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Staten Island is hated because of how poorly developed and isolated it is. There is like literally nothing to do here on the weekend/night yet all the costs/problems of living in the city. They still have to abide by taxes/income taxes of the city. Poor transportation to and from midtown. Places like Staten Island and North Jersey typically have a commute of 90min-2 hours...for that much commue time you can buy a house out in the burbs with excellent school districts, low crime, huge lawns and a high standard of living. They are also always threatening late night ferry service to SI.
I look at it another way.......there has to be Townhouses, so that entry-level families can buy into them, since they are a one-family townhouse........and later, when they make their money......they can afford to buy my house.......
I see Townhouses by the mall with asking prices of $450,000 . Crazy expensive, and not really affordable to many people.
That is good......and that is bad. However, that area by the Mall has everything there.......even all the express buses to Manhattan stop there, all the shopping, all the supermakets, many choices........I like to have things a little farther apart......And those prices keep the ugly people away.......they cannot afford it.....
Yes, you can go to NJ and pay less, but then when you sell you get less money, and the property taxes there will eat your paycheck away......and a townhouse there is still a townhouse.....
even all the express buses to Manhattan stop there
Not all of them. Some of them do. Between the mall and the Eltingville Transit Center, most bus routes in Staten Island run through the area, but not all.
That is good......and that is bad. However, that area by the Mall has everything there.......even all the express buses to Manhattan stop there, all the shopping, all the supermakets, many choices........I like to have things a little farther apart......And those prices keep the ugly people away.......they cannot afford it.....
Yes, you can go to NJ and pay less, but then when you sell you get less money, and the property taxes there will eat your paycheck away......and a townhouse there is still a townhouse.....
If you own any property and work in NYC, city + state tax + property tax is about as high as many high taxed NJ area.
In NJ, you pay high property taxes but you get better schools, the snow gets cleared quicker off the roads and garbage taken away better than NYC boros. You don't pay NYC taxes and NJ state taxes are much lower than NYS. Just not having to pay NYC taxes is alone saves me $2-4k right there.
If you really do the math, the cost is about the same but in NJ you get better overall value for your tax dollar. Just look at that mess of a high way fix up on the SI.
Why are SI folks in NJ every weekend to fill up gas and shop for food? (before tax dropped below $3)
In NJ, you pay high property taxes but you get better schools
In some townships, not all. SI has some of the best schools in NY.
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Originally Posted by vision33r
, the snow gets cleared quicker off the roads and garbage taken away better than NYC boros.
Also depends on where you live and where you drive. There are a lot of back roads in NJ that don't get plowed very quickly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vision33r
Why are SI folks in NJ every weekend to fill up gas and shop for food? (before tax dropped below $3)
Yeah, gas is cheaper because NJ has their own refineries which drives prices down. NJ also has Quickchek and Wawa which we don't. Cigarettes are cheaper in NJ as well.
But I think you get a higher quality-of-life in SI than in NJ, personally, and I'd rather spend $6 on an express bus to get to Midtown from Staten Island. It was literally 3 times that price when I commuted to Manhattan from New Jersey. Hmm, do I want to spend $12 a day on my commute or $36?
If you own any property and work in NYC, city + state tax + property tax is about as high as many high taxed NJ area.
In NJ, you pay high property taxes but you get better schools, the snow gets cleared quicker off the roads and garbage taken away better than NYC boros. You don't pay NYC taxes and NJ state taxes are much lower than NYS. Just not having to pay NYC taxes is alone saves me $2-4k right there.
If you really do the math, the cost is about the same but in NJ you get better overall value for your tax dollar. Just look at that mess of a high way fix up on the SI.
Why are SI folks in NJ every weekend to fill up gas and shop for food? (before tax dropped below $3)
You are not saying anything new to Staten Islanders who have crunched the numbers and decided to move to New Jersey.
It is difficult overall to compare taxes with Staten Island/NYC to New Jersey because property and other rates vary by town/village/etc.... There are parts of NJ with INSANE property taxes, others are more reasonable. Generally however many Staten Islanders feel the higher taxes in NJ are a trade off for better schools, area, lifestyle etc... than living on the Rock.
You can still find rural/suburban areas of NJ that were like Staten Island *was*, and more importantly home prices are lower so you can buy. If you want a house with nice property attached it is going to cost you > one million or close to it. Yeah you can find homes for say <5k, but that could mean living in the more dense sections of SI or even *gasp* on the North Shore.
Staten Islanders have been going to NJ for shopping and gas since forever. NJ's taxes on gas are lower which is reflected in the price. Not everyone is thrilled with no self serve, but you do what you gotta do.
Shopping wise the no sales tax on clothing in NJ is a no brainer. My parents like many others never bothered with the Mall, but took us to Woodbridge for "back to school" or other major clothes shopping. The only time we got stuff on the Rock was impulse or when something came up (wedding, funeral, etc..) and there wasn't time to get out to NJ.
Travel wise it can be a wash. Before everyone and their mother began moving out to Staten Island the most traffic you hit leaving in the AM was maybe on the VZNB and either onto the Belt or as you got near the City on the BQE. Going home again you hit traffic in and close to the City but once you got on the Gowanus things calmed down. Now traffic starts backing up before you hit Bayridge as you creep across the bridge.
Going home through NJ if you know how to do it isn't that bad. But still there are areas of NJ you can get to faster from Manhattan
Shopping in NJ is not unique to Staten Islanders. We are just one of many populations centers of NY'ers with easy access to NJ, PA, and VT in particular, where various essentials are cheaper. There are many other areas of NY where the population shoots into another state to escape our ridiculous taxes on gas in particular.
Obviously Brooklynites or Long Islanders, for example, won't do so on such a large scale due to the travel costs. Staten Islanders can be in NJ much quicker and still pay only one toll. Where I sit now I can be in NJ in less than 10 min. I drive through Bayonne once per week to get gas on my way home from Manhattan, saving enough to cancel out 1-2 bridge crossings per week, which adds up if done consistently. As an added bonus, I can stop at Walmart also.
Travelling to NJ to shop isn't a knock on SI, it is an awesome benefit. If purchasing a big ticket item such as a TV or computer, the savings can be significant.
If you own any property and work in NYC, city + state tax + property tax is about as high as many high taxed NJ area.
In NJ, you pay high property taxes but you get better schools, the snow gets cleared quicker off the roads and garbage taken away better than NYC boros. You don't pay NYC taxes and NJ state taxes are much lower than NYS. Just not having to pay NYC taxes is alone saves me $2-4k right there.
If you really do the math, the cost is about the same but in NJ you get better overall value for your tax dollar. Just look at that mess of a high way fix up on the SI.
Why are SI folks in NJ every weekend to fill up gas and shop for food? (before tax dropped below $3)
Please, I worked in NJ for over 30 years.......the food prices are the same......yes, the gas is less, but most Staten Islanders go there, like I do, for the day to get away from sameness. And many work there.... My house is valued at 1 million dollars, my taxes are $5,000. Do you think that a one million dollar house will pay $5,000 property taxes in NJ? NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.......close to $20,000.
My front neighbor's son lives in Franklin Lakes, and his taxes are $35,000 per year..........preposterous.....
As a matter of fact, before we built our house, I planned to move to Somerset County, since I was working at the hospital there. My house now, was chosen after a model I saw in S/C. So glad I did built it on S/I, and not in NJ. And many houses are heated with oil, which only now has become TEMPORARILY less expensive..........their electric bills are just as high, water, sewer, etc. I have lots of friends living there.....And people in NJ are leaving en mass. They can no longer afford to live there.
The taxes then for a house with 3,500 square ft., like mine there, were exorbitant......Imagine now.....!!!!
The grass always looks greener in somebody else backyard......
In NJ, one has to define the forest from the trees. There are lots of trash people living among the Middle-Classes, loaded with alcohol and drugs. In those small towns, nothing gets reported to the Media, and very little to the newspapers. Everything gets swept under the rug....
Are you aware of the fact that in the NJ shore, there were 132 deaths in 2013, of HEROIN, the most tragic drug on the market, due to its difficulty to rehab people from it, and it took over a year for the Media to get hold of the story? I saw the story in the Asbury Park Press, a year later.......
They want to keep the image of the Garden State.......although you see very little flowers. They want to make sure that the Tourists visit there......Let's keep it quite.....!!!!!!
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. Crazy expensive, and not really affordable to many people.
