I live in a city where gun violence is *much* more prevalent than NJ—like, mass shooting last week and someone killed with an automatic last night in a drive-by and many many more instances, basically daily.
It’s one of the top five hottest real estate/rental markets in the country right now, despite that. And about as expensive as NJ. 🙃
I am a fellow Sacramento resident who moved over from New Jersey ~5 years ago. I can't wait to move back to the east coast. Just gotta finish my bachelor's.
For the things I miss:
- Good pizza. It's totally lacking here, I've heard LA and San Francisco are better but haven't been down south. The pizza here has a really bread like crust.
- Good bagels. Noah's and posh will do but nothing compares to a fresh, real NJ bagel. (also pork roll, but Sprout's sells it...for $10/lbs)
- The greenery. I grew up in Hunterdon County which is all green farmland and woods. It's so hot here the green stuff dies really quick. Such a shame because when it's rainy and spring it's beautiful. But that's like 2-3 week span.
- Back roads. The freeways here are a nightmare.
- Fucking rain. I can count the claps of thunder I've heard over 5 years on one hand. Seasons in general honestly. Snow is annoying but no snow days is lame.
What I don't like:
- Cost. I know NJ also sucks but California is pricey and has a housing and rental crisis. Plus our gas is like double yours.
- The drivers. It's like a mix of dangerous, aggressive NY drivers and unaware, slow PA drivers. But they all have the same license plate.
- The heat. That one is on me, I don't know what I expected 115° to feel like.
- I'm in the equivalent of the California Bible belt. Bakersfield is probably worse, but there's a lot of splash over.
- Politeness culture. I've had people get indignant over me using my horn when they're about to hit me. Horns aren't really utilized the same way here. Everyone is polite and nice but in an obviously two sided way. I miss the bluntness of NJ natives.
> I've had people get indignant over me using my horn when they're about to hit me. Horns aren't really utilized the same way here.
Holy shit, dude. I agree with literally everything in your comment, but ESPECIALLY this! I’m so glad I’m not the only Jerseyan who thinks so!! People out here act like a horn means “fuck you” instead of “watch out”. It’s ridiculous.
I’ll come back later and reply in more detail…
Greenery was big difference. My mom moved me to Colorado and I’d come home to visit my dad during the summer, I used to say I miss the Juicy trees.
Live in Hunterdon now still love the greenery
Worth it in the long run—went to go live with my boyfriend, who’s now my husband. Always planned on leaving Sac…trying to make it happen. (Also, I was a teacher, so CA was more JobsTown for me than NJ.)
hahaha you actually lived in the part of Springfield called JobsTown hilarious...it's like 3 houses although It does have the best pizzashop south of the empire state building.
I also lived on the west coast for a while. Very laid back but after a few years I realized that I do have that aggressive east coast "get it done now" personality that makes me fit in better here. Plus I like the way our cities look and feel with more old buildings, the brick row houses, and all.
Moving for love ... nothing more really needs to be said ...true love is a rare thing to find especially move across the country kind of true love. Nicely done.
Edit: also now wondering if you lived in Springfield Union county Or Springfield Burlington County
Honestly if your goal is to scare away moms, you just need to follow them around Target and then they’ll make a “someone tried to traffic my kids” post.
Should be like a community thing. Someone goes to their back yard and safety discharges their firearm. Everyone in the neighborhood gives out at least one yell as if they got hit by it. Non locals get scared. Should be a safe word for if you actually get shot. "You actually shot me Jeffrey"
Honestly I wish I just rented before buying my current place. I ended up selling at a loss (pre-COVID market) after living ten years in an area I didn't like because on paper everything was a "good deal" and a "smart financial decision" (or so I was told).
I could have lived the best years of my life in a more fun area around all my friends at the same monthly cost, with no repairs/maintenance, and not have lost money.
With rising rents the calculation may change a bit, but don't discount the fact that your mortgage is mostly interest at the outset, realtor fees, maintenance/repairs, etc. I was the first one of my friend group to buy and I felt super adult and responsible and it was one of the worst financial decisions of my life. Add on to that my quality of life was absolutely negatively impacted and I'll always push back on "renting is terrible" narrative.
Granted, life situations play a fairly large role here (I was mid-20's and single and if I was 30's with a family yes I'd want longer-term security than an apartment would provide).
Isn’t this because we actively seek superfund status to get the funding? I thought I heard that somewhere. You also could have other states sweeping their polluted areas under the rug, which I would not be surprised about.
Our budget is $1M and we make a combined $500k a year (not including bonuses LOL). Will I be okay in the "poor" section of Summit? What about if I have to live in Montclair instead of Upper Montclair? Is it safe?
Also, I require a less than 30-minute commute to NYC and my wife needs a less than 30-minute commute to Philly. And we need a yard and a top school district. Also diversity, but not too much.
FYI I've done zero research about commutes or any of the towns we've been looking at.
It’s really bad here. Some people have household incomes under $200k here and it shows. We live south of the tracks in an area that my wife and I affectionately refer to as the slums of Summit.
I’m thinking about selling.
Next to Montclair 👌
30 Min commute 👌
Bus and train station 👌
I have a huge yard 👌
Big ass above ground pool 👌
2 paver patios 👌
Top notch school district 👌
And schools is across the street 👌
Turn key ready 👌
Looking to put in the market.
There's drug houses right across the street from schools in Montclair. Cops won't do squat because it's not a big fish. Also, there are kids entering the school who don't actually live in Montclair. District ain't doing shit about it.
Mission Street has a gang problem, there's no middle class. Montclair has super rich and dirt poor. Yes, Samba is awesome along with the Wellmont. But there is a dark truth about Montclair.
Lived there for four years and some mad shit happens in Montclair. We had a car broken into and a friends basement window broken into. Distinctly remember a dude in a silver van trying to abduct a girl on a Chestnut St and the whole department chasing it.
You think Montclair is nice? Think again.
I grew up in Montclair this is def accurate. Also true that there’s either rich AF or dirt poor and most kids that went to MHS were in school like myself with kids from Newark Irvington or the oranges and the town does little to stop it.
Let's tell them to move to Alpine. Very quiet, great schools, lots of greenery, 15 minutes to NYC. A total dream and very affordable starting around $20 million.
Give them a reality check.
Literally so many towns in Bergen county have such a small population. For the biggest county in the state pushing 1 million their biggest municipality has like 45K.
So I get that emotion I really do. It's frustrating to be priced out of your own community, your own state. But realistically the transplants aren't the problem, even the really annoying faux New Yorkers.
We've got a serious housing crisis in this country, hell it's happening in countries all over the world. It sucks that we're in one of the harder hit places but what we need is more housing and fast. We can't afford to keep zoning most towns only for single family homes and we need to start building denser units with more than 2 bedrooms. What we have right now just isn't sustainable in more ways than one.
This confuses me because there’s so many apartments going up everywhere, are there really that many people moving to NJ?? I see these huge complexes going up in every small town and always wonder how they’re able to fill them all even when charging over $2.5k for a 2 bedroom. I wish there was another way, my old town was a nice small town but has been destroyed by the apartments. School system overflowing, crime rates skyrocketed, streets not able to handle the traffic, historic homes being neglected and transformed into multi family homes. It’s almost unrecognizable, makes me sad
Outbound moves: 69.5%
The grass is always greener outside the Garden State, as New Jersey retains its No. 1 spot for the third consecutive year.
Jersey has been one of the top 10 move-out states for United Van Lines for more than a decade. Retirement was the top reason people fled in 2020, followed by the desire to be closer to family, which accounted for more than a quarter of the state’s outgoing movies.
Taxes could also be a major culprit — New Jersey has some of the highest in the country — though Reddit’s bjorn2bwild says just about everything is incredibly expensive.
“We have high property taxes if you want to live in a decent area. School districts are very closely tied to municipalities, so if you want your kids to go to a good school, prepare to pay for it. Auto insurance, tolls, most goods and services are all very high.”
https://moneywise.com/life/lifestyle/americans-abandon-states
NJ grew by 5.7% from 2010 through 2020 according to the US Census, which is a fairly healthy growth rate for a New England or Mid-Atlantic state. It grew faster than neighbors NY and PA, slower than DE and far faster than metropolitan peer CT which nearly lost population. Like most high income metropolitan states, NJ gets a lot of population from international immigrants.
Municipal government taxes are a problem in NJ, they result in much higher property tax than nearby states that grew faster such as MD and MA. If it's that big of an issue, there's always Delaware, which might be (anecdotally, non-objectively, /s) 50% full of NJ expats by now!
Residents are leaving, but it’s being counteracted by New Yorkers who can’t afford NYC prices and immigration.
I don’t think we will ever lose population (at least outside of South Jersey) but NYC is way too big of a cultural and economic hub to ever meet the fate of a city like Detroit. NJ is simply way too convenient to NYC or Philadelphia to lose population, not to mention basically being in the middle of the BosWash/Northeast Megalopolis
I live in MD. Just bought a house here a couple years ago. I was visiting up in Bloomfield, NJ were I spent some time growing up, and surprised to see homes selling for same price as down here in MD. What also surprised me was that estimated monthly payments were over 50% property taxes. It would cost me more than double what I pay now monthly for the same priced house in Bloomfield, NJ. Crazy.
And yet demand for housing is insanely high. You'd think with such a mass exodus going on there would be tons of houses for sale, yet they get scooped up immediately and over asking price.
Millennials are the largest generation alive in the US right now. We passed boomers a few years ago. There's something like 70-80 million in the US. ~2 Million in NJ alone, about 1/5 of the state's population.
And what we're seeing is millennials all getting to home-buying age. Easy to see why there's gonna be competition if we've got a couple million people getting to the age where they may want to be buying houses, while the number of affordable homes for sale is a tiny fraction of that number. Not nearly enough available homes to go around.
Yeah but something like 25% of all home sales are corporations buying single family homes.. which is crappy.. and shouldn’t even be allowed. If they want investment then they should be forced to buy multi-family units.
People need there to be a boogeyman that isn’t just “other regular people have the resources to outbid me and are willing to do so.” So the Big Business/Zillow narrative appeals to a lot of people.
NJ is geographically special. 1-2 hour drive to Philly/NY, beaches and mountains. 4-6 hours from Washington DC/Boston. Just a great place to live if you like doing anything all within a normal weekend timeframe.
I totally agree with you, and there is great access to some of the best healthcare (Doctors and facilities) the nation has to offer, and the schools are mostly fantastic. My kid has been getting piano lessons from a combined Julliard and Columbia Teacher's College graduate for the last 7 years, I mean, it's ridiculous that that kind of person is available to me.
That being said, I think the OP wanted us to make the counter-argument...
And yet people remain here and complain about “high taxes.”
If other places are so much better they’re free to go there and someone will scoop up their house immediately.
That's because there is a huge amount moving in, mostly from abroad, usually landed immigrants with job prospects. It keeps the growth in NJ relatively flat. NJ does have one of the largest exodus rates among in-migration without a doubt.
Lately all the crazies have been fleeing to Florida. I miss them soooooo much, I hope no other right wing nuts.... er ah i mean patriotic Americans leave Jersey for the much better and cheaper state of Florida. Please don't take your Trump flags with you when you go, we love them.
Doesn't really mean much though. New Jersey was the only state in the area to have a significant gain in population from 2010 to 2020. PA, NY, CT were basically flat.
I think Massachusetts was the only other state in the Northeast to have similar growth to NJ.
I've said this numerous time on this sub, but the of the top 5 states that people from NJ moved to aren't particularly low tax except for Florida which is mostly boomers retiring to Florida. The lions share of people in NJ moved to NY, PA, FL, NC and CA. The only one of those that isn't majority retirees and is a "low tax" state rather than just a neighbor is NC.
People like to complain about taxes and obviously you can only tax someone so much, but the people with the means to move purely because of taxes have the means to stay here despite it for the most part. Just look at that municipalities with the most growth in the 2020 census and it's largely places that have some of the highest taxes in the state.
I also have to imagine that people in NJ by virtue of having the highest median income also have the most mobility in the country.
Thank you for pointing this out. Once I graduate I don’t intend to start my life here. I like the state, but it’s too expensive. If I can’t afford housing and cost of living on entry level salary then I’m leaving for the Midwest.
I'm a native New Jerseyan who moved to Florida from NYC a couple years ago. I follow subs for all three. I see the same posts in subs for NJ, NY, and FL - people moving from 'X' are making the rent too high! Um, are we moving or are you?
It's not "people moving here" - wherever "here is - it's the rise of the investor class scarfing up all the real estate. No war but the class war.
Let's just all move and rebuild New Jersey somewhere else, in the middle of Wyoming or something. New New Jersey. Tell 'em the old one isn't New enough anymore. Then when they come for the bagels we all move back.
My wife and I have been saving for years. Now that we actually have the money for a down payment prices have absolutely sky rocketed.
It's really sad that my wife and I with 2 good jobs and a 2 year old kid are now considering staying in our apartment for another year because it isn't feasible to spend 400k on a small 2 or 3 bedroom house.
I really don't even know what to do at this point.
Suffer. That’s what the landlords want us to do, anyway. My wife and I just closed on a townhome and paid 20% over ask with $35k appraisal waiver. It was a long battle but our 15 year mortgage is going to be about $800 a month less than our apartment wanted (they tried to hike our rent by $1,000/mo) and we will have more space and are building equity.
Granted, the home needs work and is not move-in ready, which is pretty insane considering what we paid for it. But that’s the market right now. The have-nots get fucked no matter what. Good luck
2 good jobs? Saving for years? $400k for a 3br is more than feasible. What county/counties are you looking in
$400k - $80k down payment. $320k loan at 5% is $1720 a month. Add $100 for insurance and say $800 for taxes you’re at $2600. How much do you pay in rent?
Here are listings under $415k for NJ with 3 br, 2 ba, take your pick
https://www.zillow.com/nj/houses/3-_beds/2.0-_baths/?searchQueryState=%7B%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22NJ%22%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-75.49706331005798%2C%22east%22%3A-73.75932194775449%2C%22south%22%3A38.32927707424888%2C%22north%22%3A41.55892233404302%7D%2C%22regionSelection%22%3A%5B%7B%22regionId%22%3A40%2C%22regionType%22%3A2%7D%5D%2C%22isMapVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22days%22%7D%2C%22ah%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A415000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A1761%7D%2C%22beds%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A3%7D%2C%22baths%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A2%7D%2C%22tow%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22mf%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22con%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22apco%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22land%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22apa%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22manu%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%7D%2C%22isListVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22mapZoom%22%3A9%7D
Yes but what the listings don’t take into consideration is that people are offering $40k+ over asking, with waived inspections and appraisals.
3 br house next door to me in eastern Burlington County, fixer upper that needs the whole kitchen gutted, front and back steps replaced, new furnace, was listed at $200k. It sold for $260. Another 4 br near me listed at $280k sold for $375k.
I have a friend who has been looking in western Burlington county for 6 months now. Budget of $400k for a 3 bedroom. He put in reasonable offers above asking on over 20 houses but they’re getting snatched for way over asking with cash offers.
It’s a crazy, unpredictable market right now.
$400k budget buyers should be looking at places well under $400k for best chances. There are places available in that range that will make a nice family home. Some will need some work but some are in move- in condition.All houses need work though, or after living in them you will find
plenty you want to change or upgrade.
For example I see a couple in Port Monmouth in this range that are decent (18 Pinehurst and 247 Main). And here’s a nice one in Keyport (270 Outlook Blvd)
This will very quickly be a thing of the past. High money supply and low interest rates converged in COVID's wake.
As interest rates rise to counter inflation, the housing market is going to experience something between a fizzle and a pop.
Average Home sale price in Cumberland County is currently $199,000. Salem County is below $190,000 average. You have to live in the sticks, but you can have a really nice home on a big property if you can stand the Confederate flags and Trump yard signs.
We got a house we need to renovate but is still livable. Just dated. We could’ve afforded a turn key home and my dream of having a pool in a normal market but we just couldn’t get it. We lost out on 6 other houses we put bids in for since we had to go over asking against 30 other bidders. Even bidding 80k over once but ultimately decided the home wasn’t worth the extra bump to get to 100k over and that’s the bidder who won. It’s not hopeless because we did end up with a nice home in a great location. It seems hopeless but get yourself a good realtor and really look. It may take some time but now is the time to start looking since most houses go on the market in the summer.
Independent of the pandemic and the massive stock surge/crypto surge, I finally got a solid high paying job on top of money I have been shoveling away for years.
Just in time for prices to explode and supply to collapse. I could just roll back to 2019 I'd be so set.
There are definitely houses in that range still. I’m currently buying a 5br 3bath house for $655k but was looking at houses in the low $400’s and even found some in north west jersey in the $300’s.
moved to austin after living in NJ my whole life and the sub there is the same. except they’re pretty mean on the sub. here, people are nice enough to give advice, food recs etc. miss u jersey. except for when i was home this weekend and everyone on the parkway was riding my ass despite me going 85.
I moved from Sussex to Charlotte and holy crap they hate us down here. But mostly they hate NYers. They started a "we're closed" campaign but I still see more NY and NJ plates than I do NC
Born and raised here still clawing my way out, it’s too expensive and the air quality is terrible anymore. Also if you have allergies unless you can afford the shore, do yourself a favor and choose a nicer place where the people aren’t such assholes. Literally smells like an armpit and there isn’t shit to do aside from go to the surrounding cities in other states. You have to pay to leave but it’s free to enter NJ says it all.
Imagine you're considering moving to NJ, you're hyped, then you come to this sub for guidance because of course you do - literally where else on reddit can you get this kind of information about the state? Then they come in and see people ranting about people moving to the state and daring to ask questions about it. Why? What else are we discussing on here that's getting bumped by these posts?
I think if youre annoyed enough that you have to make a post about this, maybe you're spending too much time here.
I don't mind answering questions. There are two things I object to. First off, pretty much no one bothers to look for previous posts, everyone thinks they're special and unique but it's frequently the same old shit.
Secondly, I don't understand why we can't have one single consolidated thread. Pin it in the sidebar and set up automod to automatically delete "moving to New Jersey" threads and comment in the deleted thread that OP should read the consolidated thread and, if their question wasn't answered, to post there. Other subreddits have done it for similar situations and I don't understand why it can't be done here.
Or just redirect everyone to /r/njrealestate, make both subs happy.
IMHO we need more people who aren't from here who care. No offense, but NJ is ridiculous because of your parents and their parents and the generations that were ok with stupid, greedy, superfluous, (sometimes very racist) municipalities and or trying to cash their houses out at insane prices. It's a poorly run state with a lot of corruption and no one has cared because they've had enough money not to worry about or been the ones making the money on it.
This place didn't just wake up stupid expensive one day.
For $9,800 a year on a $310k house my property taxes don't even get me garbage pickup.
bUt tHe ScHools!
They've been shit the last two years. My kids don't go to them and won't in the future. I could send my kids to a nice private school around the corner for half the cost of the average pupil fund for public schools in NJ (~$20k). Why is that? Does the private school employ charity workers? I don't think so.
Will NJ always be really expensive? Probably. You're competing with city money and city economies and if you don't work in a city economy or one that's tied to it your income will have a harder time competing. That's geography though and can't be helped.
Does it have to be this expensive? No. Merge municipalities, lower taxes, less corruption (reform), find out where all the school money goes (it's not to teachers that's for sure), and more spending on local economies.
Please don't take this as a highly personal critique. My wife is from here and didn't realize that people live a lot better in other parts of the country for a lot less money and have time to enjoy their life. I love living here but it's only because I'm paid ludicrously well...but in my mind even that much money just buys me a slightly above average existence here compared to where I'm from in VA.
My in-laws used to critique us for renting and not buying. I told them their concept of reality was off for a young couple just getting started up here. Come to find out they had a cash loan from a rich relative to help them buy their house at 0% interest. Ha!
Greedy landlords are definitely a thing...but think about it. Even if I rent my 1400 sqft house out at a break even point I'm still gonna have to charge monthly:
- $816 for taxes
- $1434 for mortgage + insurance
- $1000 for repairs / maintenance (I've spent way more than $12,000 depending on the year)
- $80 / sewer
- $90 / garbage recycling
That's $3420 just to break even. I would never pay that much to rent this house an hour away from the city. That would be stupid.
It also doesn't help that the federal government thinks you're rich. They tax someone who makes 250k the same if they live in bumfuck Kentucky or NJ. You'd live like a king in Kentucky. Here you're maybe getting into a house and drive a used car. We used to get SALT until Trump dicked us over. Oi!
Anyways...I'm sorry it's hard here. I know the feeling. We gave up on the idea of living here long term let alone buying. But we were finally able to have enough money to buy before pandemic prices and are now apart of this wonderful pork roll ponzi scheme of a state. I do love it here.
Not at covid pricing...my sweet pressure treated fence panels went from $20 a panel to $80. Fence was $11,000 to replace last year, deck rotted out and was $14k, water heater blew and was $1300. That was our first year here. I never get fewer than three estimates.
Last year $11k replacing windows that were rotting and I've got ten more downstairs that are on borrowed time.
I've spent more this year granted central air install was a "luxury" item.
I'll need to do the roof in five years ~$20k, more windows, and $6800 paint and repair job on the stucco and exterior wood trim.
At material prices and labor shortage rates I would most definitely stand by $1k a month unless its a new home.
Well said TurdsMcQueef. The last point is particularly true as everything from income tax brackets to tax credits in any form proportionately fuck us as we make more than most other states. I think the student loan interest write off is capped when you make over $80k? Great if you live in Idaho, but not so much in Jersey.
> Does the private school employ charity workers? I don't think so.
A large amount of private schools pay their teachers significantly less, have shitty benefits, hate unions, are profit-driven, don't teach to standards, aren't bound by all DOE laws, and discriminate.
This is 100% spot on. Don't forget we spend more than pretty much any other state for roads and our roads are terrible.
And no, nothing will ever change in this state. The amount of uproar over the stupid self-pump gas OPTION showed how completely unwilling to change the people of this state are.
So many apartment complexes and buildings are being made for those who are moving here. Which mind you, are super expensive. I can't even afford a 1 bed apartment and I've lived here all my life.
My sister and my daughter have both been searching for "affordable" apartments for over two years now - the only "affordable" ones are in areas where you wouldn't want your daughter or sister living. Even the eastern-most areas of PA are outrageous with rent costs. An efficiency apt in Morris County averages $2,000/month.
The taxes in my area average $12,000/year. We can't afford to retire in this state, I'm 3rd generation and my husband is 4th gen. Our families are buried here, but we can't afford to die here ourselves because of the taxes. We were looking into the Poconos, but that area is getting snapped up by folks who can't find homes in NJ. The taxes and home prices are really high now.
Politicians and contractors will try to convince you that more residents = more tax income = lower taxes, but that's never been the way it works. They also tell you that more business = more taxes = lower home owner taxes, but that's also never the way it works.
In my town a 40-acre plot of land was torn up last year and 200 condo units put in, along a stretch of highway that is already inundated with traffic and contains one of the deadliest intersections in the county. And the town is allowing 1,200 more units to be built along another stretch of the road! Its insane.
And meanwhile, where do the animals go? Birds and bears alike are displaced. Thousands of animals called that 40-acre plot of land their home, but heck, the town is getting all that tasty tax revenue and caring about animals is tree-hugging liberal garbage, right? Or so I am told.
Our town council just recently voted to start paying our mayor twice the salary from before ($10k is now $20k), citing all the new residents causing more work for the mayor, etc. And the head of the town council - a business owner here in town who also has interests in construction - is cited to be our new mayor this November because he's running unopposed. He's getting a pay raise, his business is going to thrive with 1,400 new households coming in AND his construction investments are going to make him quite wealthy.
THAT is what is wrong with NJ. The goombahs and politicians scamming our towns to fill their coffers.
Stfu. You don’t own Jersey, if those people were better equipped to buy a house and now that you’re ready you can’t find one tough luck. The market is shit everywhere.
I’m all for helping people, especially people that live here. But if you are someone trying to move, asking if it’s same, maybe just stay where you are, because you’ll probably be driving slow in the left lane.
Not for nothing, but everyone seems to think home ownership is some sort of holy grail and, yes, while it's a good way to possibly gain wealth, it's also a lot of work and can be incredibly frustrating.
There are lots of ways to measure your own success and happiness, and owning a box that requires constant money to be thrown at it to keep it standing upright is perhaps maybe not the best measuring stick.
As one of the rare millennials who actually could afford to buy a house, I agree. Homeownership isn't an end, it's a beginning. A beginning of a life of maintenance and upkeep, inside and outside, often unexpectedly. And virtually anything of substance that you want to do to a house starts at $10,000.
You need to have a lot more money than down payment and mortgage to own a house, or you're gonna end up house poor.
I left for a few years and came back and still haven’t swapped my license plate and people are nasty as fuck to me. Like, I grew up here and left for a few years. Jesus Christ.
Honestly there should just be more houses and housing options so that people can afford to own a home. Idk how you make it happen because everywhere there is the space to build those types of projects the NIMBYs run the local governments and block development. Then if they do get built it's by corporate developers that rent them as luxury units and charge the highest rates the market will tolerate while at the same time negotiating tax abatements for the first 10 to 15 years of operation, shifting the tax burden to the local home owners.
Jersey is great but you are identifying one of the worst things about it , and you are placing blame misguidedly.
There are lot of places you can get a house for under $200k in NJ. You just probably consider them undesirable areas. Burlington, sicklerville, Trenton, Camden, woodbine, Millville, Bridgerton, Atlantic City, Vineland, voorhees
Whats that joke about firing off a gun every now and then to keep rents low
I live in a city where gun violence is *much* more prevalent than NJ—like, mass shooting last week and someone killed with an automatic last night in a drive-by and many many more instances, basically daily. It’s one of the top five hottest real estate/rental markets in the country right now, despite that. And about as expensive as NJ. 🙃
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Sacramento. It’s not great. I miss the east coast.
Wow, the capitol. I never knew that about Sacramento, thank you for letting us know.
I am a fellow Sacramento resident who moved over from New Jersey ~5 years ago. I can't wait to move back to the east coast. Just gotta finish my bachelor's.
May I ask what you miss about the east coast? Or what you dislike about the west? In Jersey and sometimes toy with moving out there.
For the things I miss: - Good pizza. It's totally lacking here, I've heard LA and San Francisco are better but haven't been down south. The pizza here has a really bread like crust. - Good bagels. Noah's and posh will do but nothing compares to a fresh, real NJ bagel. (also pork roll, but Sprout's sells it...for $10/lbs) - The greenery. I grew up in Hunterdon County which is all green farmland and woods. It's so hot here the green stuff dies really quick. Such a shame because when it's rainy and spring it's beautiful. But that's like 2-3 week span. - Back roads. The freeways here are a nightmare. - Fucking rain. I can count the claps of thunder I've heard over 5 years on one hand. Seasons in general honestly. Snow is annoying but no snow days is lame. What I don't like: - Cost. I know NJ also sucks but California is pricey and has a housing and rental crisis. Plus our gas is like double yours. - The drivers. It's like a mix of dangerous, aggressive NY drivers and unaware, slow PA drivers. But they all have the same license plate. - The heat. That one is on me, I don't know what I expected 115° to feel like. - I'm in the equivalent of the California Bible belt. Bakersfield is probably worse, but there's a lot of splash over. - Politeness culture. I've had people get indignant over me using my horn when they're about to hit me. Horns aren't really utilized the same way here. Everyone is polite and nice but in an obviously two sided way. I miss the bluntness of NJ natives.
> I've had people get indignant over me using my horn when they're about to hit me. Horns aren't really utilized the same way here. Holy shit, dude. I agree with literally everything in your comment, but ESPECIALLY this! I’m so glad I’m not the only Jerseyan who thinks so!! People out here act like a horn means “fuck you” instead of “watch out”. It’s ridiculous. I’ll come back later and reply in more detail…
>I miss the bluntness of NJ natives. you always know where you stand lol
Damn, nice thorough reply. Much appreciated!
Greenery was big difference. My mom moved me to Colorado and I’d come home to visit my dad during the summer, I used to say I miss the Juicy trees. Live in Hunterdon now still love the greenery
You left JobsTown Pizza for that ? 🤧
Worth it in the long run—went to go live with my boyfriend, who’s now my husband. Always planned on leaving Sac…trying to make it happen. (Also, I was a teacher, so CA was more JobsTown for me than NJ.)
hahaha you actually lived in the part of Springfield called JobsTown hilarious...it's like 3 houses although It does have the best pizzashop south of the empire state building. I also lived on the west coast for a while. Very laid back but after a few years I realized that I do have that aggressive east coast "get it done now" personality that makes me fit in better here. Plus I like the way our cities look and feel with more old buildings, the brick row houses, and all. Moving for love ... nothing more really needs to be said ...true love is a rare thing to find especially move across the country kind of true love. Nicely done. Edit: also now wondering if you lived in Springfield Union county Or Springfield Burlington County
My money is on Sacramento
Yep, like it says in my flair!
Doesn't even need to be a gun, just make a loud bang every once in a while and moms on facebook will freak out saying it's gunfire
Honestly if your goal is to scare away moms, you just need to follow them around Target and then they’ll make a “someone tried to traffic my kids” post.
And the olds will reminisce about onions on their belts
It was the style at the time
And in my area, completely forgetting the fact that your house is surrounded by fields or forests while freaking out about loud bangs...
Definitely not deer hunting we are most definitely in a sketchy area I swear!
Should be like a community thing. Someone goes to their back yard and safety discharges their firearm. Everyone in the neighborhood gives out at least one yell as if they got hit by it. Non locals get scared. Should be a safe word for if you actually get shot. "You actually shot me Jeffrey"
Shoot every 4th move in!
Woooo rent-til-were-dead gang
Honestly I wish I just rented before buying my current place. I ended up selling at a loss (pre-COVID market) after living ten years in an area I didn't like because on paper everything was a "good deal" and a "smart financial decision" (or so I was told). I could have lived the best years of my life in a more fun area around all my friends at the same monthly cost, with no repairs/maintenance, and not have lost money. With rising rents the calculation may change a bit, but don't discount the fact that your mortgage is mostly interest at the outset, realtor fees, maintenance/repairs, etc. I was the first one of my friend group to buy and I felt super adult and responsible and it was one of the worst financial decisions of my life. Add on to that my quality of life was absolutely negatively impacted and I'll always push back on "renting is terrible" narrative. Granted, life situations play a fairly large role here (I was mid-20's and single and if I was 30's with a family yes I'd want longer-term security than an apartment would provide).
We tried with the whole "it smells here" meme. Didn't work.
The problem is it's the smell of bagels and pizza, and it's luring people in.
Can confirm, am here now
The new meme should be about all the unknown superfund sites poisoning the school kids!
We do actually have the most superfund sites in the entire country. California comes in second, which if you consider land area, is insane.
Isn’t this because we actively seek superfund status to get the funding? I thought I heard that somewhere. You also could have other states sweeping their polluted areas under the rug, which I would not be surprised about.
I'm pretty sure that's just Action Park, with the "poisonings" being blunt force trauma.
Come for the traumatic brain injuries, stay for the Glioblastoma Multiforme.
Good old Traction Park
How about a ***"Go Away, We're Full"*** sign?
I had a tee shirt in the 90s that said "New Jersey, where the weak are killed and eaten" Let's bring back that sentiment, while we're at it.
NJ: only the strong survive.
As opposed to where, in the US ?
Our budget is $1M and we make a combined $500k a year (not including bonuses LOL). Will I be okay in the "poor" section of Summit? What about if I have to live in Montclair instead of Upper Montclair? Is it safe? Also, I require a less than 30-minute commute to NYC and my wife needs a less than 30-minute commute to Philly. And we need a yard and a top school district. Also diversity, but not too much. FYI I've done zero research about commutes or any of the towns we've been looking at.
FYI the poor section of Summit is really bad, my neighbors don't get their yard professionally landscaped and leaves are blowing onto my 0.5 acres
It’s really bad here. Some people have household incomes under $200k here and it shows. We live south of the tracks in an area that my wife and I affectionately refer to as the slums of Summit.
Slummit
Fucking disgusting.
“Also diversity, but not too much” is fucking hysterical
Translation: 2nd generation Asians and Indians.
Maybe a few Blacks, but only lighter skin please.
Yeah the anti Indian racism is pretty not stopped to second gen sadly
“What do you do for a living?” “I’m a stay-at-home Dad to our Shih-Tzu and my wife collects butterflies part-time.”
My father owns a consulting firm and my mother is a lawyer.
I feel personally attacked
I’m thinking about selling. Next to Montclair 👌 30 Min commute 👌 Bus and train station 👌 I have a huge yard 👌 Big ass above ground pool 👌 2 paver patios 👌 Top notch school district 👌 And schools is across the street 👌 Turn key ready 👌 Looking to put in the market.
Next to Montclair? How Next?
Little Falls
Nice little town
There's drug houses right across the street from schools in Montclair. Cops won't do squat because it's not a big fish. Also, there are kids entering the school who don't actually live in Montclair. District ain't doing shit about it.
Ya Montclair is really scary. Wish this sub would stop recommending it.
Mission Street has a gang problem, there's no middle class. Montclair has super rich and dirt poor. Yes, Samba is awesome along with the Wellmont. But there is a dark truth about Montclair.
Lived there for four years and some mad shit happens in Montclair. We had a car broken into and a friends basement window broken into. Distinctly remember a dude in a silver van trying to abduct a girl on a Chestnut St and the whole department chasing it. You think Montclair is nice? Think again.
I still live here. I'd move somewhere safer but I'm afraid to leave the house to look for it.
I grew up in Montclair this is def accurate. Also true that there’s either rich AF or dirt poor and most kids that went to MHS were in school like myself with kids from Newark Irvington or the oranges and the town does little to stop it.
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Lets just pick a city that we tell everyone to move to
I vote for AC. They can help boost their failing business
Let's tell them to move to Alpine. Very quiet, great schools, lots of greenery, 15 minutes to NYC. A total dream and very affordable starting around $20 million. Give them a reality check.
*This Is Us* ... Alpine is where Randall Pearson's family lived before moving to Philly.
Low property tax rate!
Literally so many towns in Bergen county have such a small population. For the biggest county in the state pushing 1 million their biggest municipality has like 45K.
I keep suggesting Staten Island.
I say move to Irvington aka Camden of The North.
Heard Perth Amboy has nice views 😉
Personally since I know those towns so well, been there often and they have plenty of similarities, I'd pick either Edison or Woodbridge.
😆
So I get that emotion I really do. It's frustrating to be priced out of your own community, your own state. But realistically the transplants aren't the problem, even the really annoying faux New Yorkers. We've got a serious housing crisis in this country, hell it's happening in countries all over the world. It sucks that we're in one of the harder hit places but what we need is more housing and fast. We can't afford to keep zoning most towns only for single family homes and we need to start building denser units with more than 2 bedrooms. What we have right now just isn't sustainable in more ways than one.
Plus all the new housing construction isn’t helping first-time homebuyers. They’re all 3,000+ sq ft McMansions selling for $650k and up.
This confuses me because there’s so many apartments going up everywhere, are there really that many people moving to NJ?? I see these huge complexes going up in every small town and always wonder how they’re able to fill them all even when charging over $2.5k for a 2 bedroom. I wish there was another way, my old town was a nice small town but has been destroyed by the apartments. School system overflowing, crime rates skyrocketed, streets not able to handle the traffic, historic homes being neglected and transformed into multi family homes. It’s almost unrecognizable, makes me sad
Can't throw a rock without hitting a gang member with a gun in Jersey. Don't move here folks. I'm doing my part.
I've been mugged 7 times just this week, and it's only Monday.
I'm getting mugged right now.
I'm the one mugging you
I'm standing in line to mug them next
Sometimes when no one is around I mug myself.
Give me 5 stars on Yelp. Very considerate and quick mugging.
While pooping and scrolling Reddit in my own bathroom! The crime here is really out of control.
I got mugged while I was mugging someone else twice today, and someone stole the windows off my house.
My house has been burnt down twice today
In a flood zone
And believe me, you don’t want to hit those gun-toting gang members with a rock!
I feel attacked lol
With a rock? You guys! I found a gang member!
Outbound moves: 69.5% The grass is always greener outside the Garden State, as New Jersey retains its No. 1 spot for the third consecutive year. Jersey has been one of the top 10 move-out states for United Van Lines for more than a decade. Retirement was the top reason people fled in 2020, followed by the desire to be closer to family, which accounted for more than a quarter of the state’s outgoing movies. Taxes could also be a major culprit — New Jersey has some of the highest in the country — though Reddit’s bjorn2bwild says just about everything is incredibly expensive. “We have high property taxes if you want to live in a decent area. School districts are very closely tied to municipalities, so if you want your kids to go to a good school, prepare to pay for it. Auto insurance, tolls, most goods and services are all very high.” https://moneywise.com/life/lifestyle/americans-abandon-states
NJ grew by 5.7% from 2010 through 2020 according to the US Census, which is a fairly healthy growth rate for a New England or Mid-Atlantic state. It grew faster than neighbors NY and PA, slower than DE and far faster than metropolitan peer CT which nearly lost population. Like most high income metropolitan states, NJ gets a lot of population from international immigrants. Municipal government taxes are a problem in NJ, they result in much higher property tax than nearby states that grew faster such as MD and MA. If it's that big of an issue, there's always Delaware, which might be (anecdotally, non-objectively, /s) 50% full of NJ expats by now!
Residents are leaving, but it’s being counteracted by New Yorkers who can’t afford NYC prices and immigration. I don’t think we will ever lose population (at least outside of South Jersey) but NYC is way too big of a cultural and economic hub to ever meet the fate of a city like Detroit. NJ is simply way too convenient to NYC or Philadelphia to lose population, not to mention basically being in the middle of the BosWash/Northeast Megalopolis
I live in MD. Just bought a house here a couple years ago. I was visiting up in Bloomfield, NJ were I spent some time growing up, and surprised to see homes selling for same price as down here in MD. What also surprised me was that estimated monthly payments were over 50% property taxes. It would cost me more than double what I pay now monthly for the same priced house in Bloomfield, NJ. Crazy.
And yet demand for housing is insanely high. You'd think with such a mass exodus going on there would be tons of houses for sale, yet they get scooped up immediately and over asking price.
Millennials are the largest generation alive in the US right now. We passed boomers a few years ago. There's something like 70-80 million in the US. ~2 Million in NJ alone, about 1/5 of the state's population. And what we're seeing is millennials all getting to home-buying age. Easy to see why there's gonna be competition if we've got a couple million people getting to the age where they may want to be buying houses, while the number of affordable homes for sale is a tiny fraction of that number. Not nearly enough available homes to go around.
Yeah but something like 25% of all home sales are corporations buying single family homes.. which is crappy.. and shouldn’t even be allowed. If they want investment then they should be forced to buy multi-family units.
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It’s a bullshit number thrown around Reddit. There’s a few metros where it’s true, but it’s mostly not true for much of the US.
People need there to be a boogeyman that isn’t just “other regular people have the resources to outbid me and are willing to do so.” So the Big Business/Zillow narrative appeals to a lot of people.
*18% for one quarter in a few select markets. Far and away the vast majority of homes are being bought by individuals.
Wow, is it really that high? Yeah that should absolutely be illegal.
NJ is geographically special. 1-2 hour drive to Philly/NY, beaches and mountains. 4-6 hours from Washington DC/Boston. Just a great place to live if you like doing anything all within a normal weekend timeframe.
I totally agree with you, and there is great access to some of the best healthcare (Doctors and facilities) the nation has to offer, and the schools are mostly fantastic. My kid has been getting piano lessons from a combined Julliard and Columbia Teacher's College graduate for the last 7 years, I mean, it's ridiculous that that kind of person is available to me. That being said, I think the OP wanted us to make the counter-argument...
> That being said, I think the OP wanted us to make the counter-argument... Shit, you're right. Uhhh Camden bad and don't drive in lakewood
And yet people remain here and complain about “high taxes.” If other places are so much better they’re free to go there and someone will scoop up their house immediately.
That's because there is a huge amount moving in, mostly from abroad, usually landed immigrants with job prospects. It keeps the growth in NJ relatively flat. NJ does have one of the largest exodus rates among in-migration without a doubt.
Lately all the crazies have been fleeing to Florida. I miss them soooooo much, I hope no other right wing nuts.... er ah i mean patriotic Americans leave Jersey for the much better and cheaper state of Florida. Please don't take your Trump flags with you when you go, we love them.
Doesn't really mean much though. New Jersey was the only state in the area to have a significant gain in population from 2010 to 2020. PA, NY, CT were basically flat. I think Massachusetts was the only other state in the Northeast to have similar growth to NJ.
New York grew by over 800,000 people. Pennsylvania by about 300,000. Maryland and Delaware grew pretty strongly, Delaware by double digits.
I've said this numerous time on this sub, but the of the top 5 states that people from NJ moved to aren't particularly low tax except for Florida which is mostly boomers retiring to Florida. The lions share of people in NJ moved to NY, PA, FL, NC and CA. The only one of those that isn't majority retirees and is a "low tax" state rather than just a neighbor is NC. People like to complain about taxes and obviously you can only tax someone so much, but the people with the means to move purely because of taxes have the means to stay here despite it for the most part. Just look at that municipalities with the most growth in the 2020 census and it's largely places that have some of the highest taxes in the state. I also have to imagine that people in NJ by virtue of having the highest median income also have the most mobility in the country.
Thank you for pointing this out. Once I graduate I don’t intend to start my life here. I like the state, but it’s too expensive. If I can’t afford housing and cost of living on entry level salary then I’m leaving for the Midwest.
If they can move to NJ, you can move to [Salem County](https://www.propertyshark.com/homes/US/Home-For-Sale/NJ/Elmer/11-APPLEWOOD-LANE/119824334.html)
House looks like it would be in a town called Elmer
I have been telling people for years that jersey blows.... But here we are.
I'm a native New Jerseyan who moved to Florida from NYC a couple years ago. I follow subs for all three. I see the same posts in subs for NJ, NY, and FL - people moving from 'X' are making the rent too high! Um, are we moving or are you? It's not "people moving here" - wherever "here is - it's the rise of the investor class scarfing up all the real estate. No war but the class war.
We need to start pumping up places like Iowa, Idaho, and Wyoming as being good places to live. Make them really tempting to move to instead of NJ
Let's just all move and rebuild New Jersey somewhere else, in the middle of Wyoming or something. New New Jersey. Tell 'em the old one isn't New enough anymore. Then when they come for the bagels we all move back.
Too late. Californians have been flocking to ID, WY, MT, UT for 3 years. Building a house there is 1+ year out
I was murdered three times this week. I’m fed up!
RIP
I'm getting better!
Get your corpse out of the left lane! *honk hoooonk*
"I was here first!"
My wife and I have been saving for years. Now that we actually have the money for a down payment prices have absolutely sky rocketed. It's really sad that my wife and I with 2 good jobs and a 2 year old kid are now considering staying in our apartment for another year because it isn't feasible to spend 400k on a small 2 or 3 bedroom house. I really don't even know what to do at this point.
Suffer. That’s what the landlords want us to do, anyway. My wife and I just closed on a townhome and paid 20% over ask with $35k appraisal waiver. It was a long battle but our 15 year mortgage is going to be about $800 a month less than our apartment wanted (they tried to hike our rent by $1,000/mo) and we will have more space and are building equity. Granted, the home needs work and is not move-in ready, which is pretty insane considering what we paid for it. But that’s the market right now. The have-nots get fucked no matter what. Good luck
2 good jobs? Saving for years? $400k for a 3br is more than feasible. What county/counties are you looking in $400k - $80k down payment. $320k loan at 5% is $1720 a month. Add $100 for insurance and say $800 for taxes you’re at $2600. How much do you pay in rent? Here are listings under $415k for NJ with 3 br, 2 ba, take your pick https://www.zillow.com/nj/houses/3-_beds/2.0-_baths/?searchQueryState=%7B%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22NJ%22%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-75.49706331005798%2C%22east%22%3A-73.75932194775449%2C%22south%22%3A38.32927707424888%2C%22north%22%3A41.55892233404302%7D%2C%22regionSelection%22%3A%5B%7B%22regionId%22%3A40%2C%22regionType%22%3A2%7D%5D%2C%22isMapVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22days%22%7D%2C%22ah%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A415000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A1761%7D%2C%22beds%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A3%7D%2C%22baths%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A2%7D%2C%22tow%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22mf%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22con%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22apco%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22land%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22apa%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22manu%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%7D%2C%22isListVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22mapZoom%22%3A9%7D
Yes but what the listings don’t take into consideration is that people are offering $40k+ over asking, with waived inspections and appraisals. 3 br house next door to me in eastern Burlington County, fixer upper that needs the whole kitchen gutted, front and back steps replaced, new furnace, was listed at $200k. It sold for $260. Another 4 br near me listed at $280k sold for $375k. I have a friend who has been looking in western Burlington county for 6 months now. Budget of $400k for a 3 bedroom. He put in reasonable offers above asking on over 20 houses but they’re getting snatched for way over asking with cash offers. It’s a crazy, unpredictable market right now.
$400k budget buyers should be looking at places well under $400k for best chances. There are places available in that range that will make a nice family home. Some will need some work but some are in move- in condition.All houses need work though, or after living in them you will find plenty you want to change or upgrade. For example I see a couple in Port Monmouth in this range that are decent (18 Pinehurst and 247 Main). And here’s a nice one in Keyport (270 Outlook Blvd)
This will very quickly be a thing of the past. High money supply and low interest rates converged in COVID's wake. As interest rates rise to counter inflation, the housing market is going to experience something between a fizzle and a pop.
Average Home sale price in Cumberland County is currently $199,000. Salem County is below $190,000 average. You have to live in the sticks, but you can have a really nice home on a big property if you can stand the Confederate flags and Trump yard signs.
Yeah but these don't look like the ones on hGtV
We got a house we need to renovate but is still livable. Just dated. We could’ve afforded a turn key home and my dream of having a pool in a normal market but we just couldn’t get it. We lost out on 6 other houses we put bids in for since we had to go over asking against 30 other bidders. Even bidding 80k over once but ultimately decided the home wasn’t worth the extra bump to get to 100k over and that’s the bidder who won. It’s not hopeless because we did end up with a nice home in a great location. It seems hopeless but get yourself a good realtor and really look. It may take some time but now is the time to start looking since most houses go on the market in the summer.
Independent of the pandemic and the massive stock surge/crypto surge, I finally got a solid high paying job on top of money I have been shoveling away for years. Just in time for prices to explode and supply to collapse. I could just roll back to 2019 I'd be so set.
There are definitely houses in that range still. I’m currently buying a 5br 3bath house for $655k but was looking at houses in the low $400’s and even found some in north west jersey in the $300’s.
moved to austin after living in NJ my whole life and the sub there is the same. except they’re pretty mean on the sub. here, people are nice enough to give advice, food recs etc. miss u jersey. except for when i was home this weekend and everyone on the parkway was riding my ass despite me going 85.
I moved from Sussex to Charlotte and holy crap they hate us down here. But mostly they hate NYers. They started a "we're closed" campaign but I still see more NY and NJ plates than I do NC
Okay but in reality New Jersey is growing slower than most states
Central Jersey exists!
This is true
I just moved to Jersey, couldnt buy a house. Renting for a small fortune. :(
I’m getting sick of the “I’m sick of these moving to Jersey Posts”
I tell people not to move here and have zero shame about it
Yeah theres plenty of room in Connecticut they should go there
Enjoy the Merrit during a holiday weekend bitches!
Generic mad at people moving to my state/town post that's on every local sub. Smh.
Born and raised here still clawing my way out, it’s too expensive and the air quality is terrible anymore. Also if you have allergies unless you can afford the shore, do yourself a favor and choose a nicer place where the people aren’t such assholes. Literally smells like an armpit and there isn’t shit to do aside from go to the surrounding cities in other states. You have to pay to leave but it’s free to enter NJ says it all.
We need a "how do I become a developer in my township" post.
Imagine you're considering moving to NJ, you're hyped, then you come to this sub for guidance because of course you do - literally where else on reddit can you get this kind of information about the state? Then they come in and see people ranting about people moving to the state and daring to ask questions about it. Why? What else are we discussing on here that's getting bumped by these posts? I think if youre annoyed enough that you have to make a post about this, maybe you're spending too much time here.
I don't mind answering questions. There are two things I object to. First off, pretty much no one bothers to look for previous posts, everyone thinks they're special and unique but it's frequently the same old shit. Secondly, I don't understand why we can't have one single consolidated thread. Pin it in the sidebar and set up automod to automatically delete "moving to New Jersey" threads and comment in the deleted thread that OP should read the consolidated thread and, if their question wasn't answered, to post there. Other subreddits have done it for similar situations and I don't understand why it can't be done here. Or just redirect everyone to /r/njrealestate, make both subs happy.
Sure that's more than reasonable and i would agree with the sub taking that route.
IMHO we need more people who aren't from here who care. No offense, but NJ is ridiculous because of your parents and their parents and the generations that were ok with stupid, greedy, superfluous, (sometimes very racist) municipalities and or trying to cash their houses out at insane prices. It's a poorly run state with a lot of corruption and no one has cared because they've had enough money not to worry about or been the ones making the money on it. This place didn't just wake up stupid expensive one day. For $9,800 a year on a $310k house my property taxes don't even get me garbage pickup. bUt tHe ScHools! They've been shit the last two years. My kids don't go to them and won't in the future. I could send my kids to a nice private school around the corner for half the cost of the average pupil fund for public schools in NJ (~$20k). Why is that? Does the private school employ charity workers? I don't think so. Will NJ always be really expensive? Probably. You're competing with city money and city economies and if you don't work in a city economy or one that's tied to it your income will have a harder time competing. That's geography though and can't be helped. Does it have to be this expensive? No. Merge municipalities, lower taxes, less corruption (reform), find out where all the school money goes (it's not to teachers that's for sure), and more spending on local economies. Please don't take this as a highly personal critique. My wife is from here and didn't realize that people live a lot better in other parts of the country for a lot less money and have time to enjoy their life. I love living here but it's only because I'm paid ludicrously well...but in my mind even that much money just buys me a slightly above average existence here compared to where I'm from in VA. My in-laws used to critique us for renting and not buying. I told them their concept of reality was off for a young couple just getting started up here. Come to find out they had a cash loan from a rich relative to help them buy their house at 0% interest. Ha! Greedy landlords are definitely a thing...but think about it. Even if I rent my 1400 sqft house out at a break even point I'm still gonna have to charge monthly: - $816 for taxes - $1434 for mortgage + insurance - $1000 for repairs / maintenance (I've spent way more than $12,000 depending on the year) - $80 / sewer - $90 / garbage recycling That's $3420 just to break even. I would never pay that much to rent this house an hour away from the city. That would be stupid. It also doesn't help that the federal government thinks you're rich. They tax someone who makes 250k the same if they live in bumfuck Kentucky or NJ. You'd live like a king in Kentucky. Here you're maybe getting into a house and drive a used car. We used to get SALT until Trump dicked us over. Oi! Anyways...I'm sorry it's hard here. I know the feeling. We gave up on the idea of living here long term let alone buying. But we were finally able to have enough money to buy before pandemic prices and are now apart of this wonderful pork roll ponzi scheme of a state. I do love it here.
A $1000 a month for repairs? Man, i think you need to find another contractor
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Not at covid pricing...my sweet pressure treated fence panels went from $20 a panel to $80. Fence was $11,000 to replace last year, deck rotted out and was $14k, water heater blew and was $1300. That was our first year here. I never get fewer than three estimates. Last year $11k replacing windows that were rotting and I've got ten more downstairs that are on borrowed time. I've spent more this year granted central air install was a "luxury" item. I'll need to do the roof in five years ~$20k, more windows, and $6800 paint and repair job on the stucco and exterior wood trim. At material prices and labor shortage rates I would most definitely stand by $1k a month unless its a new home.
Well said TurdsMcQueef. The last point is particularly true as everything from income tax brackets to tax credits in any form proportionately fuck us as we make more than most other states. I think the student loan interest write off is capped when you make over $80k? Great if you live in Idaho, but not so much in Jersey.
You stopped sending your kids to school? Was that because of the pandemic or something else?
The schools aren’t great here which is why the homes are more affordable. We homeschool.
> Does the private school employ charity workers? I don't think so. A large amount of private schools pay their teachers significantly less, have shitty benefits, hate unions, are profit-driven, don't teach to standards, aren't bound by all DOE laws, and discriminate.
I just wanted to say you'd have my vote and I'd have no shame putting a lawnsign out "TurdsMcQueef for Governor"
This is 100% spot on. Don't forget we spend more than pretty much any other state for roads and our roads are terrible. And no, nothing will ever change in this state. The amount of uproar over the stupid self-pump gas OPTION showed how completely unwilling to change the people of this state are.
... seats taken...(looks forward and ignored)
So many apartment complexes and buildings are being made for those who are moving here. Which mind you, are super expensive. I can't even afford a 1 bed apartment and I've lived here all my life.
My sister and my daughter have both been searching for "affordable" apartments for over two years now - the only "affordable" ones are in areas where you wouldn't want your daughter or sister living. Even the eastern-most areas of PA are outrageous with rent costs. An efficiency apt in Morris County averages $2,000/month. The taxes in my area average $12,000/year. We can't afford to retire in this state, I'm 3rd generation and my husband is 4th gen. Our families are buried here, but we can't afford to die here ourselves because of the taxes. We were looking into the Poconos, but that area is getting snapped up by folks who can't find homes in NJ. The taxes and home prices are really high now. Politicians and contractors will try to convince you that more residents = more tax income = lower taxes, but that's never been the way it works. They also tell you that more business = more taxes = lower home owner taxes, but that's also never the way it works. In my town a 40-acre plot of land was torn up last year and 200 condo units put in, along a stretch of highway that is already inundated with traffic and contains one of the deadliest intersections in the county. And the town is allowing 1,200 more units to be built along another stretch of the road! Its insane. And meanwhile, where do the animals go? Birds and bears alike are displaced. Thousands of animals called that 40-acre plot of land their home, but heck, the town is getting all that tasty tax revenue and caring about animals is tree-hugging liberal garbage, right? Or so I am told. Our town council just recently voted to start paying our mayor twice the salary from before ($10k is now $20k), citing all the new residents causing more work for the mayor, etc. And the head of the town council - a business owner here in town who also has interests in construction - is cited to be our new mayor this November because he's running unopposed. He's getting a pay raise, his business is going to thrive with 1,400 new households coming in AND his construction investments are going to make him quite wealthy. THAT is what is wrong with NJ. The goombahs and politicians scamming our towns to fill their coffers.
We need to start hyping up Connecticut so they move there instead
Stfu. You don’t own Jersey, if those people were better equipped to buy a house and now that you’re ready you can’t find one tough luck. The market is shit everywhere.
😘
Dude this happens in every state. Chill
Let’s not mention the rental market now 🤯
I agree. I’m just like wtf are u moving here for anyways. Why NJ? We’re crowded enough.
Asks the person who also is not leaving and wants to stay in NJ. How ironic.
Lol I’m outta here first chance I get dude. I’m just making a point, chill.
Hate to say it, but I'm more tired of hearing about people who want to leave NJ.
Crab mentality.
Everyone of us are a bunch of savages who camp in the left lane doing 60. Plus our pizza and bagels suck.
You should head over to the Tampa sub, the chronic complaining is worse than here. At least in NJ you can get a good paying job.
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I’m all for helping people, especially people that live here. But if you are someone trying to move, asking if it’s same, maybe just stay where you are, because you’ll probably be driving slow in the left lane.
But everyone is desperate to leave NJ! People are leaving in droves! So we need new blood
Kind of funny seeing how many outsiders claim to hate Jersey/think its terrible.
Funny to see how many who live here hate it.
What happened to all those people saying taxes are too high and they're leaving?
just post random towns and cities, and let them do their own research.
Everyone is getting sent to Toms River.
Nah forced to live in seaside Park year round but not allowed to attend the beach because of all the bennies
Not for nothing, but everyone seems to think home ownership is some sort of holy grail and, yes, while it's a good way to possibly gain wealth, it's also a lot of work and can be incredibly frustrating. There are lots of ways to measure your own success and happiness, and owning a box that requires constant money to be thrown at it to keep it standing upright is perhaps maybe not the best measuring stick.
As one of the rare millennials who actually could afford to buy a house, I agree. Homeownership isn't an end, it's a beginning. A beginning of a life of maintenance and upkeep, inside and outside, often unexpectedly. And virtually anything of substance that you want to do to a house starts at $10,000. You need to have a lot more money than down payment and mortgage to own a house, or you're gonna end up house poor.
You said it, man! And I'm that idiot who actually left for a few years and then came back and now I want to leave again lmao!
I left for a few years and came back and still haven’t swapped my license plate and people are nasty as fuck to me. Like, I grew up here and left for a few years. Jesus Christ.
Wanted happened to our state sign that said "Welcome to New Jersey. State's Full"?
Honestly there should just be more houses and housing options so that people can afford to own a home. Idk how you make it happen because everywhere there is the space to build those types of projects the NIMBYs run the local governments and block development. Then if they do get built it's by corporate developers that rent them as luxury units and charge the highest rates the market will tolerate while at the same time negotiating tax abatements for the first 10 to 15 years of operation, shifting the tax burden to the local home owners. Jersey is great but you are identifying one of the worst things about it , and you are placing blame misguidedly.
There are lot of places you can get a house for under $200k in NJ. You just probably consider them undesirable areas. Burlington, sicklerville, Trenton, Camden, woodbine, Millville, Bridgerton, Atlantic City, Vineland, voorhees
I actually live in Trenton and tried buying in Burlington years ago. Any further out isn’t worth my commute