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It depends on how your salary correlates in the 2 cities. It sounds like for blue collar work, retail, and teachers the salaries are quite a bit lower in NC. In my field the pay is equivalent or at worst 3-5% less - in a professional field. But yeh, if your salary goes down 30% and your housing cost is down 30% than its sort of a wash!
We have degrees. So maybe the professional side is better. Someone who lives there and wants to post a salary would be great.
It also depends on where you are coming from. We are taking a $10, 000 a year hit on our salary, we have to pay about $200 more for our health benefits, and about $100 more in our electric bill, but it still is far cheaper for us to live in NC. We are coming from a place in Santa Barbara, CA where you can't even touch a house unless you have an inheritance, are independently wealthy or bought a house more than 7 years ago. Unfortunately, we are none of the above. I have to admit after getting our first electric bill charges with only 1/2 of it being while we lived in our house, kind of freaked me out for a minute. I had a momentary lapse of nerves about getting lower pay and some higher expenses. I haven't found the groceries or car insurance to be any more affordable here either. Just gasoline and housing.
$1133 cheaper a month. Are you saving this by moving? I guess that's what I am getting at. Better place to live is more in the housing that getting ahead.
for whatever it is worth...my husband makes 10 percent more than he did in CA (I on the other make the same...SAHM). We had a 30 year loan in CA (bought it 94' sold in 2004), 51 year old home, just shy of 1700' sq. ft, with not a whole lot of savings. For what we sold the one in CA for...we bought our ever so slightly broken in one for just about half the price, we now have a 15 year loan, 3 year old house, double the amount of square footage, with a nice little nest egg to boot. This is not including great schools, wonderful community, safer neighborhood, etc. Regarding salaries....everyone is different...who's to say you won't make more (as my husband did).
Unlike the New Yorkers and NJ'ers and the people from Cali, we are coming from AZ. The pay is cheap in AZ so we can make the same or more. If I transfer I make the same if I don't I make maybe 1.00 less an hr at worst.
Husband is making more with the new company in NC, not a lot more but like 15,000. We pay off all our debt and put a nice downpayment on the house. The house is almost twice the size of the one we live in now. Why do I need a bigger house ( )
Plus we'll have some cash on hand for a rainy day. For us it makes sense. Our home values are going down here and I don't want to lose anymore money. I'd like to take it and put it in a fresh market.
for whatever it is worth...my husband makes 10 percent more than he did in CA (I on the other make the same...SAHM). We had a 30 year loan in CA (bought it 94' sold in 2004), 51 year old home, just shy of 1700' sq. ft, with not a whole lot of savings. For what we sold the one in CA for...we bought our ever so slightly broken in one for just about half the price, we now have a 15 year loan, 3 year old house, double the amount of square footage, with a nice little nest egg to boot. This is not including great schools, wonderful community, safer neighborhood, etc. Regarding salaries....everyone is different...who's to say you won't make more (as my husband did).
That what I am talking about. Glad to hear it Those are the good reasons to move!
$1133 cheaper a month. Are you saving this by moving? I guess that's what I am getting at. Better place to live is more in the housing that getting ahead.
Well, that is where I get nervous about money....we are saving more than that by owning a home in NC. The median home in Santa Barbara is almost 1.4 million dollars and you can't even get a condo for under $650, 000. The difference is you can still find okay rentals in apartment complexes for around $1700, but we were so tired of renting in mediocre places and not owning. So, it is saving us in the sense we are able to own our home, something we couldn't even dream about back in CA, but our actually cost of living is about equal since we lost in salary & gained in some expenses. But, again we were renting in a tiny place for less than our mortgage is now on a 2000 sq ft house on 1/2 acre in NC. So, the quality of our housing drastically improved, but our economic situation is about equal. We just have to get over sticker shock with $150+ electric bills, more expensive health insurance with less coverage and a lower paycheck. I am still slightly stressing about making it....
Well, that is where I get nervous about money....we are saving more than that by owning a home in NC. The median home in Santa Barbara is almost 1.4 million dollars and you can't even get a condo for under $650, 000. The difference is you can still find okay rentals in apartment complexes for around $1700, but we were so tired of renting in mediocre places and not owning. So, it is saving us in the sense we are able to own our home, something we couldn't even dream about back in CA, but our actually cost of living is about equal since we lost in salary & gained in some expenses. But, again we were renting in a tiny place for less than our mortgage is now on a 2000 sq ft house on 1/2 acre in NC. So, the quality of our housing drastically improved, but our economic situation is about equal. We just have to get over sticker shock with $150+ electric bills, more expensive health insurance with less coverage and a lower paycheck. I am still slightly stressing about making it....
Try Long Island NY for electricity, my June electric bill was over $300 and we weren't even running our window air conditioners yet. Our bill for June 05 was probably about $160-$180 or so. Thank-you LIPA
.... the quality of our housing drastically improved, but our economic situation is about equal. We just have to get over sticker shock with $150+ electric bills, more expensive health insurance with less coverage and a lower paycheck. I am still slightly stressing about making it....
Over time, you'll start realizing qualities about your life that are hard to define. You may be happier here or not, without being able to put a finger on "why"?
I'd say that we are in the same economic condition here as we would have been back in the Midwest, but we are much happier here. Why? *shrug* Hard to say. I could list the amenities: climate, diversity of topography, interesting history ...mostly it's just that everything here is stirred into a soup more palatable to our taste than back in the Midwest [which we have to return to for a family event next week. We love our families but *sigh* using up a week's vacation to go back there. We are so dreading it ]
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Those are the good reasons to move!
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