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As long as Jersey is the most densely populated state, the taxes will keep going up and people will still need a place to live.
Unfortunately for them, New Jersey and especially Northern New Jersey are essentially built out. In Bergen County there aren't enough open parcels of land to erect a phone booth on. So the prices of houses and taxes have basically closed off large swaths of Northern NJ to a broad segment of the Middle Class. Yeah, you can still get a new home in Hunterdon or Warren County starting at only $699,000 or so. What a bargain! I'll take two. You won't get from those counties to the Port Authority in an hour either.
New Jersey really can't grow too much more than it already has and eventually you run out of people that can afford to live there. New Jersey is still growing, but very slowly. This has started to affect the political clout of NJ as well. When I was a kid in the 60's, New Jersey was the 7th largest state by population and had 17 Congressional Representatives. Now it's down to 14 representatives and that may well decrease by one or two after the next census. NJ Congressional representatives will be playing a "killer" game of musical chairs real soon when those districts have to be re-drawn.
Those high property taxes are also taking a toll on businesses as well. Hoffman-LaRoche ...gone. Mercedes-Benz ...gone, Allied Signal ...gone, Sealed Air Corp ...gone. How's that Ford plant in Mahwah and the GM plant in Edison doing? Oh ...they're gone too. It seems a new pharmaceutical company is opening shop in North Carolina and Georgia every other week. NJ's middle-class and better jobs are ebbing away at what should be an alarming pace for its citizens.
It seems I'm not alone in moving from NJ. I see that on another thread, David Tepper, once NJ's richest citizen, moved out and established residency in Florida and also bought the Carolina Panthers football team. I guess the $125,000,000 in income and property taxes he didn't have to pay to NJ added up and allowed him make a nice down payment on an NFL team. Who knew?
I'm glad to learn that some on this thread see that life in NJ is still "a bowl of cherries" but more than a few NJ residents might conclude they got just "the pits" when they open up their quarterly tax bill.
Last edited by TheEmissary; 09-25-2019 at 01:00 PM..
On the flip side you have a higher state income tax as well as a close to 4% city tax on your income that you don't have to pay in NJ.
NY and NJ are both high tax states. NY being rated #1 overall in tax burden in the country.
They both suck on this front and both are well known to have corrupt inefficient and expensive local governance and public works.
However at least they are relatively safe metropolitan areas. We have this going for us at least.
I cannot complain: I have a very-good residential area, houses are expensive, but one has to pay no matter where one goes, if one wants peace and quiet. My neighbors are great. When we go to Florida for the winters, they clean the snow for us......
But I could sell my house in NJ for 400K, buy a similar house down south for 200K, keep the 200K profit in my pocket and still pay less than 1200/month in property tax
You know ansky, whoever quoted that "the grass always looks greener in someone else backyard," was so correct.....
We have traveled through the years in the USA and seen 47 states out of 50, hoping to find a place to retire.....oh, sure, prices and taxes are low, but I will not leave NYC for anything in the world. We came close to buying a 2- 1/2 acres house, at that time they asked over $350,00, in Fallbrook, California, in San Diego County, they also forgot to tell us that the house was in an area between two canyons......and also forgot to tell us that the Aryan Nation had once headquarters there, before they moved to Northern Callfornia, now they are in Indiana, and the son of the head of that group has a store and lives still in Fallbrook, in the town. Beautiful scenario and flowers, but no rain.....let's not forget the FIRES, obnoxious people galore that all they are interested in is what car one drives...... that one maybe is highly-educated means nothing to them. The second place we liked was Santa Barbara, Ca., again more obnoxious people..........when one takes a big chance to move out of their state, one has to take GREATLY INTO CONSIDERATION, the people that live there......it takes time to learn about people.....there are no people like NYC people........most of them are smart, with no pretenses, helpful, in the even of a tragedy, or at any other time, outspoken, they tell it to you, like it is......which is one of the reason why our President gets into trouble a lot......no hidden agenda.....
One has to live with these people........and it could be expensive, and make people very unhappy in their surroundings because of the mistake they made. For example: Take our Southern states: their motto is "you are like family," with a big- smile on their faces, and exceedingly friendly, but that is not always true......and it can be very deceiving.....
So, to end this rhetoric, my advise is live in the town, city, etc., before you move, at least one-and-a-half years, and do like we used to do within the state. Take trips North, South, East, and West, talk to all different people that you come across........then judge for yourself....like we did......
You can’t compare NJ to places like NC, SC or Pennsylvania. North Jersey is a premium area and can really only be compared to places like the Boston area, Bay Area California, SoCal, And the DC area.
When you compare apples to apples, NJ isn’t really too expensive
Agreed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheEmissary
What would you say to a person living in a bad section of Newark about the "premium", where the rats and cockroaches in their apartment are included at no extra charge, vs. living in say, Orlando Florida, in a much nicer rental for less money?
That may be the crux of the matter, many people don't want to or can't afford to pay the "premium". NJ doesn't have the nice SoCal weather and a great number of people in North Jersey don't work in NYC. Do you support raising the minimum wage to say $25 an hour so folks on the "lower rungs of the ladder" can enjoy premium NJ living as well?
NJ has also been losing out for years with many well-educated NJ students who go out-of-state to college, graduate and don't come back. They find a job and more affordable housing in a state with much lower property taxes and after marriage and kids, end up with parents who sell their NJ home and move to be with "the grandkids". If I had a nickel for everyone who did this by me, here in the Charlotte metro region, I could buy a house in Alpine!
A premium area doesn't mean every single inch of it is pristine. Comparing a bad area of Newark to an assumed better area of Orlando doesn't make sense (even if you used the example only for effect).
Everything is relative, sure the cost of living may be lower in NC, SC, GA etc, but the wages are lower too. And there's always going to be the 'lower rungs', that doesn't change just because you don't live in NJ. The range might shift, but the result doesn't.
PS weather is a very subjective item. I like SoCal weather, but prefer a true 4 season setup myself.
Unfortunately for them, New Jersey and especially Northern New Jersey are essentially built out. In Bergen County there aren't enough open parcels of land to erect a phone booth on. So the prices of houses and taxes have basically closed off large swaths of Northern NJ to a broad segment of the Middle Class. Yeah, you can still get a new home in Hunterdon or Warren County starting at only $699,000 or so. What a bargain! I'll take two. You won't get from those counties to the Port Authority in an hour either.
New Jersey really can't grow too much more than it already has and eventually you run out of people that can afford to live there. New Jersey is still growing, but very slowly. This has started to affect the political clout of NJ as well. When I was a kid in the 60's, New Jersey was the 7th largest state by population and had 17 Congressional Representatives. Now it's down to 14 representatives and that may well decrease by one or two after the next census. NJ Congressional representatives will be playing a "killer" game of musical chairs real soon when those districts have to be re-drawn.
Those high property taxes are also taking a toll on businesses as well. Hoffman-LaRoche ...gone. Mercedes-Benz ...gone, Allied Signal ...gone, Sealed Air Corp ...gone. How's that Ford plant in Mahwah and the GM plant in Edison doing? Oh ...they're gone too. It seems a new pharmaceutical company is opening shop in North Carolina and Georgia every other week. NJ's middle-class and better jobs are ebbing away at what should be an alarming pace for its citizens.
It seems I'm not alone in moving from NJ. I see that on another thread, David Tepper, once NJ's richest citizen, moved out and established residency in Florida and also bought the Carolina Panthers football team. I guess the $125,000,000 in income and property taxes he didn't have to pay to NJ added up and allowed him make a nice down payment on an NFL team. Who knew?
I'm glad to learn that some on this thread see that life in NJ is still "a bowl of cherries" but more than a few NJ residents might conclude they got just "the pits" when they open up their quarterly tax bill.
Tell me about it. I'm in North Jersey and just finding a decent rental price is basically impossible.
No, Iowa is too cold. Probably Florida where I'll be hanging out at the pool while New Jerseyans are shoveling snow.
I take the cold anytime. Between the hurricanes evacuations, crime, people with I.Q levels below 1%, red ants, Alligators and Crocodiles, Florida is the only place in the USA, where both exists..... the roaches are close to 1/4 pound, mosquitoes are huge, and deadly, humidity and heat levels beyond my comfort, over six month of the year...... red algae at the beaches, and do not forget the SINKHOLES, you may go to bed and end up down in over 100 ft. of soil......and home invasions are huge........good- luck.....
the school system in NYC schools are horrible, even in the so called good ones that have an extreme overcrowding issue
The main problem in NYC with schools, is that the parents have stopped DISCIPLINING their children.......and it is very difficult to teach UNDISCIPLINED children. Today I saw on Spectrum News that a certain group of citizens, where their newly-acquired POWER, has gone to their heads, has taken over the schools that are very good, and demanding the sky and the moon.....pools, new buildings, air conditioning, free lunch and dinners, fancy school buses, etc., etc........
It depends where you live in NJ when you retire. Sure, close to NYC while paying 10K or over in property taxes doesn't make much sense. We live in Ocean County on the water in a nice 300K house where I swim, fish and boat in the back yard and pay 6,800 in property taxes. 10/15 minutes from many doctors and a 2 hospitals.
Ocean County.....isn't there where a very-large religious group lives? Lots of people could not live with that....
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