Looks like 2014 is coming in strong!!

[bradford]

Originally Posted by ssiredfish

I dont know how you guys deal with that every year.....

How does it not just suck every day for 2-3 months???

And why is it that no one cool moves down here from up there?

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by bradford

And why is it that no one cool moves down here from up there?

Well, we used to live in St. Mary's, Georgia, so it's not like we don't know how life is in the deep south, but....

A serious question so it gets a serious answer.....

A variety of things Brad... Location, finances, jobs, age, schools, demographics, weather, are but a few of the reasons.

For instance, I'd like to move to the southern part of NC or the northern part of SC. Have wanted to for over a decade. But my wife works for the state, and she still has 6+ years to go before she can retire with a full pension. If we were to leave now, we'd lose her pension and all her health benefits. With the new Obama health care taxes, it would be impossible for us to loose those benefits and survive. It sucks, but there it is. So we're stuck here.

Plus I think we're getting to the point in our lives where it's too late to learn an entirely new language. Y'all speak kinda funny ....

[charlie_the_tuna]

it's a vicious cycle. if I made this money down there i'd live like a king. making this money up here and I can barely keep my head above water. I just cant make this kind of money down there so when I retire in about 10-12 years i'll do the snowbird thing and then you'll have your cool person from up here.

[ssiredfish]

Originally Posted by bradford

And why is it that no one cool moves down here from up there?

There are a few but it is a select few. Always welcome new folks to the area provided they can leave a few things back home. Their driving, attitude and comparisons to the north. We aint got time for that.....haha

The finance thing I hear alot. Seems to be the common factor. A friend of my wife with the same degree is makin 5x as much as she does livin in NYC. My wife was all down and out until her friend was discussing finances with her. 70K for an apartment, 15K for parking, 400-500 a week on meals?!?!?!?! I told my wife her friends makin it, she just aint keepin it.
Id rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable(and snowed in) any day, lol......

[Pipe_Dream]

It's all relative. Many of my wife's relations live in NE Ohio. They can't believe how expensive groceries are here, or how much a take-out pizza is here compared to "back home." Of course, the wages in NE Ohio aren't anything to write home about, either. If we sold out and moved there we could buy a heck of a place. Not that we're about to.

By the way, I took the ol' Pipe Dream out on a maintenance run Saturday. It was breezy and in the upper 50s. Yesterday was mid 60s. Of course it's getting a little chilly the next two nights.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by ssiredfish

There are a few but it is a select few. Always welcome new folks to the area provided they can leave a few things back home. Their driving, attitude and comparisons to the north. We aint got time for that.....haha

The finance thing I hear alot. Seems to be the common factor. A friend of my wife with the same degree is makin 5x as much as she does livin in NYC. My wife was all down and out until her friend was discussing finances with her. 70K for an apartment, 15K for parking, 400-500 a week on meals?!?!?!?! I told my wife her friends makin it, she just aint keepin it.
Id rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable(and snowed in) any day, lol......

Last year I bought a very nice 3 bedroom ranch home, full finished basement, half acre of land, dry, non-flood zone in one of the better areas of NJ. Price was about $350K. Taxes are 8.5K a year. I could take that same money and go South and get almost double the size of the house and land, with taxes less than 1K a year.. But I could never make the kind of money I was making here down there. So we'll wait till my wife retires, and then we'll probably move a little further south.

[smokeonthewater]

WOW I always figured a lot of you guys were rolling in the dough just based on the price of the "cheap" boats ya find and post up.... Most of my friends think I'm "rich" tho they never account for all the time I spend laid off (and admittedly not always in a huge hurry to get back to work if it's summer) but even so I'll never even consider spending 350,000 on a house......150k maybe but that would include a BIG pole barn to store my toys.

[garagenc]

Originally Posted by Destroyer

Last year I bought a very nice 3 bedroom ranch home, full finished basement, half acre of land, dry, non-flood zone in one of the better areas of NJ. Price was about $350K. Taxes are 8.5K a year. I could take that same money and go South and get almost double the size of the house and land, with taxes less than 1K a year.. But I could never make the kind of money I was making here down there. So we'll wait till my wife retires, and then we'll probably move a little further south.

Not anymore Destroyer.

The taxes are less but houses have gone up

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by garagenc

Not anymore Destroyer.

The taxes are less but houses have gone up

Ya, I know Garage... Last time I really looked at the home prices in NC I was shocked. 250 - 350k seemed to be the norm. But the further south you go, and the further west you go, the less pricey they are. The trick is going to be finding my price in the area I want. I don't have a lot of hope, but I have a willingness to buy a fixer-upper as long as the land is there and the house is in reasonably good condition. Time will tell. Meanwhile, I shovel snow and get some exercise, so it's not all that bad.

[spareparts]

Originally Posted by Destroyer

Ya, I know Garage... Last time I really looked at the home prices in NC I was shocked. 250 - 350k seemed to be the norm. But the further south you go, and the further west you go, the less pricey they are. The trick is going to be finding my price in the area I want. I don't have a lot of hope, but I have a willingness to buy a fixer-upper as long as the land is there and the house is in reasonably good condition. Time will tell. Meanwhile, I shovel snow and get some exercise, so it's not all that bad.

NC was invaded by Yankees paying way too much money for houses long ago, ever since Money magazine listed The Raleigh/Durham/ Chapel Hill area as the top place to live(sometime around 92?), the inflated prices went thru the roof. Half of Ohio is doing the same thing around here. After personally visited Ohio, I can understand their want to leave, if you come down here, haggle with the prices a bit, don't pay thru the nose like most of them do, keep the South affordable if you can