Cost of Living on the Coasts

[g-man]

Wow.

Hey there, whiny tech bitch... try being an E-4 with a family who gets stationed there. Or in Hawaii. As an O-4 it felt tight, so I KNOW guys further down the pay chart felt the squeeze. Dude needs to change out that daily $8 bagel and coffee order for a nice tall glass of STFU. Plenty of the other folks stationed here near DC choose to pay more and live closer, but we chose to live further out so we wouldn't be on top of our neighbors. Were it not for the express lanes that I can use for free on a motorcycle, we might have tried to live closer. Or I'd be stuck slugging every day, which isn't wonderful, but beats the ever-loving hell out of taking the Metro.

Example: Last time I was stationed here, I paid $1850/mo for a 5-bedroom 3-bath, 3k sqf place out in MD, with a 1.5 car (over-long) garage, and a driveway long enough to park both 4-wheel vehicles in. A buddy I went to college with lived within stumbling distance of a metro stop in NW DC, and paid the same $1850/mo for a 1-bedroom 700sqft apartment, and had to pay another $200/mo for his parking space. My commute was ~1hr on average, but ran from 35min up to 2.5 hours one day. You want to live walking distance to your high-paying tech job? Expect to pay for it.

Oh, and it's CA. Lane-splitting is officially legal there now. Move further out, get a motorcycle, and keep your commute time down. Or don't. You have a CHOICE. The lady working at your kid's daycare doesn't, because she doesn't make enough to rent anything bigger than a closet, or afford a car payment... quitcherbitchin.

[evan price]

Hmm....2500 sqf house, 2200 sqf barn and workshop, 2 acres, bordered by farm land and i can shoot out my back door...with taxes and insurance escrowed my payment is under $1k monthly. And a 40 minute drive to work.
Life is good.

[Kommander]

G-man I ran some of the numbers from the article and it's pretty embarassing. That guy making 700k a yea it paying less than 1/7th of his pay in rent. The others are in similar situations. Fuck these people.

[Kommander]

G-man I ran some of the numbers from the article and it's pretty embarassing. That guy making 700k a year is paying less than 1/7th of his pay in rent. The others are in similar situations. Fuck these people.

[blackeagle603]

Or commit to minimalist living close in to work and eliminate car ownership and associated costs. Walk, bike, Uber/Lyft and when needed on occasion rent a car.

I added it up and realized how much of my life has been spent sitting in a car going to/from work. Oy...

[Greg]

I left Northern NJ for what seems to be the richest (per capita, I believe) county in Missouri. I'm in the best school district in the county, one of the best in the state and you know what that does to real estate prices.

I'm in a 2400 sq ft house (plus mostly finished basement - the unfinished portion is an enormous storage/shop area) on half an acre (it's flat and usable) in a desirable subdivision. My mortgage and property taxes together are less than I was paying for a 2 bedroom apt in NJ that had approximately the same square footage as the finished part of my basement.

Funny thing, in NJ I was in a school district that was the best in its area and one of the best in the state. And the school district I'm in now is absolutely better. So much for inferior red state schools.

While I'm at it..... In NJ I lived in Montville. It's a great town, for NJ. Real housewives of NJ live there. I could tell you how to get to mob wife prison lady's house. It gets near the top of 'best places to live' in the *country* every year.

The place I am now offers a higher quality of life.

[Precision]

When I left NYC in 2002. Our rent stabilized 400 sq ft apt on a 5th floor walk up was $1600 a month. My 6 figure income in NY left me with scraps after taxes etc.

when I moved to Florida, my mortgage was about $1250 PITI for 1/2 acre 2/2 with attached 1/1 mother in law suite on half an acre. My renter paid $450 a month. Life was way better. In year one in FL I paid myself $45k and had no savings but had gutted and rebuilt the house for cash and bootstrapped a lawn business into existence. Year two had 10k more in earnings and $10k in savings.

Now out in TN my rent is $1500 for a 3/2 with 2 car garage and finished walk out basement. Hyper tight market here, but I am living on about $40k and building. Hoping to buy something next year a bit north or east of town in the 10-20 acre range and will likely get a DIY special but keep a similar monthly nut.

Its all about priorities. Mine are not daily lattes, a short commute and virtue signalling. imagine that.

[Greg]

When I left NYC in 2002. Our rent stabilized 400 sq ft apt on a 5th floor walk up was $1600 a month. My 6 figure income in NY left me with scraps after taxes etc.

when I moved to Florida, my mortgage was about $1250 PITI for 1/2 acre 2/2 with attached 1/1 mother in law suite on half an acre. My renter paid $450 a month. Life was way better. In year one in FL I paid myself $45k and had no savings but had gutted and rebuilt the house for cash and bootstrapped a lawn business into existence. Year two had 10k more in earnings and $10k in savings.

Now out in TN my rent is $1500 for a 3/2 with 2 car garage and finished walk out basement. Hyper tight market here, but I am living on about $40k and building. Hoping to buy something next year a bit north or east of town in the 10-20 acre range and will likely get a DIY special but keep a similar monthly nut.

Its all about priorities. Mine are not daily lattes, a short commute and virtue signalling. imagine that.

Or status games. Can't forget that. Much of the appeal of living in a place like NYC directly or indirectly boils down to 'doing so is higher status than not doing so'.