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I think kitty nina nailed it. Morgantown cost of living has approached NYC in the past 10 years. I had to move to a cheaper 1 BR apt upstairs to cut cost. Base board heating in the winter is very expensive. There's not a lot of quality for the price. Dont even get me started on the inflated home prices.
I think kitty nina nailed it. Morgantown cost of living has approached NYC in the past 10 years. I had to move to a cheaper 1 BR apt upstairs to cut cost. Base board heating in the winter is very expensive. There's not a lot of quality for the price. Dont even get me started on the inflated home prices.
I moved here to Morgantown last year and I have to agree. The cheapest apartment I could find was $620 a month for a 1 bedroom 600 sq ft apartment that is old as heck. I think it was built in the 1970s. There is a laundry mat onsite but I prefer a washer and dryer inside the unit.
My electric bill is high for this small unit. My last electric bill was a $119. All my electric bills have been above $100 for a small apartment!
I wanted to rent a stand alone house or townhouse with a garage but could not find anything in my price range. I didn't want to pay no more than $1000 a month for rent and all the decent townhouses and stand alone houses with a garage are $1500+ a month. If you find a place less than that it's going to be a shabby ran down dump.
I moved here from the Atlanta area and back there I had a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house for $900 a month 20 miles outside the city. That same house here in Morgantown would go for $1500 a month easy.
Morgantown landlords sure take advantage of the two big hospitals, the pharmacetuicals company, and the university located in this town. The landlords know the employees want to be close to work and the students want to be close to campus.
I accepted a job here and thought I was getting a significant raise but I am discovering that I wont be able to get a decent house similar to the size and condition I was living in back in my Atlanta suburb without paying $1500+ a month.
really comparing prices with New York City. 2500 to 3500 a month is the average in NYC for a one bedroom. looked up average costs for all utilities WV is 32. It has the 5th lowest average electric cost. NY state the most expensive. if your apartments are sub standard turn them in to housing board or move. moving a little farther out it is normally cheaper. I have lived in 8 states and been in them all except Alaska and Hawaii. loved them all for different reasons. each place had issues as they all do but I have never hated a area the way you guys seem to hate Morgantown. Is it perfect no but unless you've lived in a box their are far worse places. If I hated it as much as you two do or are unrealistic about prices in a small college town I would move. I don't care your profession or if your in college I would move tomorrow!!!!!!! It isn't worth your anger. I love this state and especially as I get older. It is a slower pace. I loved Dallas,Denver,Atlanta, and Pittsburgh when I was younger but to fast paced now. I would never live in any area I hated period at any stage in my life. Good luck to you both wherever you go. I at least understand colt he is a true Texan and will probably only be happy there but he at least isn't totally negative about Morgantown he just prefers the city and Texas. when I was young no better place than Dallas or Denver. find your happy place and move there.
really comparing prices with New York City. 2500 to 3500 a month is the average in NYC for a one bedroom. looked up average costs for all utilities WV is 32. It has the 5th lowest average electric cost. NY state the most expensive. if your apartments are sub standard turn them in to housing board or move. moving a little farther out it is normally cheaper. I have lived in 8 states and been in them all except Alaska and Hawaii. loved them all for different reasons. each place had issues as they all do but I have never hated a area the way you guys seem to hate Morgantown. Is it perfect no but unless you've lived in a box their are far worse places. If I hated it as much as you two do or are unrealistic about prices in a small college town I would move. I don't care your profession or if your in college I would move tomorrow!!!!!!! It isn't worth your anger. I love this state and especially as I get older. It is a slower pace. I loved Dallas,Denver,Atlanta, and Pittsburgh when I was younger but to fast paced now. I would never live in any area I hated period at any stage in my life. Good luck to you both wherever you go. I at least understand colt he is a true Texan and will probably only be happy there but he at least isn't totally negative about Morgantown he just prefers the city and Texas. when I was young no better place than Dallas or Denver. find your happy place and move there.
It is not that easy. We are renting privately and yes the construction quality of these units is subpar. I see these townhomes being quickly put together right outside my window. Back in winter I could actually FEEL the cold breeze coming from the window panes. You can't possibly heat a place up and end up wasting your money heating the outside.
You CAN"T move a little farther in many cases because driving conditions here in winter times are horrible and streets aren't taken care of. You spend too much time on a road for a small town.
We do not hate Morgantown but we clearly see that things aren't as rosy here in terms of housing and simply answering OP's questions about whether or not "relocation" is worth it.
Have you looked at moving to Fairmont? It's only a 20-30 minute drive from Morgantown and is centrally located between Clarksburg/Bridgeport and Morgantown. Fairmont has been growing and seems to have a pretty good economy with the cheapest housing in the region. Plus Fairmont doesn't have the traffic issues that Morgantown has. I currently live in Bridgeport and it takes me about the same amount of time to travel to class at WVU as it did when I actually lived in Morgantown last year. I would suggest Bridgeport because it's a nice area, but the housing here is pretty expensive. So I would say that Fairmont is probably your best bet for the area.
that's just it move out of city. Atlanta average price is 1183 for one bedroom and 1552 for 2 bedroom within 10 miles of city. Fairmont is much cheaper as is many other areas within 15-30 minutes. 450-700 is cheap for anywhere now for a one bedroom. prices have increased by 50-150 dollars because of demand all across the country the last couple years. 2 bedrooms are 550 -900 in most places. these are prices in smaller towns not cities or college towns. my friend had a very nice large 2 bedroom apartment just a couple miles from morgantown mall for 600 a month. you just have to look.
I will preface all this with saying that I was renting form 2010-2012 so it's entirely possible that things have changed
drastically in the past 5 years (in which case my comments are not accurate). With that being said, I disagree with many of the things mentioned here.
"You will find no home rentals in Morgantown....The other bizarre thing we experienced here is that nothing is ever advertised on zillow or realtor.com "
Disagree. While they might be not be as plentiful as some other large metros, they do exist. Most places to check were
already mentioned including craigslist, Zillow, and the Dominion Post classified ads. I would also suggest calling a real estate agency and asking them about rentals.
If you go on Zillow right now and search for rentals in the Morgantown area with a min price of $1000 (to exclude cheap student rentals) there are 85 results. If you drop it down to $750+, the results jump to 134. On Realtor.com there are 109 listings for $750+ and 69 for $1000+. So the statement that "nothing is ever advertised on zillow or realtor.com" is just false. Now this inventory may be larger than other times of the year since it is approaching summer but the op is searcing for housing now (not in 6 months) so that doesn't matter to her.
"Rent here is higher than in Washington DC".....We are in a 2000 sq ft three level townhome new construction ....We pay as much for a townhome in Morgantown as my friend does in Germantown MD (outside DC)."
That's just flat out not true. Is this person that lives in Germantown (not DC but actually 26 miles outside of it) in a
new construction 3-floor townhome with 2000 sq ft? Also, Germantown is not DC. By citing Germantown as DC, then we could also cite Fairmont as ~ Morgantown since it is closer to Morgantown (both distance & time travel wise) than
Germantown is to DC. In other words, citing the cost of a rental in Germantown as a measuring stick for DC rental prices would be akin to citing rental prices in Fairmont or Point Marion or Mount Morris (where rent is significantly cheaper) as the measuring stick for Morgantown. But you're not doing that. You're comparing the rental price in Morgantown proper to a DC suburb. You should either compare proper to proper or outside suburb to outside suburb. But even so, I still think your claim that your rent is the same as it is in Germantown is misleading (i.e. the houses are not comparable).
"I moved here from the Atlanta area and back there I had a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house for $900 a month 20 miles outside the city. That same house here in Morgantown would go for $1500 a month easy."
Well, yea, you are also comparing a price for a suburb 20 miles outside of Downtown Atlanta to Morgantown proper. You could easily find a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house for $900 in Fairmont or even further outside of Morgantown. Did you work in downtown Atlanta or in the suburbs? Living out in the suburbs gets you cheap rent but a long traffic filled, gas wasting commute.
My experience-We rented a single family house in Cheat Lake (4 BR + extra room, 2.5 bath, 2200 sq ft) built in 2008 in a community (Hidden Point Trail) with 2-car garage for $1600/month. At that time, our attached townhouse in FL--Ft
Lauderdale suburb--(built in 1998, 1240 sq ft, 2 BR + extra room, 2 bath, 1 car garage) was rented (and continues to be) for $1650/month. So here we got a detached house with nearly double the square footage, 2 extra bedrooms, and 1 extra car garage for roughly the same price. So anyone saying that Morgantown rental prices are comparable to large metro areas is full of it. We were initially surprised at the prices expecting WV to have dirt cheap housing and it's not dirt
cheap here in Morgantown. But it's not unreasonably expensive either.
I will preface all this with saying that I was renting form 2010-2012 so it's entirely possible that things have changed
drastically in the past 5 years (in which case my comments are not accurate). With that being said, I disagree with many of the things mentioned here.
"You will find no home rentals in Morgantown....The other bizarre thing we experienced here is that nothing is ever advertised on zillow or realtor.com "
Disagree. While they might be not be as plentiful as some other large metros, they do exist. Most places to check were
already mentioned including craigslist, Zillow, and the Dominion Post classified ads. I would also suggest calling a real estate agency and asking them about rentals.
If you go on Zillow right now and search for rentals in the Morgantown area with a min price of $1000 (to exclude cheap student rentals) there are 85 results. If you drop it down to $750+, the results jump to 134. On Realtor.com there are 109 listings for $750+ and 69 for $1000+. So the statement that "nothing is ever advertised on zillow or realtor.com" is just false. Now this inventory may be larger than other times of the year since it is approaching summer but the op is searcing for housing now (not in 6 months) so that doesn't matter to her.
"Rent here is higher than in Washington DC".....We are in a 2000 sq ft three level townhome new construction ....We pay as much for a townhome in Morgantown as my friend does in Germantown MD (outside DC)."
That's just flat out not true. Is this person that lives in Germantown (not DC but actually 26 miles outside of it) in a
new construction 3-floor townhome with 2000 sq ft? Also, Germantown is not DC. By citing Germantown as DC, then we could also cite Fairmont as ~ Morgantown since it is closer to Morgantown (both distance & time travel wise) than
Germantown is to DC. In other words, citing the cost of a rental in Germantown as a measuring stick for DC rental prices would be akin to citing rental prices in Fairmont or Point Marion or Mount Morris (where rent is significantly cheaper) as the measuring stick for Morgantown. But you're not doing that. You're comparing the rental price in Morgantown proper to a DC suburb. You should either compare proper to proper or outside suburb to outside suburb. But even so, I still think your claim that your rent is the same as it is in Germantown is misleading (i.e. the houses are not comparable).
"I moved here from the Atlanta area and back there I had a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house for $900 a month 20 miles outside the city. That same house here in Morgantown would go for $1500 a month easy."
Well, yea, you are also comparing a price for a suburb 20 miles outside of Downtown Atlanta to Morgantown proper. You could easily find a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house for $900 in Fairmont or even further outside of Morgantown. Did you work in downtown Atlanta or in the suburbs? Living out in the suburbs gets you cheap rent but a long traffic filled, gas wasting commute.
My experience-We rented a single family house in Cheat Lake (4 BR + extra room, 2.5 bath, 2200 sq ft) built in 2008 in a community (Hidden Point Trail) with 2-car garage for $1600/month. At that time, our attached townhouse in FL--Ft
Lauderdale suburb--(built in 1998, 1240 sq ft, 2 BR + extra room, 2 bath car garage) was rented (and continues to be) for $1650/month. So here we got a detached house with nearly double the square footage, 2 extra bedrooms, and 1 extra car garage for roughly the same price. So anyone saying that Morgantown rental prices are comparable to large metro areas is full of it. We were initially surprised at the prices expecting WV to have dirt cheap housing and it's not dirt
cheap here in Morgantown. But it's not unreasonably expensive either.
We are currently paying over $1 a square foot in our rental townhome. We have over 2000 Sq. ft.
My Germantown friend also pays over a $1 per square foot in her 2000 sq.ft+ rental.
There is a unit available in our development now: 3Bd/2.5 bath for $2250.
Would you like a link?
I am not interested in 2008 data. Rental prices were way lower then, everywhere. It is 2016.
And the fact is prices are steep. No detached houses near hospitals for a decent price are available for rent.
And our electric bill for last month (no heat used) is $140. We are using those energy saving bulbs and turn lights off in rooms that aren't used.
Would you like a copy of the bill posted?
And no, electric prices are not the 5th lowest in the nation. They are just about as anywhere else: 12cents per KW/hr.
No reduced rate for off peak that I noticed on my bill.
The rate is 9cents per KW/hr in France, for instance.
Nobody is full of anything, please choose your language.
We have lived in Atlanta and rented our house out for quite some time.
In 2008 our 2100 sq.ft house in Marietta in a great school district rented for $1450. In 2015 the same house went for $2000, still less than a $1 per sq. ft. while houses that are much worse rented for more than $1 per sq.ft. at the same time in Morgantown. And it was a better quality house, too that what you would even be lucky to find here. There is absolutely no comparison of Morgantown and Marietta, with the latter having so much better quality of life and things to offer. Marietta is a desirable location, most people live and work there. Nobody commutes to downtown Atlanta from there, for the most part.
Yes, Morgantown rentals are comparable to desirable cities near large metro areas in different parts of the country. Being quite removed from the nearest large metro area (Pittsburgh) Morgantown prices exceed those of Marietta GA which is only a 15 mile ride into downtown ATL for those who need to be going there and are on par if not higher with Germantown MD prices which is a 25 min ride (max) from downtown DC.
I rent a two bedroom apartment that is between 1200-1500 sqf and it is a couple blocks over from the football stadium (its not a dump but it isn't the most fancy place in town). I pay $725 and it includes garbage, my water and sewer bill ever two months is $35 and my electricity bill every month goes between $50-$75 depending on how much heating or cooling I do. Two people (including myself) live in the apartment, and all of our heating, cooling and water heating is electricity. However I will say, all of my light bulbs are LED bulbs (which are super cheap now) so I'm sure that helps but not in a major way.
For those of you saying Morgantown is as expensive as New York and DC, just stop, that is just plainly wrong and please see the links.
Morgantown and NYC Comparison: Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Morgantown and DC Comparison:Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Morgantown and Chapel Hill, NC Comparison (home of UNC) (utilities are a little cheaper (benefit of having a nuclear plant and coal supplying energy) and transportation is a hair cheaper): Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Morgantown and Germantown, MD Comparison: Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Morgantown and Harrisonburg, VA (Home of James Madison University (middle of nowhere)) Comparison:Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Morgantown and Manhattan, KS (Home to Kansas State) Comparison (electricity is lower, but overall it is more expensive to live there than here): Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Morgantown and Atlanta, GA Comparison (please note, Atlanta is the only place listed that has on average cheaper housing than Morgantown, but has slightly higher utilities, but the website ranks the cost of living as the same):Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
I will say Morgantown is expensive for what you rent, I partially blame the lack of competition (and crappy landlords) and up until recently the lack of availability (both are still bad but getting better slowly).
Last edited by Yac; 05-25-2016 at 05:37 AM..
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