Offered a job in Swiftwater, housing holding us back (Scranton: for sale, Valentine's day)

[inlieuofletters]

Hi all, happy Valentine's day!

Was recently offered a job in Swiftwater. Was originally excited to start a new job and move from NY to the Poconos (love snowboarding, enjoy the hikes in the area, family in Scranton and surrounding areas, etc etc) but actually looking for places to rent and/or buy is proving daunting enough to not accept. Not sure if it's due to the exodus from cities caused by covid, but I am stunned at the cost of long-term rentals -I'm talking 2k/month (+ utils) for houses that were JUST sold for 100k or less. Is there anywhere within 30-40 minutes of Swiftwater on a weekday that is affordable to rent for a year or are we better off buying something? I've read so many posts here about people who sold homes early in the 20-teens only to see them back on the market within a few years for tens of thousand less than what they sold for. I don't want to be one of those people, as we would probably not have this be our primary residence for more than a year. But from what I've seen on the various websites, NEPA truly seems to be a sellers market right now, not a renter's. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

When are you moving? March at the earliest.
Where are you coming from? Long Island
Why are you moving? Job offer.
Where will you be working? Swiftwater
Have you been here yet? Yes.

Will you buy or rent? Probably rent as we do not plan on staying super long term.
If buying, are you looking for a house or a condo? How much can you spend? If we buy, a house.
If renting, are you looking for an apartment, a townhouse or loft? How much can you spend? House.

Are you married or single? Do you have children? Married; no kids
Do you prefer public or private schools? N/A
Do you have pets? Yes, 2 dogs.
Do you want or need a yard? Yes. Would prefer 1/4 acre or larger and ideally something that is fenced or can be secured to keep our dogs in.
Are you keeping a car? Yes.
Do you prefer bustling activity or calm and quiet?

What do you want to be closest to? I commuted up to 3 hours each day so as long as we are within a half hour or so of Swiftwater.
Work
Shopping
Basic services (supermarket, drugstore, etc.)
Nightlife
Near Bus stop? Please note that there is NO rail service in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre area.

Do you want to live with people of a similar age, race, religion or sexual preference or do you prefer a diverse neighborhood? Doesn't matter.

Favorite beverage? Geyser Gose by Evil Twin.

[Wells5]

Here's a rental listed on Craig's List. It's not very far from Sanofi. Note: The listing could be a scam so be careful.


https://poconos.craigslist.org/apa/d...274899989.html

[fisheye]

I work where you are probably going to work. If I can help you let me know.

As far as rentals and buying, I cannot help you since I have lived in the same home for the last 40+ years. It is only 2 miles from work.

I do know that real-estate is in demand in our area. Many people from NYC are again looking to get out of the city since the pandemic started. That can change in time, unfortunately you need a place now.

I like to use Google "Earth" to check out real-estate or look over any area. There are benefits to using the program such as you can see what your neighbors look like, you can check out your elevation and proximity to streams and rivers (that might flood), and you can even measure distances and the size of what you are looking at.

Good luck and let me know if I can help.

[DavidWebb]

Just a suggestion on my part: Do not trust anything from Craigslist when there are more trustworthy sites such as: Realtor.com and Zillow.com if you're going to be working at Sanofi who is the only major employer in the Poconos and in Swiftwater then you may want to look in the area directly behind them....other areas: Tannersville and Reeders since you want to stay close which I highly recommend since traffic in that area during winter, spring/summer, and holidays can be a pain in the #@&.....

[Wells5]

Originally Posted by DavidWebb

Just a suggestion on my part: Do not trust anything from Craigslist when there are more trustworthy sites such as: Realtor.com and Zillow.com if you're going to be working at Sanofi who is the only major employer in the Poconos and in Swiftwater then you may want to look in the area directly behind them....other areas: Tannersville and Reeders since you want to stay close which I highly recommend since traffic in that area during winter, spring/summer, and holidays can be a pain in the #@&.....

Realtor and Zillow listings are through local realtors, who concentrate on houses for sale not on rentals. Individuals who own rental properties either advertise through Craig's List or the classifieds in the Pocono Record newspaper. You will need a subscription to access the Pocono Record classifieds.

[inlieuofletters]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into answering posts like mine and others. Agree that CL can be hit or miss. We've been renting a house in LI for the past 5 years and found it on CL, though I would say that for every legit post we saw there were at least 3-4 that appeared to be scams, and that was years ago when people still used CL on a regular basis!

fisheye, really appreciate your offer to help. Like so many large companies, they're outsourcing a lot of the bench work to agencies and contract workers and that's, I'm sad to say, the capacity in which I was hired. So I would be working for SP, but technically not employed by them.

I've done my due diligence on the internet and read many old threads here about people who sold (or bought) houses in the early 2010s only to have them be worth less than what it cost to build them. In Monroe County, the average home was sold for <115k in Feb 2018 and now it's at nearly twice that. Even from last year mean sale price is up 35%. When factoring in utils and HOA fees on top of what places are charging for rent, the math really starts to point towards buying as being the better deal, as long as this isn't the top of the market for the next several years which I'm concerned it might be. Our other concern is using our first time buyers break on something we don't plan on keeping as our primary residence for the long term.

We did find a nice place in Blakeslee that had a fenced in acre for under 2k, but someone beat us to the punch.

[inlieuofletters]

Originally Posted by Wells5

Here's a rental listed on Craig's List. It's not very far from Sanofi. Note: The listing could be a scam so be careful.


https://poconos.craigslist.org/apa/d...274899989.html

Thanks for looking and the warning. 99% sure it's a scam, I actually have been in touch on Zillow with the real estate agent who actually listed the "super well kept rare raised ranch" that the CL ad lifted the description from: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...6/9796658_zpid

[DavidWebb]

Originally Posted by inlieuofletters

Our other concern is using our first time buyers break on something we don't plan on keeping as our primary residence for the long term.

I would suggest not buying then and renting first....especially since you're working on contract that can be terminated at any time without notice....of course that's dependent upon the type of work you'd be doing....best of luck to you!!

[Gerania]

The house in the CL ad doesn't seem to be in a woodsy Poconos neighborhood.

[charmed hour]

Originally Posted by inlieuofletters

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into answering posts like mine and others. Agree that CL can be hit or miss. We've been renting a house in LI for the past 5 years and found it on CL, though I would say that for every legit post we saw there were at least 3-4 that appeared to be scams, and that was years ago when people still used CL on a regular basis!

fisheye, really appreciate your offer to help. Like so many large companies, they're outsourcing a lot of the bench work to agencies and contract workers and that's, I'm sad to say, the capacity in which I was hired. So I would be working for SP, but technically not employed by them.

I've done my due diligence on the internet and read many old threads here about people who sold (or bought) houses in the early 2010s only to have them be worth less than what it cost to build them. In Monroe County, the average home was sold for <115k in Feb 2018 and now it's at nearly twice that. Even from last year mean sale price is up 35%. When factoring in utils and HOA fees on top of what places are charging for rent, the math really starts to point towards buying as being the better deal, as long as this isn't the top of the market for the next several years which I'm concerned it might be. Our other concern is using our first time buyers break on something we don't plan on keeping as our primary residence for the long term.

We did find a nice place in Blakeslee that had a fenced in acre for under 2k, but someone beat us to the punch.

You can do more than one FHA loan. You must live in the original FHA financed home for one year and the mortgage must be paid off to be eligible for another FHA loan . Meaning you can sell after one year, pay off the mortgage and buy a new home with an FHA.

I do agree that home prices are at their peak in NEPA and the backslide is starting. We looked into selling back in June. The house value was 65k more then our purchase price in 2013. As of January that number went down 5k.

I’m not far from Blakeslee. It’s definitely cutting close to your commute threshold to Swiftwater. In fact. I would say it is going to. E longer then 30 minutes on any given day depending on the hours you commute.