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Atmosphere - cleaner, less crowded, less rushed or impatient
People - friendly, willing to make new friends, wave to stangers, have a smile, friendly people working in stores, offer to help you out to your car with groceries and really want to help. Neighbors doing favors for one another.
Beaches - beautiful beaches 2 hours away, as well as mountains 2 hours away.
Shopping - great shopping - Macy's, Nordstom, all the same mall stores. Not lacking for shopping.
Entertainment - tons of restaurants and off broadway shows, ballet, concerts, sports events, festivals.
Housing - affordable to unaffordable, low taxes, great services. You can still buy a home for 150,000 thousand
Cost of living and salaries - lower cost of living, same salaries (depending on your field.) Teachers and police do not make over 100K a year (no unions).
Traffic - I wouldn't consider what we have traffic after living on LI
Negatives - it takes time to drive back to NY to visit family.
Honestly in Cary it is very similar to LI without the high prices(and much cleaner).
Interesting because I was considering Fairfax County area because I've heard good enough things about it. Seems like you put LI way above there. I was just checking home prices and for $600-700k you get homes with 4 BATHrooms, let alone everything else (state of the art kitchens, etc.). Here for $700k it looks like a $400-500k home just in a better Nassau town. Would you equate most of those VA suburbs to being in Suffolk? Are there any close beaches at all?
The Long Island index did a comparison on LI vs NOVA. I headed further south.
What is so ironic is that if my husband hadn't been relocated ,we would still be living there. All our family is still there.Our last home there was in Manorville-I don't think today he could do 2 1/2 hours one way to NYC. We do miss the beach terribly especially out in the Mid West. Huge lakes don't cut it. But I do remember on LI the season is very short-water too cold-horse flies-jelly fish.
In Va work was 10 minutes away no highway. Here in IL he goes to St Louis-35 minutes.
Now are kids are in Va-all we think about is visiting them and moving back there-we miss our family but they have to visit here-our kids come first. Unfortunately we cannot afford to fly to NY &Va consistently. It's all about the kids.
Distance is different on the Island. It used to take me 30 to 45 minutes to go 7 miles on the Island during rush hour, these days I'm doing 57 miles in 60 minutes to my current client's location.
I would like to know if ANY of the North Virginians in this article have ever even been to Long Island? They also didn't mention that Northern VA isn't close to any big cities. (I don't consider DC a big city...it's actually pretty small, IMO).
I've lived upstate NY for 4 years...since when is upstate NY considered Long island? Oh...it isn't!
Um, but you weren't comparing upstate NY to LI, you were butting in on my comparision of LI to NC, a state you have never LIVED in, but seemed to think you are a expert in because you have visited (all over, every corner of the state). LOL too funny.
Whatever, it seems like you have some issues. You managed to live in upstate NY for 4 years, how did you ever manage? How did you ever leave LI? Seems like its ok for you to give another area a try, but nobody else should.
"I used to live in the Capital region and it was boring and awful- Upstate SUCKS!"
Do I have to pull out a map AGAIN? lol - the Capital Region is a tiny piece of the New York STATE pie. No single area [that you happen to detest] represents Upstate NY, as a whole. I don't like the Albany area either... I also know that it's suckiness is relative to *me* and doesn't represent the rest of the state. That's like hating all of New Hampshire because the one time I stopped off in Claremont, I got the feeling that everyone was related to each other... in the Family Tree That Runs Straight Up kind of way. heh.
Distance is different on the Island. It used to take me 30 to 45 minutes to go 7 miles on the Island during rush hour, these days I'm doing 57 miles in 60 minutes to my current client's location.
I don't know where you are in IL. but I have an office in Northfield which is in the suburbs outside of Chicago. I can tell you that traffic in the suburbs surrounding Chicago is far worse than LI traffic. In fact the locals have a saying. They have 2 seasons there. Winter & construction. Every road is under construction at the same time and traffic during rush hour just doesn't move. Local roads are just as bad because everyone gets off the highways to try to escape the jam. The other thing about IL is as you drive out of Chicago it is so ugly and boring. Just endless suburban sprawl no mater how far you go. It's just flat and ugly with tract housing, malls home depot etc. It never changes. Also other than Lake Michigan most of the lakes and rivers look muddy and brown. At least here you can go north and be on the bluffs of the sound or south and hit the barrier beaches out east to the vineyards. You can take a ride up north and your in the mountains. It has variety and scienic beauty. I went all the way to Wisconsin to try to find some nice scenery. It was better but those little hills still pale in comparison to the mountains upstate. Then you have the weather there! Windy, subzero temps and lots of snow and ice. The sun rarely comes out in the winter. If it does everyone goes outside like it's a strange event. Sun in winter? Wow. Summer is hotter than here and you still have the humidity. If you gave me a house for free I wouldn't live there. Money isn't everything. The only thing nice I can say about the Chicago area is the people are friendly, helpful and fun to hangout with. They have a friendly mid-western way but a fast enough pace to make any New Yorker feel at home. The food is also great and on par with the New York metro area. Chicago itself is nice but outide of there I would have to hop a plane to explore the countryside or even just to go skiing. Definitely not for me.
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Would you equate most of those VA suburbs to being in Suffolk? Are there any close beaches at all?
