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I'm moving from Fort Lauderdale, FL, which has no state tax, no personal property tax like on vehicles and annual inspections expenses. What other customary expenses/taxes are there?
When I do a salary comparison there's no talk about these hidden expenses, so I am looking for some advice in order to prepare for the salary negotiations.
Thanks in advance for your assistance!
PS: I have 2 young kids (3yr old and 7 month old baby) If any posters have any tips on neighborhoods to consider or which areas to stay away from.
Sales tax is 7.75% in Raleigh. There is sales tax on food at 2%. Prepared foods have additional 1% tax.
Yearly vehicle inspections (safety + emissions) are $30 in Wake County. Personal property tax on vehicles is based on assessed value and declines over time with depreciation of the vehicle. I'm not sure how much the fees are for transferring your registration because I sold my car and bought a new one before I transferred my FL tag to NC. I have a personalized tag and my registration renewal is $63, but I think it is around $30 for a regular tag. There is a 3% Highway Use Tax on vehicle purchases instead of the sales tax.
Property tax, auto insurance, and homeowners insurance will all be significantly less than south Florida.
You might want to review some of the other topics concerning issues such as the cost of food (very high) and medical costs, particularly dentists (some posters noted a huge discrepancy in pricing here).
We moved from TAmpa, where we were paying $20k a year for private schools for our 2 school aged children. Public schools in FL are generally terrible (not sure what they're like where you are) and, even with the school mess in Wake County, the Wake schools are far, far better than anything FL had to offer. So that's a huge cost savings for us.
Additionally, real estate taxes here are a bit less than they were in FL--we paid $4k for a house valued at 250k there minus the 50k in homestead exemptions (so, 200k valuation) while we pay about the same for a house valued at 385k here. We pay about $130/year for a 4-year old car worth about $10k.
Groceries do seem to be a lot more here, but that's probably b/c I shop at the closest store, which is Harris Teeter, which is a very pricey store but not nearly as nice as Publix IMO.
Other costs: look at things like cable. We had Verizon FIOS at about $100/mo for phone/tv/internet, which included unlimited long distance. We pay more for ATT for all 3 (about $30/mo more) and don't have unlimited long distance.
Gas seems to be about the same. We have natural gas for heat/hot water and that seems to be a cost saver. Seems to me like we paid overall more for electricity in FL than we do here for electric + gas.
Dental costs here are huge--the good dentists will file insurance usually but you pay up front and get reimbursed, usually a tiny fraction of the cost.
Take your commute into consideration. Traffic here seems better than in Tampa, which is probably not as bad as S. Florida where you are, so that's good.
As far as neighborhoods, it depends on what you want and where you'll work, but my advice would be to find a neighborhood that has both great neighborhood schools AND great assigned schools currently b/c there's a lot of change going on. That's what we did and we know that if our assignments change to neighborhood schools, we'll still be in good shape.
I can't speak for other parts of town, but NW Wake seems to have all-around good schools.
Mahalo for this link! It confirmed we are making the right choice for our family. Not only will I be in a beautiful locale, but I may have some funds left over for entertainment!
I was blindsided by the DMV costs when we moved here to get our cars with NC plates & registrations and car insurance increased for us but that was from NY.
Sales tax is 7.75% in Raleigh. There is sales tax on food at 2%. Prepared foods have additional 1% tax.
Yearly vehicle inspections (safety + emissions) are $30 in Wake County. Personal property tax on vehicles is based on assessed value and declines over time with depreciation of the vehicle. I'm not sure how much the fees are for transferring your registration because I sold my car and bought a new one before I transferred my FL tag to NC. I have a personalized tag and my registration renewal is $63, but I think it is around $30 for a regular tag. There is a 3% Highway Use Tax on vehicle purchases instead of the sales tax.
Property tax, auto insurance, and homeowners insurance will all be significantly less than south Florida.
What she said!
Seriously, you will pay income tax in NC. However, I know people in South Florida who pay upwards of 10K a year in windstorm insurance. Car insurance is way lower in NC too. Since there is an income tax, counties/cities rely a lot less on property taxes. The only way you'll pay more in NC for property tax is if you have been homesteaded in Florida for years at a very low base. If you rent, you'll find housing much cheaper in Raleigh. Housing prices in Raleigh are probably similar to what you'd pay in far western burbs on Broward but much lower than those east of I-95.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful responses. Our main reason to move is to improve not only our finances (way lower cost of living) but also live in an area where education is better. We cannot foresee paying for private school in FL and want to get away from the heat and agressiveness that is so prominent here in SFL. Thanks once again for all the tips.
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