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I currently live on Long Island which usually has moderate winters (other this one which has been the worst in about 20 years for us, LOL) and am researching various retirement locations. I am not a HUGE fan of lots of snow, because I'm no longer physically able to shovel the stuff, but on the other hand I'm even less of a fan of hot humid steamy bug-infested summers either. (at least the mosquitoes don't eat you alive while you're shoveling, LOL)
I'd like some input about what the winters are like, especially snowfall types and usual amounts, in the following general regions of MA:
"almost western" (Franklin, Hampshire or Hampden counties)
"central" (Worcester or Middlesex)
"northeastern" (Essex or Suffolk counties)
"southeast/non-Cape" (Norfolk, Bristol or Plymouth counties)
such as:
In which months does your 'snow season' begin and end?
Is it usually light fluffy snow, or heavy wet weighs-a-ton snow?
Do you get intermittent snowstorms, in which you might get a 6-12" dumping that is gone in a couple of weeks, only to get hit with another one shortly thereafter (in the garden it's a freeze/thaw cycle), or do you generally have a pretty deep blanket of snow from consecutive storms for months on end (i.e. "I forgot what dirt and grass look like", LOL)
How often do you get ice and sleet storms, or nor'easters, and do you have chronic issues with loss of power from tree limbs and ice bringing down overhead lines?
How well does your local town or county deal with getting the main roads plowed after a storm? How about the streets and roads in residential areas?
Percentagewise, how much of your winters are typically spent in below 32-degree days? Below-zero days?
(As a point of comparison, I'll answer my own questions re: where I am now.
*Our first snow usually arrives sometime in early to mid December, sometimes even as late as Xmas. We normally are done with the snow by the end of February; anything that may come in early March is usually 1" or less that melts away in a day.
* Because we're coastal, it's usually heavy wet snow unless it's bitterly cold in which case we may get lucky with the lighter stuff.
* We're defininitely intermittent: Mother Nature giveth and then taketh away, repeatedly, which means slush is often ever-present. Then again, there've been many winters when our total snowfall for the entire SEASON was less than a foot, delivered in dribs and drabs. Freeze/thaw is a constant here.
* We usually get at least one nor'easter per season, and often what falls in one community as snow will fall as freezing rain and sleet in the coastal sections. Power lines are sometimes taken down by weather but it's rare that an outage lasts for more than a day. Most people who have generators have them as a result of having been through a hurricane rather than a bad winter.
* Our main roads start getting plowed as soon as there's more than a couple of inches on the pavement. Residential streets are given a quick once-over right away and then get more thorough plowing after all the main roads are cleared.
* In a typical winter here, temps in Dec/Jan/Feb generally hover within five degrees either side of freezing. We always get a blast of 20-degree days sometime in Feb though. But it's unusual to spend more than a day or two at a time in single digits. Average March temps are usually in the 40s. Again, this winter has been tough everywhere, including here.)
Thanks in advance for as many "MA winter synopses" as possible! :-)
I'll make this very simple. If you don't like winter on Long Island, you will not like it Massachusetts.
At best, in the "southeast" as you call it, you'll experience conditions that are on par with what you deal with in Long Island on a yearly basis. At worst, in the western parts of the state you could be looking at much more snow than you are used to. Worcester in particular gets much more snow than Boston does (officially).
Also, the summers- they're just as bad.
Snow removal really varies based on which town and what kind of street you live on. In general the expectation is that streets will be kept passable.
Actually I don't mind summers here on LI, they aren't really that bad; my mention of "hot steamy bug infested" was aimed at places like the Carolinas and points south, which I can't even imagine myself tolerating.
My only problem with LI is the property taxes, which I can no longer afford on a fixed retirement income.I know MA is considered to have high taxes but trust me, compared to LI they are NOT onerous!
Example: 1300 sf house on LI, circa 1960s, 1/2 acre, 1 car garage, no swimming pool = at least $9000/yr. 1500 sf house on LI, circa 1950s, 60x100, no swimming pool and possibly no garage either = at least $7000/yr.
Actually I don't mind summers here on LI, they aren't really that bad; my mention of "hot steamy bug infested" was aimed at places like the Carolinas and points south, which I can't even imagine myself tolerating.
My only problem with LI is the property taxes, which I can no longer afford on a fixed retirement income.I know MA is considered to have high taxes but trust me, compared to LI they are NOT onerous!
Example: 1300 sf house on LI, circa 1960s, 1/2 acre, 1 car garage, no swimming pool = at least $9000/yr. 1500 sf house on LI, circa 1950s, 60x100, no swimming pool and possibly no garage either = at least $7000/yr.
It's gotta be better than that in MA. ;-)
The actual tax rate will vary by town and some towns are known for having relatively high property taxes close to the figures you just stated. The cost of living is probably a little lower but this area has been narrowing the gap with NY for quite some time. Where you are more apt to save money is on the up front cost of housing, but again, this will vary widely based on where you choose to live.
Back to your original question, snow in MA is not a trivial thing. If your goal is to avoid dealing with it you need to live in an apartment in Boston proper or close by with an enclosed garage; I don't think you'll be happy here otherwise.
Actually I don't mind summers here on LI, they aren't really that bad; my mention of "hot steamy bug infested" was aimed at places like the Carolinas and points south, which I can't even imagine myself tolerating.
My only problem with LI is the property taxes, which I can no longer afford on a fixed retirement income.I know MA is considered to have high taxes but trust me, compared to LI they are NOT onerous!
Example: 1300 sf house on LI, circa 1960s, 1/2 acre, 1 car garage, no swimming pool = at least $9000/yr. 1500 sf house on LI, circa 1950s, 60x100, no swimming pool and possibly no garage either = at least $7000/yr.
It's gotta be better than that in MA. ;-)
Know some folks who live on LI and although I agree that taxes are pretty high when compared to MA, I am told that you there get services we can only dream about. Our roads are awful, trash is not picked as often, infrastructure is not maintained at all. Road signs are complete joke, including proper road surface marking. Potholes are everywhere. Roads are cleaned for the most part, but budgets are always strained. Most towns are often attempting to raise taxes, and fill municipal coffers. Taxes will be rising here too.
You might get cheaper taxes now, but will have some higher costs in other areas. Plenty of wear and tear on the cars with winter, plus car excise tax...Cost of heating or cooling old, often uninsulated home, (you should ask some people what they spent just this year heating in MA, and compare to what you spend on a regular basis)... Cost of snow removal, salt and such.. In the summer you will need to spend some money on the cooling too... You will also spend plenty of time and energy to dig out your car out, snow is here every winter...
You have many costs to consider, not just taxes IMHO. We also have some towns with expensive water and sewer so what you save on taxes, you will spend elsewhere. Gas is always more expensive here, than where you come from. I believe that grocery bills could be higher too.
Honestly, I would look toward PE or VA for better weather, and lower costs, unless you are happy to move to West MA which is cheaper, but gets plenty of snow and cold.
Good luck!
Western MA is horrible in winter and hot and muggy in summer. The snow never melts due to all the trees. I moved away after living there all my life, due mostly to the winters. There are piles upon piles of snow.
Northeastern MA, Essex County is pretty bad in winter too. It is great in summer though because you are on the ocean, there are NO mosquitoes as long as you are close enough to the water, and it's not as hot as inland. Snow starts in late Nov. and ends in late March.
There is nowhere near as much snow as there is in WMass but there is still a surprising amount. Light, fluffy snow, heavy wet snow. They take great care of the roads with sand, salt, and plowing. Newburyport is a great place as long as you can take a cold snowy winter--in summer it's like a resort. All of Cape Ann is fantastic in summer and it gets tourists but doesn't get that overcrowded.
Coastal CT is better for winter weather and, of course, the gold coast of CT has a similar climate to LI but is expensive.
Worcester may have one of the most brutal winters, much more snow than most of the eastern half of the state and steep hills that get very windy and icy.
Most of Eastern Massachusetts is pretty even in severe weather. The area with the worst ________________ (chance of tornado, most snow, flooding) alternates from season to season, area to area.
What you're calling "Almost western" is really known as Western Mass. One of these posters recently informed us that the far west, or Berkshires, wasn't Western Mass (too far west). Which to me is a bit extreme, not to mention contradictory, but it is certainly true that in the pages of the Springfield Republican and in everyday speech the region between Springfield and Greenfield and beyond is Western Mass. It is my sense that you can't generalize any more about snow--sometimes it's thick and frequent, as it has been this winter. Many winters have been light on snow and relatively mild. You can't count on snow any more as the ski areas have all found out. Or on consistent ice for skating. Anything can happen. In any one winter there will be some heavy wet snow and some light fluffy. I'd say more of the light and fluffy in Western Mass than eastern because it's farther inland. I agree that it can be hot and muggy in W Mass, especially in the Connecticut Valley, but there are many beautiful places up-country where folks go to escape the heat. Mainly, you'd find that in Mass, as opposed to Long Island, you have a lot of room to move around, many places to go and discover, much less traffic, much more rural beauty and variety of landscapes, many delightful towns and historic and cultural sites to explore. LI is saturated with housing, office parks, shopping centers. It is lovely out east but the traffic and crowds and costs--yikes! The L.I. beaches are hard to match in Mass-- we have more beautiful ones but the consistently find sand and tolerably warm water of Long Island is mostly not there. On the other hand Mass has hundreds, probably thousands of lakes. How many lakes on L. I.? Well, there's Ronkonkoma, and the lake in Prospect Park... Wait-- I'm sure there are a few more. Lots of recharge basins, but I'm not counting those
Local taxes tend to be considerably lower. In New York you have to support the town, the village (sometimes), the school district, and the county. All have their hand out. In Mass, only the town. And you're not stuck on an island where the only way off is via some of the world's most congested highways.
Know some folks who live on LI and although I agree that taxes are pretty high when compared to MA, I am told that you there get services we can only dream about. Our roads are awful, trash is not picked as often, infrastructure is not maintained at all. Road signs are complete joke, including proper road surface marking. Potholes are everywhere. Roads are cleaned for the most part, but budgets are always strained. Most towns are often attempting to raise taxes, and fill municipal coffers. Taxes will be rising here too.
You might get cheaper taxes now, but will have some higher costs in other areas. Plenty of wear and tear on the cars with winter, plus car excise tax...Cost of heating or cooling old, often uninsulated home, (you should ask some people what they spent just this year heating in MA, and compare to what you spend on a regular basis)... Cost of snow removal, salt and such.. In the summer you will need to spend some money on the cooling too... You will also spend plenty of time and energy to dig out your car out, snow is here every winter...
You have many costs to consider, not just taxes IMHO. We also have some towns with expensive water and sewer so what you save on taxes, you will spend elsewhere. Gas is always more expensive here, than where you come from. I believe that grocery bills could be higher too.
Honestly, I would look toward PE or VA for better weather, and lower costs, unless you are happy to move to West MA which is cheaper, but gets plenty of snow and cold.
Good luck!
having lived most of my life on Long Island and now MA for the last 5 years I can tell you for certain that those taxes get you almost zero noticeable increase in services or quality of infrastructure over what we have in MA. Schools are just as good here as well. In fact the roads overall are in far poorer shape on LI than up here. About the only thing better service wise on LI is that most towns collect trash 2x per week.
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