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Virginia is the greatest state in the union as far as never being bored and making a living with only a moderate cost of living.
Good colleges, lots to do, glad I went from NY to Va.
My former neighbor says the exact same thing about Texas. He is in El Paso. Great weather, great economy, low cost of living, delicious steaks, and plenty to do, terrific colleges, etc. He is happy as a clam and wishes he left earlier.
I guess people prefer various portions of the US for various reasons.
Taxes will hold down appreciation moving forward. How much can houses appreciate here when people pay $1K+ a month in taxes and job growth is sluggish? You gotta commute to NYC to make the big dineros, and even Wall Street is automating and moving back-office services to low cost places.
Most of the home price appreciation is in the south and west where growth is dynamic and taxes are low. LI has painted itself into a corner financially. We make millionaires out of cops and taxpayers are forced to support thousands of rich pension geezers in Dixie.
The politicians over several decades threw us under a bus. Leave or stay and deal with it. LI probably peaked in the 1980s, and those days aren't coming back.
buying a home in long island was never easy . we got homes in the 1970's . they were 35k and holy cow was that mortgage crushing back then . taxes went up and up for decades and yet long islands housing market did fine .
that mortgage being paid off does not even represent a utility bill today . with taxes at 12-15k on that house the fact the mortgage was paid off adds little to affordability .
no one can predict the housing market anymore than we can predict any other markets .
you can be sure last year at this time no one was predicting double digit gains for the stock index's least of all a 32% gain for the russell 2000.
there are always things not even on the radar yet that alter what we all see and think
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This mindset that having an overpriced housing market pays off in the end seems a little skewed. How many posters have written about the inability of younger people to even consider buying? How many college grads are living in their parents basement because even rentals are out of reach? What about the retiree who wants to stay near friends and family?
Even if you sell your cash cow and retire to a lower COL area paying 3 times as much in taxes for mediocre services and goods over 30+ years, those monies will never be recovered.
over priced by what measuring stick ? by the same token manhattan has been over priced for decades and just goes higher and higher .
when one set of buyers falter it seems other's fill the gap . that is why desirable areas are desirable and high priced .
home prices and cost of living does not happen in a vacuum . area's are high priced because the jobs tend to offer higher pay and the areas are desirable .
when they don't the area deflates . but that has never been the case in the long island /westchester /nyc area except for some short term bumps in the road .
we sold two investment apartments in manhattan at the peak of the 2008-2009 down turn . we got 10% less than our record peak and it took longer to close . but buyers were still out there .
for those with the funds long island can be a great place to retire , especially if this is where your kids and grand kids are .
Last edited by mathjak107; 01-02-2017 at 10:17 AM..
Other urban areas have them, but in fewer numbers, and they are paid less. Yes, the cost of living is lower elsewhere, but not that much lower. Long Island definitely has the best salary to cost of living ratio for traffic / transportation engineers.
Wow, you're like the most interesting man on LI.
Funny thing is, I don't know anyone else bragging they make more on LI than anywhere else. But since you do, good for you and your good fortune. For most of us, LI is an economic sinkhole and this is can be confirmed by the out-migration statistics, which LI is in the top 3 (we compete with NJ and CT for the crown). Surveys have shown the vast majority of boomers, who are starting to retire (those of us who can afford to), plan to leave LI at their earliest convenience.
For those of you who think NYC is still the place to go to make the big bucks, things have changed markedly. Yes, Wall Street is no longer the world's financial capital figuratively and literally. Go for a walk on lower Broadway, where dealing floors were visible from the street level and the building's represented the who's who of banking, investments and finance. There's hardly a hint of that on Wall St. today. The big business in NYC is really tourism and real estate, of course, with the later headed for stormy times. Tech startups have become fairly popular, but they don't begin to provide the payrolls and revenue Wall Street used to. Salaries in NYC have come down dramatically and there is no longer any premium for bearing the 90 minute commute from the leafy burbs to the concrete canyons. Speaking of commute, I don't really know where posters here have gotten the idea these are 9-5 jobs, I never worked 9-5. More like 7AM to whenever, usually a minimum day of 10-12 hours. Not a lot of time left for your life. Most of my colleagues actually work longer hours today then they did 10 years ago.
Personally, I haven't found a place with worse quality of life than LI, but I probably wouldn't visit places that billed themselves as 'just like LI'.
Last edited by exWallStreeter; 01-02-2017 at 12:14 PM..
Funny thing is, I don't know anyone else bragging they make more on LI than anywhere else. But since you do, good for you and your good fortune. For most of us, LI is an economic sinkhole and this is can be confirmed by the out-migration statistics, which LI is in the top 3 (we compete with NJ and CT for the crown). Surveys have shown the vast majority of boomers, who are starting to retire (those of us who can afford to), plan to leave LI at their earliest convenience.
For those of you who think NYC is still the place to go to make the big bucks, things have changed markedly. Yes, Wall Street is no longer the world's financial capital figuratively and literally. Go for a walk on lower Broadway, where dealing floors were visible from the street level and the building's represented the who's who of banking, investments and finance. There's hardly a hint of that on Wall St. today. The big business in NYC is really tourism and real estate, of course, with the later headed for stormy times. Tech startups have become fairly popular, but they don't begin to provide the payrolls and revenue Wall Street used to. Salaries in NYC have come down dramatically and there is no longer any premium for bearing the 90 minute commute from the leafy burbs to the concrete canyons. Speaking of commute, I don't really know where posters here have gotten the idea these are 9-5 jobs, I never worked 9-5. More like 7AM to whenever, usually a minimum day of 10-12 hours. Not a lot of time left for your life. Most of my colleagues actually work longer hours today then they did 10 years ago.
Personally, I haven't found a place with worse quality of life than LI, but I probably wouldn't visit places that billed themselves as 'just like LI'.
Gave you a +1 for you interesting post. Do you agree with my point that Wall Street has permanently downsized operations due to automation and moving back-office operations to cheaper locales? Some have speculated that NY may grow stronger as a financial core due to London's decline via Brexit. Which will it be?
My prediction the growing digital economy will reduce the importance of large cities like NY, as more work gets distributed through the internet.
3% might have been the norm for a long time until the run up and 20% drop, but 3% annual appreciation is no longer a reality across LI as a whole. Most of Suffolk will be lucky to keep up with the rate of inflation for quite a while, meaning that it will take many years to recover from 2007.
An AARP survey is great, but these are likely people who bought in the 80's and 90's. So when they sell their home maybe they won't get $700K but $600K, which is great when you paid $200K and the house is paid off. The bigger issue is with younger Gen X and Millenials who either bought during the boom or are struggling to afford a house in the first place. Nothing like owning a house for 10 years only to find out it is worth less than what you owe on it.
And of course, the property taxes are a drain - which is why many seniors have to leave anyway.
One last thing - go through some areas in Suffolk and look at all of the pre-foreclosure properties. Not a good sign when these are people who can't pay their mortgage and are only still in their homes due to the NY foreclosure process.
My neighbor paid over $750K eight years ago and sunk a couple hundred thousand into it. Her house has been on the market for 1 year. She is now down to $600K. She's in her mid 60's and will be taking a serious beating if/when it sells. (The taxes are ridiculous, too.)
Gave you a +1 for you interesting post. Do you agree with my point that Wall Street has permanently downsized operations due to automation and moving back-office operations to cheaper locales? Some have speculated that NY may grow stronger as a financial core due to London's decline via Brexit. Which will it be?
My prediction the growing digital economy will reduce the importance of large cities like NY, as more work gets distributed through the internet.
I've seen it happen. After 9/11 a lot of IT operations were moved to NJ, and during the downturn a lot of back office positions moved to Tier 2 and 3 cities.
What you won't see leave are the core Wall St. jobs that require being there, Fashion, Theater and a few other industries that have very close ties to NYC. Silicon Alley is doing well, partially because of the easy access to capital (and advisors) in the city along with a techie urban hipster labor pool. In that aspect it's like Silicon Valley.
Taxes will hold down appreciation moving forward. How much can houses appreciate here when people pay $1K+ a month in taxes and job growth is sluggish? You gotta commute to NYC to make the big dineros, and even Wall Street is automating and moving back-office services to low cost places.
Most of the home price appreciation is in the south and west where growth is dynamic and taxes are low. LI has painted itself into a corner financially. We make millionaires out of cops and taxpayers are forced to support thousands of rich pension geezers in Dixie.
The politicians over several decades threw us under a bus. Leave or stay and deal with it. LI probably peaked in the 1980s, and those days aren't coming back.
Correct, taxes will hold down real estate values but they will also kill much of the possible prosperity the anemic local economy could generate. Real estate taxes on LI are a scam and notice that the entities that do best are now 'tax authorities.' When you visit most towns on LI, amid the empty storefronts there's usually a palatial firehouse, several in my town. Sure enough, there's the fire district line item on the property tax bill. The last ruse has been to make the town libraries tax authorities. So now I pay $500 year for an antiquated library with old books but recently renovated branches that are now stone and glass, where the head librarian makes $180k/yr + pension.
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