Posted on 11/29/2006 11:52:14 AM PST by RockinRight
Low crime, reasonable commute, and good schools—who says you can't find a nice house in a suburb without paying a fortune? Buying your first house? Fleeing the city for a life within your means? Here's a novel idea: Move to a suburb where you won't break the bank or get your car broken into. A community with reasonable home prices and decent schools. A suburb close to your city job, with a lively downtown of its own. For hedge-fund managers, plastic surgeons, corporate lawyers, and other people who earn millions a year, choosing a suburb is not about affordability but convenience and, frankly, prestige. These folks don't balk at high prices or look for fixer-uppers. They can pay for prime real estate on the most exclusive streets in the fanciest towns with the best schools. If they want to live in Greenwich or Brookline or Lake Forest or Malibu, they can. Unfortunately, most people aren't so lucky. Most people have to balance their real estate aspirations with reality—compromising on acreage or culture in exchange for better schools or lower property taxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
NYC property taxes can be outlandish, and often inexplicably uneven. There was an article in the NYT a year or so ago about a couple with 2 modest incomes (one was school teacher and I forget what the other one was but something with similar income) who bought a badly run-down little apartment building/townhouse in Harlem -- uninhabited and uninhabitable when they bought it, IOW just the sort of the place the city should be incentivizing people to buy and renovate. It had been divided up into apartments and when the couple redid it, they changed the number of apartments in the course of setting one up for themselves to live in. I forget whether they ended up with 4 or 5 total, but whichever it was, they should have done the other, because the difference resulted in a tax increase of $40,000/year. That's OF $40,000/year, not TO $40,000/year. They were getting ready to sell (probably at a loss or barely breaking even) and move out, since there was no way they could afford this.
Except when they're talking about taxes, then it's riiiich.
I live on the Maryland side. I was just going by what people who lived in the Herndon area told me. And those people drove the whole way.
So you left Herndon? The missus and I talk sometimes about leaving the D.C. area. We'd miss the culture, but we like the idea of raising kids in a more conservative rural setting. Decisions, decisions...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Herndon's not even the outer ring of suburbs anymore. When I was there in the late '80s (and lived in Herndon for a little while), it was. The edge of the 'burbs was basically Herndon/Gainesville to the west, and Woodbridge/Dale City/Quantico/Triangle to the south. Now, out the Route 7/I-66 corridor, the burbs stretch well beyond Ashburn, and to the south...well, Aquia, Garrisonville, hell, even Fredericksburg is often considered a DC suburb these days. On busy days I-95 will be an off-and-on parking lot literally between the Sausage Grinder and Route 3 in Fredericksburg, almost 50 miles.
Even back in 1987, my training manager at AT&T lived in Harper's Ferry, WV and commuted to Fairfax every day. I couldn't imagine doing that, an hour and a half each way, five days a week.
}:-)4
Matthews, NC is fine as long as you don't have to commute into Charlotte during rush hour, which is a nightmare. Before you move, check out the various suburban commuting times during a typical weekday morning and evening if you plan to work in Charlotte.
In the Bay Area, you would have a lot of crack in your neighborhood at that price. ;)
Springfield MO has a household average income of $48,738. The average cost of a home is $139,558.
This is an affordable area, not a place where homes are around $500,000.
THat's exactly my point.
Sounds similar to Ohio.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
The last time I went to visit my Uncle, I asked him why he didn't sell his million dollar plus 3b/2b in Hawaii and move to Delaware near me where he could buy a big place. He said, because then I'd have to live in Delaware. Location people!
This is a constant topic of conversation in my house because I'm sickened by how much more house you can get for your money in Houston where my wife's family lives, just like my brother (who lives on the Upper E. Side in Manhattan) is sickened when he visits me in comparitively bargain-priced DE.
My in-laws live in one of the cities on that list, Roswell, GA, outside Atlanta. They really like it. My stepfather-in-law works in downtown, so he takes a short drive over to the North Springs MARTA station and rides that instead of dealing with the legendarily hellish Atlanta traffic. Housing values have skyrocketed and McMansions are popping up everywhere. They got an older house in an established, quiet neighborhood, fortunately.
Roswell's kind of funny, though. There's literally a city ordnance against tracking mud from a construction site onto a city street. I saw signs about it last week when I was down there. It's a town that's somewhat snotty and EXTREMELY image-conscious...and yet, the area is being overrun by illegal aliens. You can see big clumps of "day laborers," by the dozens, waiting on streetcorners along Alpharetta Highway, every day. Many of the northern Atlanta suburbs like Roswell, Marietta, and Doraville are having increased crime and gang problems due to the illegals.
}:-)4
I realize that, what I thought was stupid was the line where they said "average family making 50k" and all that, it didn't fit.
Had they just said "typical middle-to-upper-middle class household" like their readers, then, yes, it would have been fine because that can be interpereted as needed.
If I won the lottery, I'd buy a nice, but not "rock star nice" house, some cool electronics and gizmos, and invest the rest and live a basically normal life from then on out.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Agreed.
Left DC area in 1997 to go to Nevada. There, a two-hour commute might be 140 miles away. And it was at least that far between towns, out there.
Actually, I lived in Carson City, and it was about a 10-minute walk through the sagebrush to work.
I lived in Philly and commuted to NYC every day, but that was by train. I can't imagine doing it on the road.
I am laughing so hard, snots are flying out my nose.
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