Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm 24 years old, I rent an apartment in Lindenhurst, and work in Brooklyn. Since starting this job, I made about 41K per a year before taxes but I got a nice raise to about 50K a year. Additionally, my GF just found a much better job on the island that's full time and makes around low 40's. She just moved in with me because we found it's cheaper for us both.
But I don't want to rent forever - I kind of want to get started in owning equity earlier than later and on Long Island, much of it just seems out of reach. The best options for me are living in a co-op as there are some very affordable areas, but keep in mind, my commute on the LIRR is about an hour each way and with the way each station gets filled up in parking, it's very important to be close to a station. Other than that, everything just seems too expensive.
Aside from the ridiculous property taxes (my parents pay 13000 a year! - that's more than what I pay for rent in a year), you also have rising home owner insurance costs, higher CoL, traffic jams all over, rising LIRR fares, whatever....how do most people do it here?
at the same time, I'm stuck here anyway because NYC still is one of the best places for any industry and job prospects.
It's pretty sad that my main goal one day - to own a modest home in a decent neighborhood, get married, have 2-3 kids, a dog, and a yard - seems so out of reach.
You need to be LIVING in NYC at your age. There's nothing for you to do in this cesspool at your age except what you're doing here...leave that for us older malcontents
I don't think it was 30-40 years. Supposedly those in the know say it was paradise on earth. They don't think so anymore.
There was actually a post not to long ago from someone that left at the end of the 70's because he felt the taxes were to high and his QOL was better elsewhere. Regardless most of us know we are paying through the nose and there are better places to live.
What I want to know is what do you or other like minded posters think is going to happen to LI? Are the pension obligations and teacher/cop salaries going to turn this place into a ghost town? Is the land going to lose all it's value and homes lie vacant?
The main difference between the 70s and today is how the taxpayers made money. While there was already a public sector gravy train back then, people employed in the private sector enjoyed a higher level of job stability where they could be effectively guaranteed "careers for life" and a comfortable retirement despite having paltry cash savings. For as long as people in the private sector enjoyed a good degree of job stability, the abuses of the public sector could be tolerated. That changed rapidly with the bank mergers of the 80s and 90s, the end of the dot com bubble and the great recession and now you have a case where the taxpayers are either unemployed, underemployed or unsecure in their jobs but public sector workers retain their old entitlements.
I think mongoose's gripe has to do more with differences on the direction of LI. Do LIers want an island that is more economically self sufficient with good job diversity or are they content with LI being a big bedroom community of NYC? Some posters here are content with being dependent on the city's trends and maybe the current situation is fine with them until the public sector liabilities finally wear them down.
There was actually a post not to long ago from someone that left at the end of the 70's because he felt the taxes were to high and his QOL was better elsewhere. Regardless most of us know we are paying through the nose and there are better places to live.
What I want to know is what do you or other like minded posters think is going to happen to LI? Are the pension obligations and teacher/cop salaries going to turn this place into a ghost town? Is the land going to lose all it's value and homes lie vacant?
Good and fair question. There are multiple possibilities. The worst being a continued shrinking of the tax base (commercial and residential) and the burden picked up by the few which just continues to be a snowball rolling downhill. The Nassau assessment debacle is already pitting neighbor vs neighbor over who's home is worth less. Kind of a bizarre system. Since we already have no real manufacturing base I don't see LI ever getting as bad as rust belt cities in the 70's-80's but it's still a negative direction. There is still alot of money on LI and property value. My honest opinion is that more than ever, LI's success or failure (internal ineptitude and problems notwithstanding) will be tied to NYC. Bloomberg is actively attracting tech development in the city and Empire is vying for business to come to the State. Of course almost NO ONE is advocating on behalf of Long Island. So as much as I preach LI trying to become a tech corridor or at least entice some newer industry, the truth is we really just need to get our s*it together enough to compete with Westchester, New Jersey, Orange and Rockland as a place NYC workers will settle and commute from. Crumbling arenas, failed development, losing pro sports, obstructionism are not the perception but the reality and investors see it. Same story, different decade. If we are going to be a "bedroom community" of NYC as many here have always professed, then we at least better be a more attractive one. If we could attract business that would be better. I'd prefer becoming our own economic engine but that hill seems insurmountable.
First we have to clear out the lifer hack politicos who are pure obstructionists, hang a few Nimby morons from lamp posts and burn the State constitution. No biggie!
The main difference between the 70s and today is how the taxpayers made money. While there was already a public sector gravy train back then, people employed in the private sector enjoyed a higher level of job stability where they could be effectively guaranteed "careers for life" and a comfortable retirement despite having paltry cash savings. For as long as people in the private sector enjoyed a good degree of job stability, the abuses of the public sector could be tolerated. That changed rapidly with the bank mergers of the 80s and 90s, the end of the dot com bubble and the great recession and now you have a case where the taxpayers are either unemployed, underemployed or unsecure in their jobs but public sector workers retain their old entitlements.
I think mongoose's gripe has to do more with differences on the direction of LI. Do LIers want an island that is more economically self sufficient with good job diversity or are they content with LI being a big bedroom community of NYC? Some posters here are content with being dependent on the city's trends and maybe the current situation is fine with them until the public sector liabilities finally wear them down.
I wrote my last post before reading this. Oh thank you FHD. It's nice to be understood!
There was actually a post not to long ago from someone that left at the end of the 70's because he felt the taxes were to high and his QOL was better elsewhere. Regardless most of us know we are paying through the nose and there are better places to live.
What I want to know is what do you or other like minded posters think is going to happen to LI? Are the pension obligations and teacher/cop salaries going to turn this place into a ghost town? Is the land going to lose all it's value and homes lie vacant?
I don't know about a ghost town, but the property tax monster shows no sign of slowing down, since it is the revenue model for local governments and school districts and in my neck of the woods, no one is talking major spending cuts. Do the math, if you're paying $10k, $12k or $15k today, what will you pay in five years? $15k, $17k or $20k? It's entirely possible. Are LI salaries keeping up with that pace? And that will bring about another generation of house-rich, cash-poor Long Islanders. Whether that figures into a dooms day prediction of ghost-towns and boarded up center-hall colonials, I don't know, but already you don't have to look far economic damage on LI.
Good and fair question. There are multiple possibilities. The worst being a continued shrinking of the tax base (commercial and residential) and the burden picked up by the few which just continues to be a snowball rolling downhill. The Nassau assessment debacle is already pitting neighbor vs neighbor over who's home is worth less. Kind of a bizarre system. Since we already have no real manufacturing base I don't see LI ever getting as bad as rust belt cities in the 70's-80's but it's still a negative direction. There is still alot of money on LI and property value. My honest opinion is that more than ever, LI's success or failure (internal ineptitude and problems notwithstanding) will be tied to NYC. Bloomberg is actively attracting tech development in the city and Empire is vying for business to come to the State. Of course almost NO ONE is advocating on behalf of Long Island. So as much as I preach LI trying to become a tech corridor or at least entice some newer industry, the truth is we really just need to get our s*it together enough to compete with Westchester, New Jersey, Orange and Rockland as a place NYC workers will settle and commute from. Crumbling arenas, failed development, losing pro sports, obstructionism are not the perception but the reality and investors see it. Same story, different decade. If we are going to be a "bedroom community" of NYC as many here have always professed, then we at least better be a more attractive one. If we could attract business that would be better. I'd prefer becoming our own economic engine but that hill seems insurmountable.
First we have to clear out the lifer hack politicos who are pure obstructionists, hang a few Nimby morons from lamp posts and burn the State constitution. No biggie!
Your points are well known and valid. I believe your same thoughts have been prevalent for atleast 20-25 years. The solutions you propose are well thought out. Hopefully proposals for western nassau take shape and gives LI a shot in the arm. You are right though the Nimby's will need to be eradicated and that's the biggest hurdle.
Good and fair question. There are multiple possibilities. The worst being a continued shrinking of the tax base (commercial and residential) and the burden picked up by the few which just continues to be a snowball rolling downhill. The Nassau assessment debacle is already pitting neighbor vs neighbor over who's home is worth less. Kind of a bizarre system. Since we already have no real manufacturing base I don't see LI ever getting as bad as rust belt cities in the 70's-80's but it's still a negative direction. There is still alot of money on LI and property value. My honest opinion is that more than ever, LI's success or failure (internal ineptitude and problems notwithstanding) will be tied to NYC. Bloomberg is actively attracting tech development in the city and Empire is vying for business to come to the State. Of course almost NO ONE is advocating on behalf of Long Island. So as much as I preach LI trying to become a tech corridor or at least entice some newer industry, the truth is we really just need to get our s*it together enough to compete with Westchester, New Jersey, Orange and Rockland as a place NYC workers will settle and commute from. Crumbling arenas, failed development, losing pro sports, obstructionism are not the perception but the reality and investors see it. Same story, different decade. If we are going to be a "bedroom community" of NYC as many here have always professed, then we at least better be a more attractive one. If we could attract business that would be better. I'd prefer becoming our own economic engine but that hill seems insurmountable.
First we have to clear out the lifer hack politicos who are pure obstructionists, hang a few Nimby morons from lamp posts and burn the State constitution. No biggie!
Great post Mongoose. I think you are just about spot on.
Same one line pointless contributions, yup. No different than yesterday.
(Like this one ^)
We all get the fact that there are major issues with the taxes we pay but what do you guys get by complaining about it over and over? Either figure out something to do about it (maybe you can get some organization against it through complaining here?) or make a plan to escape if it is that bad. Yes, I know, some people are stuck here, at least in the short term, by being under water on their house or because they need/want to stay close to family so that is what you have to deal with.
I base my opinions on how LI is doing less by what I see on this board and more by the people I actually know int he real world - friends, co-workers, my kids friends parents - I just don't see things as bad as some people here do.
The LIRR Sucks
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
