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Yea, you really need to look at specific towns. You can't throw blanket statements about an entire region with real estate. The homes in the inner city have not retained and lost value due to neighborhoods falling apart, but the homes in the suburbs have increased in value. Much more than 3-4%. People do want to move here. The amount of homes sold keeps increasing.
why do these people even bother joining a forum discussion????
I just don't understand how a person's innocent query regarding a move to WNY can turn so hateful. I am appalled at the behavior of ItSmellsBAD and am sad that there are people in this world who judge another person because they tried someplace new, didn't like it, and want to return to a place they feel would be a better fit for them. I am also tired of people who judge other people based on their beliefs on religion in schools. Your negativity turns this whole forum into a snarling mess, and is unnecessary. I hope you decide to leave this forum for good.
well, right this second im living in pittsburgh, 5 months today. but yes, my permanant home is in chautauqua county. the southwest corner of the state. the most wonderful place in the world
i highly recommend it and am willing to answer any questions you may have about the area.
Hi...
I grew up in the Finger Lakes Region. I would recommend the Geneva area and it's surroundings. (Sodus Pt., Romulus, Waterloo, etc..) Geneva has Hobart and all the amenities of a larger city and still has historical and hometown charms.
Yes, the Rochester area is somewhat crime ridden and a bit run down looking. The best parts are the arts, though. Rochester has wonderful museums and cultural activities that would be hard to find elsewhere in the state.
The seasons in UNY are what I think is the best part of going home. Especially this time of year. The Finger Lakes are up and coming in the areas of wine and I think will probably become even more so in the future. This will bring more business and tourism to the areas.
The taxes are high, but the homes are low. If you look at outer lying areas you can easily find a 3-4 bedroom house on a large lot or even some acreage for under $125k. Of course, near the lakes will be considerably more.
The schools are okay. Like any state, there are good and bad. I believe the education standards today on a whole are not as they should be. However, UNY has some of the better schools than in most other areas. IMO, parents today are to blame for their childs education as well as teachers. It takes the whole team to raise a child and have them receive a good education.
We have often thought of buying a second home there. I can understand why you would want to go back
Dunkirk is over run with Illegal Aliens these days. Mostly farm laborers employed by the grape industry. They come to pick and decide to stay as the free welfare and food debit card is better than anything they have back in Mexico. Sorry to burst your bubble but it't true. Spanish is the dominant language in downtown Dunkirk. Was just there last week. Crime is out of control.
Dunkirk has had a fair amount of Hispanics since the 1980s. According to old Census Bureau data, Dunkirk city was 8.0% Hispanic in 1980. In 1990, it was up to almost 15%. Now, as of the 2000 census, it was 19%. Even if it's higher since the last census, it means almost nothing. What you have with Dunkirk is a typical small American city where you're going to find illegals sometimes. Look what happened in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The place was overrun by illegals, and they destroyed the town. Does that mean that all of the Scranton-Wilkes Barre-Hazleton area stinks?
I lived in Buffalo for the whole year of 2004. I'm from Long Island originally, and after 2004, for reasons I'm still not completely understanding, I stupidly moved back to the New York metro area. I wish I hadn't. I hate it here. If you want illegals, we got 'em here, sure enough. Almost 400,000 and counting. The entire quality of life here stinks now, and my neighborhood had been inundated with illegal Dominicans who throw their trash in the street, and literally let their little boys urinate on the front lawn. They stage dog fights with their pit bulls, and practice some weird primitive religion which is like a cross between Catholicism and voodoo. They blast their salsa music at midnight, and hang out in the street drunk. I've seen, and heard, all of this personally, over and over again. Ten years ago, my neighborhood was quiet, peaceful, English-speaking, and safe. Please don't call me a "racist", or say I'm ignorant. I am a college graduate, and I'm a Democrat. But, my feeling is that it's a lot easier for people to be magnanimous and "tolerant" of these new immigrants when you don't have to live with them. When I was in college a long time ago, I was much more liberal and pro-immigrant. It was easy, because I grew up in an upper middle-class white-collar neighborhood. I never had to live with these horrible peons. It's not like the early 20th century, when we were getting European people who gambled everything, and came to this country for good, with no intention of going back. And, any major urban area in this country you wish to name has been turned into the Third World in the last ten years. But not western new York, and not Buffalo.
I miss Buffalo badly, and I wish I hadn't moved away. The people are unbelievably friendly (obviously, except for itSmellsBAD), and the property is CHEAP. Where I live now, a three bedroom, 1 1/2 bath cape house with a quarter-acre of property goes for over $450,000.00! And taxes? Try eight or ten thousand bucks a year, literally. Everyone has to drive a Lexus, or an Infiniti, or a Mercedes, or else you're considered a "loser" if you own a Saturn or a Ford. Everything is money, money, money, and the people are nasty, vicious, competetive, and assaultive. You sit in traffic jams constantly, and people tailgate and cut you off, and give you the finger. The neighborhoods are all filled with misogynistic, turban-wearing Indians, who treat their wives like sh*t, and who give YOU a dirty look for living in THEIR neighborhood. There are "dayworker" houses even in upper middle class, white-collar neighborhoods. There are now MS-13 gang members in Nassau County, where I grew up in the 1970s. Crime is going up, and people are getting angry. Life is extremely insular and closed-off. This entire place has been invaded by third-world peasant religious fanatics, and it's destroyed any semblance of progressiveness that New York once had. Everything in New York is globalism, cheap immigrant labor, and the pursuit of cash.
Nope, Buffalo and western New York are wonderful. I miss going to Bisons games, and walking around at Niagara Falls. I miss going to Canada for the day, and driving around. I miss Anderson's ice cream. I miss pizza logs, and The Lafayette Tap Room. Like I said, I never met more friendly and happy people in my life. There's a sense of togetherness and community that I have never seen anywhere else. Western New Yorkers seem to know that they've suffered through some hard times, but they're resilient, and committed to trying to turn things around, which I think is awesome.
As for itSmellsBAD, he sounds like he'd really like to be somewhere else. I think you should sell your house, dude, and move away. Go down south, where you can praise the lord, and say "Hallelujah" a lot, and be an anti-intellectual redneck in peace. You sound like a typical resentful, bitter, uneducated blue-collar type who bemoans teacher salaries and pensions, but who won't complain about civil service worker benefits all that much, or complain about police pensions. Your example of equating lack of school prayer with violence is laughable to say the least, and it's clear to me that your long string of nasty and curmudgeonly posts only attempts to initiate flame wars with others.
Seriously, if you hate where you are, get out. Move away. People move every day. Stop complaining and get out. Go down south and live with the illegal Mexicans and gang members. They love the hot weather, too, and they're flooding into the south. Or, move to the West Coast, where the same thing is happening. I'm afraid, sir, that you don't know how great where you live actually is, despite its comparatively insignificant problems.
I moved from the Binghamton, NY area to Skaneateles almost 20 years ago. It is a great place to raise kids, very close knit community. Regarding teaching jobs - there seem to be new teachers joining the school every year (assumably because of retiring teachers). Check out Main Page - Skaneateles Wiki for information regarding Skaneateles, the community, the businesses, etc. I love the area and highly recommend it.
Great post Macrab! Every pro-Buffalo poster always talks about how friendly the people are. Maybe my kid will go to SUNY Buffalo and settle in Buffalo. We would gladly join him and get away from the NYC rat race (of course we would probably go south in January and February.)
Dunkirk has had a fair amount of Hispanics since the 1980s.
Yes, and almost ALL of them are puerto ricans. For those who don't know, since 1917 any puerto rican, regardless of whether they were born in puerto rico or in the u.s. IS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN!
Moved from Rochester in December 1994 to Raleigh NC....just moved back to Rochester last month, and couldn't be happier about it! WNY is a great place to come home too...it's like they say, you don't know what you've got 'till its gone.
Welcome back i'minformed! So how does the old city look to you after being gone for so long? Some lovely changes have occurred that's for sure! I have a brother who left for Raleigh last year and I'm just waiting for him to throw in the towel (although his wife may not out of pride). I know the slow southern life has to be killing him he's way too Ny for it
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why do these people even bother joining a forum discussion????
