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Stay out of the dumpy parts and there's no problem.
Easy enough haha!
Sidenote: areas I'm looking at all have single family homes for under 100k .. I'm not looking to live any closer than 2 hours from NYC because I find that's when price starts shooting up and I WANT the space from mother in law LOL
City of Middletown NY? It's a very plain, dull small city up the Hudson River, a half-hour southeast of the foothills of the Catskill Mts.
What's good is Middletown's valley location on the Hudson River. That provides relative ease, compared to mountain towns, as you begin a commute to other places in winter snow by car or bus to NYC.
Middletown has its own boxy shopping mall, a decrepit main street (might have improved; I lived near there a decade ago). There's also a big outlet mall up in that general area (Woodmere?).
For summer family vacations, from Middletown there's plenty to enjoy on interesting daytrips throughout the Hudson River Valley or go up into the Catskill Mountains for natural beauty, fishing, whatever you like to do.
Employment there is an unknown to me. Housing costs should be good still.
Another idea in that general area: the tiny City of New Paltz (a small SUNY campus town), so for NY'ers there are cultural things to attend inexpensively music, art, theater. There's Goshen, a county seat, but my one experience there left me thinking it was ingrown and kinda nasty/rude to outsiders. Maybe Warwick is more open to newcomers, it's just got a bit more style.
My niece seems to be settlng down around Binghamton, NY (a big SUNY campus). I think unemployment near Binghamton is pretty bad. More research is needed.
You can get a great price on a house in a dump of an unemployed community in upstate NY. That's a trade-off I had to make twice, due to spouse's work, but at least the kids had plenty of place to run around in elementary years.
My tip from experience raising a family upstate: You have to define a strong family inner culture for your own pre-teens, keep the family very busy with your own plans and activities, so they don't get distracted into that small-town teenaged wasteland of boredom and drugs, hanging out at suburban malls, all that.
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 10-14-2015 at 10:45 AM..
I'm actually now looking at Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Jersey.. Any city within 2.5 hours where I can get the most bang for our buck.
I've lived in Erie before and the cost of living despite less pay is STILL way ahead of NYC. If you guys are going by the theory that stuff costs the same and income is lower so you don't get ahead then that means people outside of NYC aren't doing better than us and we know that's not true lol
It is true, actually, depending on where you live and what you do for a living. I'm in the Poconos and work in NYC. The area is very economically depressed and those that seem to be doing "better" are those commuting into NYC for work. Most employment is below the $12 an our mark.
Like Mathjak noted, most things still cost the same and some savings for lower priced items get eaten up by the things that cost the same.
Perfect example is car ownership. PA has cheaper gas and insurance than NYC but watch how quickly that savings is no longer a savings...
Out by me you MUST have 2 cars or more. We started with 2 cars- a FWD and a RWD. RWD- can't be driven in the winter necessitating a vehicle purchase for AWD/4X4 (we knew that long before we decided to live on a mountain). That's now 3 cars we own...
Then my little FWD car that had around 34k miles and was paid off when we moved quickly rolled 100k in under 2 years- maintenance/repairs became more frequent and more costly and it was time to buy a new vehicle. Now I have 2 car payments again plus carrying more insurance on the financed vehicles.
I am also forced to drive every single place that I go. Need milk, drive 5 miles. Need to food shop, drive 32 miles round trip. Burning through that cheaper gas, the miles add up and maintenance is far more frequent.
Best bang for the buck is PA. NJ and CT are generally expensive places to live as well. I-80 West you've got Stroudsburg/Delaware Water Gap area. Not a very big area but it's only ~75 miles from Manhattan. A bit further out you've Scranton/Wilkes Barre which is pretty big metro area with most of the necessities anyone could need.
If I wanted to stick around a "real city" but didn't want to do the NYC thing anymore I'd probably head south to either Philly or Baltimore. Boston and DC I'm going to write off as too expensive still.
It is true, actually, depending on where you live and what you do for a living. I'm in the Poconos and work in NYC. The area is very economically depressed and those that seem to be doing "better" are those commuting into NYC for work. Most employment is below the $12 an our mark.
Like Mathjak noted, most things still cost the same and some savings for lower priced items get eaten up by the things that cost the same.
Perfect example is car ownership. PA has cheaper gas and insurance than NYC but watch how quickly that savings is no longer a savings...
Out by me you MUST have 2 cars or more. We started with 2 cars- a FWD and a RWD. RWD- can't be driven in the winter necessitating a vehicle purchase for AWD/4X4 (we knew that long before we decided to live on a mountain). That's now 3 cars we own...
Then my little FWD car that had around 34k miles and was paid off when we moved quickly rolled 100k in under 2 years- maintenance/repairs became more frequent and more costly and it was time to buy a new vehicle. Now I have 2 car payments again plus carrying more insurance on the financed vehicles.
I am also forced to drive every single place that I go. Need milk, drive 5 miles. Need to food shop, drive 32 miles round trip. Burning through that cheaper gas, the miles add up and maintenance is far more frequent.
May I ask, how is your commute? I've always been curious about PA to NYC commutes, you don't hear about them too often compared to NJ/CT.
BTW.. Philly makes me cringe .. Isn't it pretty bad there with crime and unemployment??
In certain parts, yes but there are plenty of areas in the Philly metro area (including parts of Philly proper) that are safe and have robust employment opportunity.
I was actually going to suggest relocating to the State (or Commonwealth) of PA as it takes you completely out of NY State which is one of the least resident-friendly states in the country (high taxes, regulations, etc.).
NJ and CT aren't much better, so PA would be my choice.
What kind of work is your husband doing? I'm not an expert in the Philly economy but believe it's quite strong in healthcare, pharma, and tech, though it would fall quite a bit short of NYC in finance (and, presumably, advertising as well).
May I ask, how is your commute? I've always been curious about PA to NYC commutes, you don't hear about them too often compared to NJ/CT.
I'm pretty far out in PA (Carbon County)and work in the Bronx. I do not commute every day- there are times where I work from home, but when I'm needed onsite every day I generally crash in at my parents' house for at least 2-3 days of the week. It's a 250 mile round trip, which isn't horrid but 80 thru Jersey during the evening rush is hell. Since I work in the Bronx taking the commuter bus takes longer for me as I need to make my way to/from Port Authority- which is at least another 2 hours added to the day.
ETA: Monroe County is not cheaper living- the taxes are ooc. Many people are paying upwards of $8,000 a year for a house valued under $100k now. School taxes are ridiculous out there, which is way we went a little further and chose Carbon County.
So my question is, what are some cities within 2-3 hours where you can get
the most bang for your buck? House, safe neighborhood, etc.
That's the easy part of the question. The hard part is the job. (If your husband is in finance (Wall Street) you will not find the equivalent short of Chicago or a flight to London.
What does he do, how much does he make? (not prying but these are salient to the question you asked,)
The suburbs sound good at first - but if they're not seeing any type of significant commercial tax revenue, then your property tax will go up every year....
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
Honestly...here's my attitude..Almost ANYWHERE is better than NYC..especially when you have kids. Even if we don't save TONS..It IS feasible for two young parents of babies to own a house there and afford the simple necessities in life without killing themselves working..
A lot of people mention cars. I am not from here but personally miss the car being the #1 transportation mode. I don't enjoy being crammed on the ****ty trains with roaches, rats and other smelly and rude people.
It's overall about a better family life (I am PERFECTLY ok with boring..I make my own fun lol)...and not having to kill ourselves buying an $800,000 home when we can find the equivalent for less than 100k 2-3 hours away from here..
I'm looking forward to parking, regular playgrounds (not with nasty blacktop crap and 2000 kids going nuts), not having the NYPD up my ass to fine me for everything..just a sense of normalcy.
Everyone can say what they want but if people didn't save money and get ahead outside of NYC, they would be flocking here instead or staying (lol)
He has an array of experience. I guess you could say blue collar..Bachelor's Degree although I don't know if it will matter much for some jobs he's looking at. He's pretty wide open to ANY job that's along the lines of what he has done and is doing..energy/utilities, construction/demolition/welder, architecture, city planning, parks & recreation. I'm aware some pay less than others.
He's at about 100K but works an INSANE amount of overtime...we're aiming for 60K somewhere in PA/NJ/CT/UPstate NY..
As long as there's room for growth he will even take a little less. We have what we need here in NYC so we can take our sweet time applying for positions and running around to interviews over the next 6 months or so (as I know the job market isn't popping and it will take some elbow grease) I have lived in PA before and I know there aren't a million jobs lined up..Hence, why I mentioned we can take our sweet time..Albeit we're eager to be out like LAST YEAR
More of a "Can't wait to get the hell out of here so I can breathe" thing..Our one baby is a newborn..and this apartment and everything is just starting to feel suffocating and stressful.
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