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A 20% pay cut is fairly large -- I'd venture to say you'd really feel it in your budget since the cost of living is not much lower here -- I'm from northern NJ but my sister & her husband both work in Philly and live in the 'burbs.
We own a home but I'd venture to say you can expect equal rents if you want to live downtown.
You also need to factor in taxes -- as someone else pointed out you pay tax on clothes, food, your car (yearly use tax) etc. May not seem like much but it adds up. Also NC income tax is relatively high -- higher rates kick in at a lower rate than NJ.
Yes there may be public transportation here but it is buses -- thee is no rail and as someone coming from Philly with trains, subways, trolleys you'll realize that it is no way a system designed to get commuters from point a to point b during rush hour -- you'll need a car.
Honestly, if you're serious that it's a 20% pay cut there's no way you'll see a comparable decrease in your COL --
This area of NC is not nearly as inexpensive as many people think. The big savings is on property taxes; they are lower here than in most of the Northeast, Midwest, and Texas. You will often hear of people being upset that our school systems are generally underfunded and "too big" (which isn't necessarily an inaccurate accusation)....but apparently don't realize that school district budgets are funded through property taxes.
For the most part; unless you are living in a very expensive rental market like NYC, Boston, DC or most California cities; the COL here is probably higher than most of the country. Granted we have a pretty good job market and overall healthy economy.
No way I'd move here for a 20% paycut though. Unless you have family or love-interest reasons to move here I'd stay put in Philly. The COL is only going up so a taking a significant paycut like that would likely be a detriment to your career in the long run.
I live in Raleigh and work in Philly. I commute when I need to, and have a house up there as well that I stay at (it's in Essington, a very blue collar area).
Raleigh has a much higher QOL (quality of life) than Philly offers IMO. I could make way more $$ let alone have a more stress free life commuting wise living up there, but I won't ever go back...
Raleigh has new apartments that are well above the stuff you're used to in the NE. Old, nasty, out of date is not the norm down here.
From a homeowner point of view, the homes up there are much older but do offer old school charm and quality. But they are almost all out of date and require updating ($$$) and are expensive to operate (retro fit A/C, heating is expensive in the winter compared to down here). Taxes out about 4x what they are down here.
NC is a great state for those moving from out of state buying a house with lots of cash down, and lower yearly incomes. We have low RE taxes and high income taxes. If you get serious about owning you can easily afford nice, average homes down here.
I wouldn't hesitate to move to Raleigh over staying in Philly if you can transfer. FYI we don't even own snow shovels...
The newer apartments here are junk with lousy construction and stingy room sizes.
Years ago, the Raleigh rentals were a good value. Changed a lot with the influx of yuppies and the new landlords setting up shop here to rip them off.
I moved here in 1989 from New Orleans with a 30% pay cut working in IT.
This is getting so old, seriously. Don't you live in a newish apartment complex as well?
Quote:
Originally Posted by wheelsup
Taxes out about 4x what they are down here.
No way is this statment true. Four times the amount of taxes we pay here?
This quote is directly from Montgomery County, PA (most populous Philly area county) website..."The median property tax in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania is $3,834 per year for a home worth the median value of $297,200. Montgomery County collects, on average, 1.29% of a property's assessed fair market value as property tax."
So while that's more expensive than if you lived in Raleigh proper, taxes at $.9818 of $100 in value, it's less than the City of Durham, which is around $1.45 for $100 in value from what I can see.
Real estate in general is more expensive in Philly than here, although it's not always an apples to apples comparison. I did look at some new homes in the western Montgomery County area of PA and to be honest, the prices I saw for equivalent square footage and quality are pretty much on par (some even less) with what you would see in Apex and even cheaper than parts of Cary. Although an 18-20 mile commute from Western Montogomery County, PA would be a lot worse traffic wise than my commute of the same distance here.
From my research it appears that Philly is not much more expensive than the nicer areas of the Triangle (if at all), but the traffic is worse and taxes would be higher probably, although it's hard to tell since their state income tax is much lower than NC, but their municipalities apparently tax income as well. I would think the overall tax burden would be similar, although higher in certain areas depending on where you owned a home and how much the home was worth.
Bottom line, is I would not take a 20% pay cut from Philly to here. If I were a Wall St. stock broker, I would take a 20% pay cut from Manhattan to here
Why have I decided to move down your way? Quality of life! I hate snow, and my body starts to break down every winter, then eventually it gets better when the weather warms up. My joint problems started in my 20s. I feel better when it's above 50 degrees. Also, my Vitamin D levels are often very low. Yes, I understand it gets cold in the Triangle, but it's not the prolonged cold that we have in Philly. I wear my puffy winter coat about half of the year here. So I'm deciding what is worth more to me, being stuck inside in pain half of the year, or the *possibility* that I will feel better in that climate. Health and comfort are worth more to me than money.
Why Raleigh/Durham over other Southern places? Three reasons: warmer weather, job availability and distance from home (1 hour flight, do-able drive, and possible train).
My husband and I both have cars. One is paid off. I understand that there will be a property tax on our cars. How much is that normally?
If we decide to really put down roots we will buy a condo, and it sounds like this is a good way to save $$ and plan for retirement. We owned a house up here; property taxes were astronomical. It was worth $200K when we sold it recently (we bought it for more at the wrong time) and property taxes were over $6K/year, even after we tried to change that with the township. Property taxes here are incredibly high.
The newer apartments here are junk with lousy construction and stingy room sizes.
Years ago, the Raleigh rentals were a good value. Changed a lot with the influx of yuppies and the new landlords setting up shop here to rip them off.
I moved here in 1989 from New Orleans with a 30% pay cut working in IT.
As a counterpoint, my wife and I lived in Apartments 20-15 years ago. Now, we drive by with envy at all the nice apartments, most in mixed use developments that just did not exist then. You had crappy old places kind of almost walking distance to things or suburban cluster buildings, some almost walking distance and some way away from anything. Now, you have dozens of places not only walking distance, but there is retail in the same complex or even downstairs even in the suburbs and plenty of places in downtown Raleigh or Durham. As a renter, you really don't need to care if the quality is as good as yesteryear (though obviously some places are noisier than others) as you can call the landlord.
This is getting so old, seriously. Don't you live in a newish apartment complex as well?
No way is this statment true. Four times the amount of taxes we pay here?
This quote is directly from Montgomery County, PA (most populous Philly area county) website..."The median property tax in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania is $3,834 per year for a home worth the median value of $297,200. Montgomery County collects, on average, 1.29% of a property's assessed fair market value as property tax."
So while that's more expensive than if you lived in Raleigh proper, taxes at $.9818 of $100 in value, it's less than the City of Durham, which is around $1.45 for $100 in value from what I can see.
We moved from Doylestown, PA (Philly burb) in 2012. Had a 15 year old 2700 sq ft. Toll Brothers home in a nice neighborhood, but it wasn't a custom house. Paid and sold low 500s and our property taxes were about 7500/year. Moved to Cary and bought a 3400 sq ft custom home that was 5 years old and paid in 460s. Property taxes still under 4k. That and as some others have said, car insurance, are the big COL differences. The rest, not so much.
We most absolutely do--I have TWO and I'm an NC native.
Snow BLOWERS are a different story.
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