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Are you married? Do you have children?
No and no?
What is the methodology for price comparisons you provided?
Are married couples, those with children, singles all lumped together? Depending on the proportion of each category those indexes can be skewed.
What kind of housing is being compared? A dump in Morgantown will cost less than a dump in Germantown. Yes. There may be more filthy cheap apartments in Morgantown than in Germantown.
But a decent townhouse costs just as much.
I have lived in several states, have owned property and rented property and I see Morgantown as quite expensive.
Are you married? Do you have children?
No and no?
What is the methodology for price comparisons you provided?
Are married couples, those with children, singles all lumped together? Depending on the proportion of each category those indexes can be skewed.
What kind of housing is being compared? A dump in Morgantown will cost less than a dump in Germantown. Yes. There may be more filthy cheap apartments in Morgantown than in Germantown.
But a decent townhouse costs just as much.
I have lived in several states, have owned property and rented property and I see Morgantown as quite expensive.
I don't see a lot of new apartments or ones that are only 4-5 years old in Morgantown. The new looking apartments I have seen in this town is the apartments across the street from the sun crest Kroger shopping center and I bet a 1-2 bedroom there costs $1200 a month.
I came from Lawrenceville Georgia I also find Morgantown exspensive for what you get. A 1500 sq ft house built in 1960 costs $1500-2000 a month here. Back in Lawrenceville and even inner city Atlanta $1500-2000 a month gets you a 2000+ sq ft house with 2-3 car garage and was built in the early to mid 2000s.
Houses that are well maintained here in Morgantown cost $400-500k. For about $200k you can get an old fix upper that needs thousands of dollars of work to make it livable condition and because this is a college town is a lame excuse for why this place is so exspensive. Athens, Georgia is a college town and the rent for houses and cost of homes are significantly cheaper than Morgantown.
I have relatives in Marietta, Acworth, and Woodstock GA. Its not a bad area but not any better than Morgantown. It has good schools and also has a higher crime rate than Morgantown. look it up I did. I called all of them and their electric bills run 125-350 a month. they have 2-4 bedroom homes. one is a condo. traffic although bad in Morgantown is no where near as bad in Atlanta. It shouldn't be though it is much smaller. one of my relatives does drive to downtown and lives in Woodstock because of the expense and crime in the area they work. 3 out of 4 pay association fees where they live which is a added cost. I had to get up at 4 to beat 7-8 rush hour traffic headed south to downtown. I was also on 75 numerous mornings driving with my cousin viewing the area and thousands were headed to downtown to do something bumper to bumper. many wrecks everyday. I enjoy my visits which are 2-3 a year. If you live in core of any city or college town you will pay more. housing is good and bad in any area. my relative in Woodstock is suing her home builder for the quality of the home build now!!!!! I just say look a little further out and find something good about where you are at. Like I said before I wouldn't stay one day in a area i disliked as much as you dislike Morgantown. I still love all the areas I have lived in and found the good about each one. I would find a place to live in that area reasonable in cost and safety. the rate of 5th lowest electric was on a site comparing states not my information. I also said West Virginia was only 32nd in state rankings. you can compare data till we are all blue in the face the facts are morgantown is no where near as expensive as Atlanta, D.C. or New York City. It is higher than some suburbs because its a college town. compare housing in other small cities that are college towns and everything is about the same. I hope you get to move soon or find somewhere close to make you happy. good luck!!!!
Are you married? Do you have children?
No and no?
What is the methodology for price comparisons you provided?
Are married couples, those with children, singles all lumped together? Depending on the proportion of each category those indexes can be skewed.
What kind of housing is being compared? A dump in Morgantown will cost less than a dump in Germantown. Yes. There may be more filthy cheap apartments in Morgantown than in Germantown.
But a decent townhouse costs just as much.
I have lived in several states, have owned property and rented property and I see Morgantown as quite expensive.
Calm down and take a step back, with how passionate you come across on this (and never comment on any of the other Morgantown discussions), it sure seems like you have a personal vendetta or grudge to denigrate the area. Yes it's expensive, it's a booming and growing college town that is doing everything it can to grow as fast as possible. I've said it before the options suck and it's over priced for what it is, but dang, calm down.
Also if you bothered to click on or read any of those links, it compares areas based against the national average for all of the comparisons and then compares the two towns. Also right at the top, it discuses about if you make 40K here (or whatever salary you put in) you would need to make xxx amount in the other town to live the same exact lifestyle.
I don't see a lot of new apartments or ones that are only 4-5 years old in Morgantown. The new looking apartments I have seen in this town is the apartments across the street from the sun crest Kroger shopping center and I bet a 1-2 bedroom there costs $1200 a month.
I came from Lawrenceville Georgia I also find Morgantown exspensive for what you get. A 1500 sq ft house built in 1960 costs $1500-2000 a month here. Back in Lawrenceville and even inner city Atlanta $1500-2000 a month gets you a 2000+ sq ft house with 2-3 car garage and was built in the early to mid 2000s.
Houses that are well maintained here in Morgantown cost $400-500k. For about $200k you can get an old fix upper that needs thousands of dollars of work to make it livable condition and because this is a college town is a lame excuse for why this place is so exspensive. Athens, Georgia is a college town and the rent for houses and cost of homes are significantly cheaper than Morgantown.
Exactly.
And townhomes there rent for $2200+.
I agree with you completely about Athens. It is a great college town that is not as expensive as Morgantown.
We came from East Cobb (Marietta GA)
I have relatives in Marietta, Acworth, and Woodstock GA. Its not a bad area but not any better than Morgantown. It has good schools and also has a higher crime rate than Morgantown. look it up I did. I called all of them and their electric bills run 125-350 a month. they have 2-4 bedroom homes. one is a condo. traffic although bad in Morgantown is no where near as bad in Atlanta. It shouldn't be though it is much smaller. one of my relatives does drive to downtown and lives in Woodstock because of the expense and crime in the area they work. 3 out of 4 pay association fees where they live which is a added cost. I had to get up at 4 to beat 7-8 rush hour traffic headed south to downtown. I was also on 75 numerous mornings driving with my cousin viewing the area and thousands were headed to downtown to do something bumper to bumper. many wrecks everyday. I enjoy my visits which are 2-3 a year. If you live in core of any city or college town you will pay more. housing is good and bad in any area. my relative in Woodstock is suing her home builder for the quality of the home build now!!!!! I just say look a little further out and find something good about where you are at. Like I said before I wouldn't stay one day in a area i disliked as much as you dislike Morgantown. I still love all the areas I have lived in and found the good about each one. I would find a place to live in that area reasonable in cost and safety. the rate of 5th lowest electric was on a site comparing states not my information. I also said West Virginia was only 32nd in state rankings. you can compare data till we are all blue in the face the facts are morgantown is no where near as expensive as Atlanta, D.C. or New York City. It is higher than some suburbs because its a college town. compare housing in other small cities that are college towns and everything is about the same. I hope you get to move soon or find somewhere close to make you happy. good luck!!!!
I agree with crime rate in certain parts of Marietta in West Cobb, but Acworth/Woodstock/East Cobb Marietta are great areas with great schools.
You missed the point entirely about the electric bills. Yes, you can range $125-350, but that would be running an AC, in the SUMMER (that is hotter than in Morgantown and starts way earlier and ends later...we have lived in Texas by the way, ran the AC, were comfortable and paid $200 a month in a ranch style house). I hope you see the difference between paying for being comfortable and running an efficient unit at that and paying way more for not even being comfortable while running one electric unit which is nowhere near efficient, especially in a 3 level townhome.
In winter the heating in GA is GAS which is EFFICIENT.
The reason why our electric bills are high here in winter is because
1. We have an electric heating unit which is not efficient
2. Construction quality is low even though our unit is new
Yes, there is traffic in Atlanta and outlying areas. Yes, some people commute. But that's a cost associated with opportunities you find in a big city. Both employment and cultural opportunities.
For what is offered in Morgantown - the cost of living is high.
I wish your relatives luck in suing their home builder. I suppose you know that suing anybody is quite expensive, attorney's fees are $300/hr and no, they do not work on contingency and do not do much pro bono work. Usually, home builders (especially when building quickly to catch up with demand) adhere to minimum state standards, which are just that, minimum and it is hard to get them to own up unless there is gross misconduct.
I am going to repeat again. I do not hate Morgantown and usually refrain from such strong opinions about anything which doesn't mean I can't state the facts.
Morgantown is a transient city, and this is why it is expensive. Landlords know that people come here for school, job, residency, whatever for 3-5 years and they know that these people will stay here 3-5 years solid, so they raise the prices. Because they can.
Professionals who have settled here own a one family house (not townhome), usually in Cheatlake. Those that live in Star City/Suncrest are mostly older folks or well established families who have lived in the area for generations.
Families or others older than your college senior who need to rent close to hospitals do not have many choices. And those that they do have are expensive.
"We are currently paying over $1 a square foot in our rental townhome. We have over 2000 Sq. ft."
Congrats. You obviously overpaid for your rental property and are still bitter about it (I would be too) which is coloring your (inaccurate) view of the Morgantown rental market.
"My Germantown friend also pays over a $1 per square foot in her 2000 sq.ft+ rental."
Again, you can't compare 2 rental properties based SOLELY on square footage alone. There are tens of other factors that go into how much a property will rent for. You didn't list any of them, i.e. there is no proof that your current property and the one in Germantown are comparable other than the total sq footage.
"I am not interested in 2008 data."
No one cited 2008 data so I have no idea what you are talking about.
"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?"
No, I could not care less about your electric bill. My post did not mention your electric bill, electric rates, or utility rates anywhere in it. So why are you asking me about something that I never mentioned?
"Nobody commutes to downtown Atlanta from there, for the most part."
Do you actually have any proof of this? Or is this like all your other claims where you just state it and we're supposed to believe you without any supporting evidence.
"Marietta GA which is only a 15 mile ride into downtown ATL for those who need to be going there"
Only a 15 mile ride. And how long does that "only a 15 mile ride" take during rush hour???
"Germantown MD prices which is a 25 min ride (max) from downtown DC."
Again, not true. Maybe at 3 AM it takes 25 mins from Germantown -> downtown DC. But not anywhere between 7-10 or 4-7. As someone who has driven through there and gotten stuck in that mess numerous times I can attest to this. For example, when I put in Germantown MD -> Washington DC into Google Maps right now (5/10/16 - 9:05 AM), there are 2 routes which take 270-South. Route 1: 1 hr 16 min (27.6 miles), 45 min without traffic. Route 2: 1 hr 17 min (26.5 miles), 44 min without traffic. But sure, it's a "25 min ride (mx) from downtown DC". Proof -> i dot imgur dot com/v9kz5u4 dot jpg
2000 sq ft -> $1450/month = $.725/sq ft
2400-2600 sq ft -> $1650/month = $.6875/sq ft
2700 sq ft -> $1850/month = $.6852/sq ft
Now those are the "starting at" rental prices so who knows how long of a lease they require or other conditions which may make the monthly rental price more expensive. But they are NOT $1/sq foot. Also, as a side note, those prices listed there are identical to the prices I was quote when I looked into them and visited them in November 2010 (again, contrary to someone's opinion that the rental market has changed significantly since then).
We mainly decided against it because they charge a $500 non-refundable pet deposit and with three pets that would have equated to an extra months rent for nothing, especially because when we toured it the unit we looked at was currently in the process of them trying to clean the carpet from dog urine. In other words, the last tenant (presumably) paid $500 for a dog and rather than replace the carpet, they were trying to be cheap and just clean it/mask it when it was clear the carpet should have been replaced. Also Van Voorhis is kind of a nightmare although I believe it is scheduled to be widened to 2 lanes each way this summer? Anyway, with 1 pet the $500 would be an extra $42/month in rent if you stay for a year, still well under $1/sq foot.
[quote=wv-morgantown;44006483]"We are currently paying over $1 a square foot in our rental townhome. We have over 2000 Sq. ft."
Congrats. You obviously overpaid for your rental property and are still bitter about it (I would be too) which is coloring your (inaccurate) view of the Morgantown rental market.
"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?"
No, I could not care less about your electric bill. My post did not mention your electric bill, electric rates, or utility rates anywhere in it. So why are you asking me about something that I never mentioned?
These are two points that are sticking out to me.
As you said, she WAY overpaid for that townhouse. When I was searching for the townhouse that I currently rent, the average townhouse in Morgantown for a 2-3 bedroom goes for about $1200/month. The absolute highest I saw was $1600. I got a steal as the people before me were breaking a lease and I am paying well under $1200.
The other point for the electric bill. As I said, I have a townhouse as well. Last month my electric bill was $40. I don't know if kitty_nina is powering the Large Hadron Collider but even if their place is 2,000+ sq ft, their bill shouldn't be over $100/month. The only reason I can see it being that high is 1) they are being wasteful no matter what they say or 2) it was an estimate, not an actual reading either making up for the previous month's being lower or a high estimate going off the previous month which would have included furnace use
sorry to necro this thread, but I was actually looking for similar information, and was about to post a thread about it, when I found this one. maybe someone might have some updated information now?
most of the places I've seen for rent have been student housing, which does not help me. having a small bit of trouble finding the "regular" apartments to get a more accurate view of rental costs. I'm wondering where I should be looking for this, maybe someone could help me out?
also, as someone who grew up in the DC area, I'm absolutely floored that someone can say, with a straight face, that Morgantown(or anywhere in WV for that matter) is even remotely close to being anywhere near as expensive as it is to live in the DC Area.
like....you are Moderator cut: bleep ing nuts. a small, run-down 1br apartment in the hood is pushing $1000 a month. and I'm not talking about the "TV/Movie" hood. I'm talking the "if you don't live here, and aren't related to somebody that lives here, don't show your face here ever or you might get shot off principle" hood.
the apartment I live in now, in Charleston, I pay 400 a month for. it's a very small 1BR, with basement storage and washer/dryer hookups. this exact same apartment in the DC Area would likely go for between 1000-1200 or so. more likely on the 1200 end, due to the basement.
Last edited by mensaguy; 10-05-2016 at 05:01 AM..
Reason: language
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