My wife and I often struggle with the thought of moving out of New York. We love our life here, and our home. We enjoy the company of our friends, neighbors and family. We like the convenience of living on Long Island, with access to virtually anything you can think of. My wife truly enjoys her job as a sign language interpreter, and there is a lot of work for her in the area. But that basically ends the list of pros.
The list of cons that often come up applies both to our home on Long Island, and the New York City Metro area in general.
Long Island is expensive. We pay some of the highest rates in the country for virtually everything, including income tax, property tax, sales tax, gas, tolls, insurance (car and home), electricity, food. On top of that virtually every activity imaginable requires a payment or permit, including just going to the beach.
Long Island is crowded. Even in the most sparsely populated areas finding space to yourself is a difficult task. Most of our major roadways are vastly inadequate causing our famous traffic problems. During normal business hours, it’s not uncommon to spend an hour or more in the car to travel 15 miles. Even our railways are in dire need of an upgrade and often have to completely shut down due to minor issues (but that doesn’t stop the bi-annual fare hikes!). Traveling in and around the area is extremely difficult, whether by car, rail, boat or plane.
Our immediate families live elsewhere. My wife is from lower NY, so her family is a three hour drive from us (on a good day), and mine fled NY for South Carolina many years ago. While some of my extended family is still about an hour drive from my house, we rarely see them.
Our friends have lives of their own. At my age, most of my friends have young kids that take up the majority of their time. The friends who have not already fled Long Island for greener pastures live far enough away that seeing them has become a rarity. Our neighborhood is slowly filling up with young families, who may in time become good friends, but that could happen virtually anywhere.
My job is location independent. What’s more, my salary wouldn’t change whether I lived in New York, Florida or Tahiti. We are fortunate enough to be able to support our lifestyle on just my salary, with money to spare. A move to a cheaper part of the country would give us significantly more opportunity to save and get ahead. My wife would need to find a new interpreting agency to work with, though, and a less populated area would have less need for her service.
The grass does seem greener virtually everywhere but the place we currently live (ironically I’ve struggled to rehab our lawn since we moved in, so that’s both literal and figurative). But there are some serious hurdles to overcome before we can pick up stakes.
Primarily, there is the issue of the cost of a move. We moved into our house 4.5 years ago, and just the closing and moving costs were over $20k. If we were to sell today, we would have to pay seller’s closing costs, which could be in the neighborhood of $10k. We also have to pay an interstate moving company, which may cost up to $2k. We would also have to settle the $10k loan on our solar array as part of the sale. This means that if we were to sell today for a $42k “profit” over our purchase price would actually be a break even. That doesn’t include any of the other improvements that we have completed on the home, such as the many smart home upgrades, numerous electrical updates, a new boiler, and converting the pool to saltwater.
My wife would also like to remain gainfully employed. Her job depends on there being deaf people nearby who need an interpreter, and an agency that schedules those interpreting jobs. Moving to an area when she couldn’t work, or had to give up her current career path, would cost us thousands of dollars per month. This could completely eliminate any savings we realize by living in a cheaper area.
We also just had our first baby and plan to have more kids fairly quickly. This means that schools and activities will be primary concerns for us in deciding on a new place to live. It also means that we need to make up our minds before our daughter reaches school age, as I would rather not have her make friends only to be moved away shortly thereafter.
Finally, although I work from home now, that may not be the case for the next 12+ years. The tech industry is always changing and evolving, and it is rare to stay employed in the same position or even at the same company for 10 or more years. I would need to live within reasonable range of a major city where I could find tech jobs if need be, and that city would ideally have an international airport, as I often have to travel for work.
There are many reasons for us to move and many reasons for us to stay. In the short term, a move to another state might cost us some money up front, but save us money in the long term. Staying keeps our situation as it is, but might cost us more over time.
As The Clash so famously asked…Should I stay or should I go?
Freed by 50 