably wrong, there are probably lots of perfectly nice places to live down around there.
What I was actually thinking of, is for those who don't really care about city life that much, I often have seen listings for gorgeous houses, shockingly cheap, but then you see the location and they are in a little tiny town in Indiana or something like that. It's a Victorian mansion for under 200K, sure, and maybe it's not even a money pit (but you're rolling the dice)...IF you're OK living in the two stop light town with nothing but a little white church building and an old family owned hardware store... (LOL I'm over here like Delia Deets talking about the town in the movie, "Beetlejuice.") Winter River, CT. Which I read was actually filmed in East Corinth, VT. OK then.
I don't feel any desire to live in the BIG city, but I find small to medium sized cities very appealing. I would not want to live out in the country or near just a small town, even if I can work remotely...but I know others who have done exactly that, and it can be a smart move.
Thanks for the reply. I agree housing is the biggest issue. We pay around $2,000 a month for a 1500 sq. town home with a garage. It has its own issues. But if we moved it would be so we could save money and get our debt gone . 30 years ago I moved basically on a whim from western PA to Seattle. I am not sure how we did it. But in the end it didn't work but I stayed put. Even thought about leaving him and going back home. Glad I stayed I am now married to the right person 25 years in Feb. Basically if we did move we would plan it and put some cash aside to cover the cost. We are in a lease so we can't really go anytime soon. plus it's winter. Where we live is the suburbs but all the citys and town blend together. Unless you see a sign or know the area you can't tell when leaving one city and entering the next.
Thanks for the reply. I agree housing is the biggest issue. We pay around $2,000 a month for a 1500 sq. town home with a garage. It has its own issues. But if we moved it would be so we could save money and get our debt gone . 30 years ago I moved basically on a whim from western PA to Seattle. I am not sure how we did it. But in the end it didn't work but I stayed put. Even thought about leaving him and going back home. Glad I stayed I am now married to the right person 25 years in Feb. Basically if we did move we would plan it and put some cash aside to cover the cost. We are in a lease so we can't really go anytime soon. plus it's winter. Where we live is the suburbs but all the citys and town blend together. Unless you see a sign or know the area you can't tell when leaving one city and entering the next.
Well, OK, it IS cheaper here for housing, then. I'm pretty sure you can get a decent townhome for under $2K/month here, still. Though I have not really looked lately, in this area, since I'm about to move to Phoenix, I've been looking there. I got into a lease I am very, very happy with, in 2017, and part of the agreement was that they would not raise rent more than 5%/year on us. Excellent considering the apartment I moved from has gone up 11%/year since then.
At this point, I am paying about $1370/month for a townhome in a decent area, it's actually sandwiched between an extremely NICE neighborhood and a somewhat sketchy apartment building...we do that a lot, here in the Springs, putting the nice areas and the questionable ones cheek by jowl, rather than having a "hood" as many cities do. It has a master bedroom and two small bedrooms upstairs, and a bigger "bedroom" (or whatever) and bathroom in the finished basement, and a single car garage. 3 1/2 baths. It really feels like a whole lot of living space for the price, and I'll be sad to leave it. Bet they jump the rent up the minute we're out, though. I might peek around for the listing to see how much of an increase they're asking for, just out of curiosity, when the time comes.
I was looking in CO and NM, but ended up buying in Gillette, WY. There is an airport with UAL flights to Denver, Home Depot, and I-90. Walsenburg caught my eye a few times, as did Trinidad, Pueblo, and even Monte Vista. I have been living overseas for 7 years.. some things are amazingly cheap.. like Internet, transit, while others are ridiculously expensive like wine, cheese, beef, cotton products, cigars.. It became clear to me that there is an extreme shortage of affordable housing in the US, anywhere with at least a minimally decent job market. Maintenance and repair costs have driven rent prices to high levels, and that isn't going to change. It is more likely that there will be retribution against the renters from the eviction moratoriums. Could be even higher rent, and more stringent screening, to much more wider use of weekly rent to make evictions easier.
Well, OK, it IS cheaper here for housing, then. I'm pretty sure you can get a decent townhome for under $2K/month here, still. Though I have not really looked lately, in this area, since I'm about to move to Phoenix, I've been looking there. I got into a lease I am very, very happy with, in 2017, and part of the agreement was that they would not raise rent more than 5%/year on us. Excellent considering the apartment I moved from has gone up 11%/year since then.
At this point, I am paying about $1370/month for a townhome in a decent area, it's actually sandwiched between an extremely NICE neighborhood and a somewhat sketchy apartment building...we do that a lot, here in the Springs, putting the nice areas and the questionable ones cheek by jowl, rather than having a "hood" as many cities do. It has a master bedroom and two small bedrooms upstairs, and a bigger "bedroom" (or whatever) and bathroom in the finished basement, and a single car garage. 3 1/2 baths. It really feels like a whole lot of living space for the price, and I'll be sad to leave it. Bet they jump the rent up the minute we're out, though. I might peek around for the listing to see how much of an increase they're asking for, just out of curiosity, when the time comes.
I'm curious as to why you're leaving Colorado Springs to move to Phoenix. My son is leaving Florida to move to Colorado Springs. He is starting his journey February 23rd. He makes CS sound like a paradise so I'm wondering if there is anything he should know.
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