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Old 10-03-2011, 01:48 PM
 
Location: Sedona, AZ
138 posts, read 387,990 times
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Don't forget about the city wage tax. Center City is only fun for so long, until you want a nice car or motorcycle, or get sick of paying the wage tax, etc. Then you start looking at the suburbs, even the close-by ones. It's nicer than it used to be, but the wage tax basically left the people who could afford to pay it and the people who couldn't afford to leave. Center City is nice to hang out in, but North and West Philly are not the most pleasant places.

If you're used to living in a bigger city, then Philly's not a bad place. I enjoyed the 'burbs a lot more (West Chester) and visited when I wanted. This was a lot more pleasant for me.
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Old 10-03-2011, 04:15 PM
 
Location: South Jersey
7,780 posts, read 21,880,174 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MonkeyClaw View Post
Don't forget about the city wage tax. Center City is only fun for so long, until you want a nice car or motorcycle, or get sick of paying the wage tax, etc. Then you start looking at the suburbs, even the close-by ones. It's nicer than it used to be, but the wage tax basically left the people who could afford to pay it and the people who couldn't afford to leave. Center City is nice to hang out in, but North and West Philly are not the most pleasant places.

If you're used to living in a bigger city, then Philly's not a bad place. I enjoyed the 'burbs a lot more (West Chester) and visited when I wanted. This was a lot more pleasant for me.

ditto with the wage tax. We were paying the same IN the city for wage tax (for a 1200 sq ft row home)as our property taxes for a 4 bed/3 bath single home in jersey. Its a no brainer.
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Old 10-03-2011, 04:42 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh PA
1,125 posts, read 2,348,645 times
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Originally Posted by frankgn87 View Post
ditto with the wage tax. We were paying the same IN the city for wage tax (for a 1200 sq ft row home)as our property taxes for a 4 bed/3 bath single home in jersey. Its a no brainer.
yes, the wage tax is a phenomenon of the wonderful state of PA. They have it in Pittsburgh as well which is why the cities population keeps falling, if one can live in a close suburb and not have to pay the wage tax, why bother living in the city. That is one thing that PA will need to clear up if it hopes to ever truly take off again
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Old 10-03-2011, 05:41 PM
 
Location: South Jersey
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Originally Posted by escilade18 View Post
yes, the wage tax is a phenomenon of the wonderful state of PA. They have it in Pittsburgh as well which is why the cities population keeps falling, if one can live in a close suburb and not have to pay the wage tax, why bother living in the city. That is one thing that PA will need to clear up if it hopes to ever truly take off again
That is how we feel too. For anything in the city we want, its a 10-20 minute drive(shorter then walking for most cases if you lived in the city)..
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Old 10-03-2011, 06:55 PM
 
Location: Cumberland County, NJ
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Originally Posted by frankgn87 View Post
ditto with the wage tax. We were paying the same IN the city for wage tax (for a 1200 sq ft row home)as our property taxes for a 4 bed/3 bath single home in jersey. Its a no brainer.
I think Philly(center city in particular) is slowly turning into New York City. Extremely high property taxes is something that both cities now share.
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Old 10-03-2011, 07:13 PM
 
Location: back in Philadelphia!
3,264 posts, read 5,652,988 times
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Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly View Post
I think Philly(center city in particular) is slowly turning into New York City. Extremely high property taxes is something that both cities now share.
Uhh, NYC property taxes are not especially high. And like Philly, they're cheaper than its' suburbs.

Table: Who Pays America's Highest Property Taxes? - Forbes.com

In case you can't find it (because it's pretty far down there on the list), New York county is #402 on that list, with average property tax being 0.4% of home value and 2.7% of income. Philly is #437 with average property tax at 0.9% of home value, and 2.6% of income.
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Old 10-03-2011, 07:21 PM
 
8,983 posts, read 21,169,137 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by escilade18 View Post
yes, honestly that is what insurance is for. This may sound terrible saying this but I would rather burglary or domestic violence over gang warfare and shootings because one can replace goods and domestic violence (as bad as it is) stays contained for the most part, while gang warfare usually involves many innocent bystanders or passer bys who have nothing to do with the situation at all. When I was in Philly on the 4th of July, there were several instances when several guys in white T shirts were starting trouble, would they be part of a gang that anyone knows of or are they just attention hungry boneheads who got a little too drunk? Again thanks for the info and I look forward to visiting your beautiful city again (likely around the holidays to make a trip to Center City/King of Prussia)
If there are gangs, they are certainly not as well organized as the stereotypical ones out in Southern California. If anything, grievances will be resolved one way or another in their respective neighborhoods rather than in Center City. You may have heard of the negative version of flash mobs becoming a minor phenomenon here. However, the Mayor's institution of a teen curfew seems to have curbed that. I suspect that the guys in their white Ts were more likely "boneheads" than gang members looking to prove themselves.
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Old 10-03-2011, 07:26 PM
 
8,983 posts, read 21,169,137 times
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Originally Posted by escilade18 View Post
yes, the wage tax is a phenomenon of the wonderful state of PA. They have it in Pittsburgh as well which is why the cities population keeps falling, if one can live in a close suburb and not have to pay the wage tax, why bother living in the city. That is one thing that PA will need to clear up if it hopes to ever truly take off again
Has Pittsburgh had a problem with speculative landowners or others that avoid paying property tax? That's a situation that Philly has been relatively slow to resolve. Without knowing all the intricate details, I would predict that getting current on property tax scofflaws would enable Philly to significantly reduce the city wage tax.
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Old 10-05-2011, 05:32 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh PA
1,125 posts, read 2,348,645 times
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Originally Posted by Tone509 View Post
Has Pittsburgh had a problem with speculative landowners or others that avoid paying property tax? That's a situation that Philly has been relatively slow to resolve. Without knowing all the intricate details, I would predict that getting current on property tax scofflaws would enable Philly to significantly reduce the city wage tax.
I don't know much about the property tax but a recent problem in the area is the skyrocketing price of renting. Ever since Marcellus shale drilling has come to the area, companies have been filling up the rentals left and right thus making it nearly impossible to find even a studio for any less than $600 a month (which used to be able to get someone a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment.) That coupled with the increasing student population will continue to drive up the cost of rentals leading to the odd situation of it being significantly cheaper to actually buy the house (given dirt cheap home prices) over renting
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Old 10-05-2011, 11:26 PM
 
Location: SW Florida
5,589 posts, read 8,405,261 times
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There has been a rash of shootings over the past week or two, but they've all been in your high-crime city neighborhoods. I don't know if the violence is gang- or just thug-related. If you're in the city at a large gathering or in one of the nightlife areas, just be aware of the type of people that are there. When I posted about the pro's of living in Philly, I'm talking about the metropolitan area, not just within the city limits. And FYI, my mother lives in a much smaller town on the Gulf coast of Florida and I'm much more concerned about crime when I'm there than here. There was even a gang shooting on the beach on Easter Sunday a few years ago. Apparently it's a tradition for the gangs to gather on the beach on Easter. Lovely.
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