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[SIZE=5]get_me_outta_ny[/SIZE]
Something we found out is that you are not taxed on your social security, you are taxed on your pension. You get a $50,000 tax credit on your property after you live there a year. You pay taxes on your vehicle(s), your sales tax is rather high. Gas prices are cheaper. The information is there but you need to dig for it. I was hoping some of the nice people on this post could give us a breakdown on some of these as well as cost of Utilities, Electric, water, garbage, cable, insurance (car and home) just some ball parks??
Been here for 9 years after escape from the People's Republic of Maryland. Thought I would give you some "ballparks". I live in a 3 bd, 2 bth, 2800 sq ft home just outside Murrells Inlet. Currently I can get gas for $2.85 or so at several places. The property tax on my house as my primary residence is $855 a year (this would be more if you were not a full-time resident). My home is served by a heat pump which runs me $220 a month on an equal monthly payment plan with Horry Electric. My home is all-electric.
Trash pickup and basic cable are part of my HOA fee which is $87 a month. Water runs about $ 40 a month, except for June thru August when I run my irrigation system (then it's about $70). You will want irrigation or your lawn will turn to toast in the summer.
Auto insurance is about $800 per year per vehicle, unless you have teenage drivers, then God bless. Home insurance for my home is $2600 a year. The tax on cars is a Personal Property tax. You need to pay this in order to renew your license plate sticker each year. The max for this is $300 a year or when you purchase a new car. The $300 amount will go down from year to year ar the book value of your car decreases. Sales tax varies from county to county and even town to town. I'm close to the Horry-Georgetown county border and will shop for things in Gtown if possible- 6% rather than 9%. And anything in Myrtle Beach is up around 11%.
Food prices are higher here, because there are no local farms, it's all tourism here. That's about all I can think of right now. Shout back with any other questions. Good luck!
Teddyterp. Great information. I really appreciate it. The wife likes Murrels Inlet and I like Little River. We know who will probably win out but when we arrive in April that is when the fun begins. I hope we can find a place in the two weeks we are there it would make life so much easier.If you see any bargins come up in March or early April, let me know... Thanks again
Ok, here goes. Our home is 1600 square feet. It's the Camden model which includes 3 bedrooms, two baths. We have an irrigation system and our sewer and water averages between $30 and $60 per month. Our homeowners bill is $1000 per year and we chose to pay for flood ins. which is $300 per year even though we are not in a flood zone. Our taxes are under $500 per year. Our electric bill (everything runs on electric) is apprx $100 per month. Our HOA dues in Lafayette Park are $54 per month and includes garbage pickup. Our car insurance is $1200 per year for two 2 year old cars. Our personal car tax on these 2012 model cars are $250 combined. Hope this helps!
We have 4 people in my household in Little River. My water/sewer bill is about $45 a month. My house insurance, which includes flood insurance (just in case, Little River is not in a flood zone) is about $1400 a year. This of course, depends on how much insurance you want, and the worth of your home. I just found out my Time/Warner cable is going up to $209 a month. We don't even have premium channels, but do have 4 TV's and dvr's on all of them. Its still an outrageous amount to pay. Everything runs on electric (heat and air conditioning) and that's about $200 a month. Still less than my heating bill in Mass. No HOA, but we do pay someone about $50 a month for mowing, yardwork, and spraying for bugs. We take care of disposing of our trash ourselves, but the dump is just down the road, so its not a big deal. We are 4 adults so our food bill is usually our biggest expense. We do groceries every 2 weeks, and I usually spend around $300 every time we go. Car insurance is much lower, and your drivers license is good for 10 years.
Hope this helps.
OMG....ditto on your requirements. We live in upstate New York and are looking to relocated with the next two years if not sooner!!!
We live in Rockland as well and just closed on a home in Murrells Inlet, Meadows of St. Patrick although we will not move permanently until July 1, 2015.
Once we are residents and have lived there for a year we anticipate that our insurance will drop to about $500 annually. Other utilities are difficult to judge since we are not there regularly.
Our home was built by Flagship who is starting new development in the Forestbrook area. We have friends who have also built with Flagship and all of us are very pleased with the quality of construction, etc.
We also have Time Warner and our bill is $230.46 this month. That includes Cable TV with HBO, Cinemax and Showtime on 2 TVs and reg cable on a third TV, our Internet, a landline phone and a security system.
It was nice of you all to share that information. If kind of keeps everything in perspective as we prepare our budget for our move next fall. Anyone using Obama care? If so who did you sign up with and are you happy with them. What about medigap insurance? Any recommendations? What insurers are you using and are you happy with them? The more information I have the faster I can make the transitions when we pull the plug and move. Any and all information you can share would be a big help, once again. Thanks for the southern hospitality (even if you are snow bunnies like us)
great info!! we are also shopping....we will probably need to buy a used home, the new builds add up too quickly with this and that...
Good luck. We felt the same way, purchasing an existing home versus new construction. We look at about 50 homes and a number of them would have worked well for us but all had this, that or then other thing that we felt would need to be done.
In some cases kitchens were "outdated", flooring may have been light color carpeting while the wife preferred hardwood. We also weighed the age of things such as roofs, HVAC systems, etc. In the end, we probably would have spent about $180,000 or so on the houses we were looking at and probably would have spent another $20K or so in making it what we want.
Our final decision was new construction which came in at $218K, more than we wanted to spend but getting everything we wanted...without going through the hassles that come with renovation. (We went through that up here two years ago...3 months+, a lot of disruption including not having a kitchen for one month, and tons of dust and stuff.
In our case we could have bought existing and had renovations done prior to us moving in (we don't actually move until July1) but with us up north and the house SC...not the most comfortable feeling.
It's really all a matter of personal preference, financing, and weighing the pros and cons of each from our perspective.
I wish you luck with your plans.
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