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Property tax: $4200/year
Water/sewer/garbage (all one bill) around $1000/yr
Tax and registration on 5 cars: less than $1000/year
HOA fee $650/year
HO/auto on five cars/umbrella $5500/year (two 22 year olds, one 18 year old)
Property tax on old house in NY: $17,500
This is pretty the same as my old house vs my new Virginia house. I pay less for property taxes but more for HOA fees.
And, Virginia is very nice & I'm pretty happy here!
Pre-2007, I lived outside of Boston where my property taxes were half of my Westchester taxes. Many places are cheaper than NY.
The affordability by the cost of the house in your link. Syracuse does have low priced house, but there is more to making a home affordable.
I think one of big difference is heating costs. My Virginia house has natural gas. It averages out to $1,000 a year. My sister in New Jersey has natural gas, but its colder than Virginia, still her bill is $2,400 a year. Upstate NY relies on heating oil which is always going to cost more. In Westchester, my house's heating oil was between $4,000 to $8,000 per year depending on the gas prices. Syracuse NY is colder and heating will cost more than Westchester, NY.
My yearly electric bill is half of Westchester NY electric bill. It's odd, because Virginia's summers are hotter than NY.
Beside property taxes, there are state income taxes. NY State has the third highest taxes in the country. It is one of the highest nationwide.
Gasoline for cars with always cost more in NY than many other states. When I first starting visiting Virginia in 2020, gas was $1.99 per gallon. Even when the prices rose, it was at least a dollar less in NY prices. There are far less toll roads.
Food and restaurant prices are far less than NY as well.
It all adds up to a significant lower cost of living.
The affordability by the cost of the house in your link. Syracuse does have low priced house, but there is more to making a home affordable.
I think one of big difference is heating costs. My Virginia house has natural gas. It averages out to $1,000 a year. My sister in New Jersey has natural gas, but its colder than Virginia, still her bill is $2,400 a year. Upstate NY relies on heating oil which is always going to cost more. In Westchester, my house's heating oil was between $4,000 to $8,000 per year depending on the gas prices. Syracuse NY is colder and heating will cost more than Westchester, NY.
My yearly electric bill is half of Westchester NY electric bill. It's odd, because Virginia's summers are hotter than NY.
Beside property taxes, there are state income taxes. NY State has the third highest taxes in the country. It is one of the highest nationwide.
Gasoline for cars with always cost more in NY than many other states. When I first starting visiting Virginia in 2020, gas was $1.99 per gallon. Even when the prices rose, it was at least a dollar less in NY prices. There are far less toll roads.
Food and restaurant prices are far less than NY as well.
It all adds up to a significant lower cost of living.
Again, I've mentioned this earlier, housing costs are the biggest portion of cost of living at about 30%. So, housing costs play a big part in terms of why a place is more affordable or not.
Utilities makes up a much lower portion of overall cost of living than other factors like transportation or food.
You also have to consider income, other forms of taxation(including HOA's) that may be different than NY and so on. This is why I say to use a whole state doesn't make sense, when cost of living varies within a state. So, you have to consider what is one comparing.
Right. And I love Tennessee. To visit.
Tennessee has a lot of “warts” so to speak. And it’s definitely not a “bad” state to live, but there are cons.
Many people make the mistake of moving clearly because of dollar signs.
Not enough homework. And that wow “deal” may not be a deal at all.
Investors prey upon the unsuspecting and uneducated buyer.
That’s why they spam out of state classifieds and such.
They know there are suckers that will go into a deal sight unseen or not properly researched.
My nephew almost got ass raped by one of these sellers on a property in Virginia. I was the one who caught it in time before he got totally screwed.
These real estate investors specifically target high col areas because they know there are people looking to save money and/or have a cheaper col in some other state, which compared to NY, Cali, etc, could be any one of 30 or so other states.
What are the types or warts and shenanigans with buying that you speak of?
Again, I've mentioned this earlier, housing costs are the biggest portion of cost of living at about 30%. So, housing costs play a big part in terms of why a place is more affordable or not.
Utilities makes up a much lower portion of overall cost of living than other factors like transportation or food.
You also have to consider income, other forms of taxation(including HOA's) that may be different than NY and so on. This is why I say to use a whole state doesn't make sense, when cost of living varies within a state. So, you have to consider what is one comparing.
Yea even natural gas heating can get out of control! Me and my wife have a natural gas burner and our bill last month was around $300......and we keep it on 72 during the day and 70 a night, not too crazy in my opinion.
Even at that temperature the burner is pretty much going for 70% of the day.
What are the types or warts and shenanigans with buying that you speak of?
Tornadoes, heavy crime in certain areas, tornadoes, stuff like that.
The “desirable” areas are expensive. So the savings may not be there.
I was actually shocked at how expensive some areas are. Even the property taxes were up there.
Yea guys, so obviously if we moved out of NY (wife and I) we would take a pay cut, because nowhere pays as much as here and the reason I assume most people stay here on LI or in NY is either because of work/pay and family.
We don't have kids yet (might not) and from what we have found now salaries in other states are catching up to NY in certain industries (finance, banking, medical, etc)
So let's say for argument's sake you make 120K here in LI or NYC. If you take a 20K pay cut down to say 100K that's still pretty respectable for Florida, NC, GA or another state.
Now, if it was like 120K down to 80K and you're absorbing a 30-40K pay cut THEN it might not be worth it.
But if both people are making 100K each in FL or NC or another state like that, I am sure you can still do pretty well?
Yea guys, so obviously if we moved out of NY (wife and I) we would take a pay cut, because nowhere pays as much as here and the reason I assume most people stay here on LI or in NY is either because of work/pay and family.
We don't have kids yet (might not) and from what we have found now salaries in other states are catching up to NY in certain industries (finance, banking, medical, etc)
So let's say for argument's sake you make 120K here in LI or NYC. If you take a 20K pay cut down to say 100K that's still pretty respectable for Florida, NC, GA or another state.
Now, if it was like 120K down to 80K and you're absorbing a 30-40K pay cut THEN it might not be worth it.
But if both people are making 100K each in FL or NC or another state like that, I am sure you can still do pretty well?
Of course you can.
You're missing the point that this all boils down to:
You're working off 10 year old information, most people who moved in the last 10-20 years and had a house to sell in NY made out quite well paying cash for a house in other areas. If you don't have a house to sell, you will still have to save a crap ton for a down payment at least where I live. If you DO have a house to sell, how much you have to put down in another area will be known only to you.
That is unlikely to happen now.
If there are other factors drawing you off Long Island including nicer housing stock for similar prices, go for it.
That is very true, 10 or 15 years ago you could sell your house here for 500k, move down south or out west, and buy the house outright, not have a mortgage, and you're set!
Now, real estate prices have gone up everywhere!
We do have a house we would sell, we could probably get 650K for it I'd assume bc it does need some work......but we obviously have a mortgage on it so we would clear about 300K maybe?
Take that and use that for a down payment down south and you probably aren't doing so bad I'd venture.....
Put that 300 down and on a 500K house down south you'd have only a 200K mortgage.
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