I just recently read an article in the Long Island newspaper Newsday, March 15th 2013, titled
“Tax burden shifts to homeowners in Nassau”
My heart sank and I got a lump in my throat knowing that for so many friends, this would be another nail in their already buried financial coffins. This is nothing new for Long Island.
In 2011 CNN MONEY reported that Nassau County had the 2nd highest property tax in the entire country.
In 2008 The New York Times reported taxes on Long Island were a ‘serious problem’ and that between 1997 and 2005, Long Island property taxes increased 14 percentage points above the rate of inflation
How much more of these tax burdens can families endure?
The answer for me and my family came in 2010 when we could no longer endure a $13,000 tax on our 2,400 square foot home, a major factor in our decision to move to North Carolina.
Clearly, we are not alone. In another article out this week,
FORBES hails Raleigh, NC as THE fastest growing city in America, saying:
“The population of the Raleigh, N.C., metropolitan statistical area has expanded a remarkable 47.8% since 2000, tops among the nation’s 52 metro areas with over 1 million residents. That is more than three times the overall 12.7% growth of those 52 metro areas.”
Why Raleigh?
For us it was job opportunities, EXTREMELY low cost/high quality colleges for residents, lower cost of living, and residential tax relief…oh, and the weather is great too.
I imagine those are the main reasons why most people are flocking here. For Long Islanders, these reasons are magnified.
Think about it. Long Island: You’re a captive audience adjacent to the most expensive city in North America. You have to take a boat, bridge or tunnel to escape. Thus, no matter how high the gas, rent, taxes, or price of a gallon of milk….you’re stuck paying it. What are you going to do? Go to Jersey? It will cost you $26 and a half a tank of gas to get there. Oh, and the weather is terrible!
Out here in the real world there are choices.
Cost of Living Gas, for example can vary as much as 8 cents a gallon from place to place…and if you shop at the right supermarket….you can get as much as five cents per gallon per $100 of groceries off by using your rewards card at the pump! Just today Regular Gas was $3.44/gallon I got it for $3.14!
Jobs – Let’s talk about what’s happening here. What we have here in Raleigh at the moment is a self-propelled economy driven by a well-run State. The State keeps costs low, which attracts more and more people to the area… the more people that come, the more homes, schools, shopping centers you need to build…the more of those you build…the more jobs there are….the more jobs there are….the more people move here…the more people move here…the more we build, and so on.
On Long Island, this cycle played out just after World War II when Levittown was the model for post war suburbia, but it stagnated when Nassau County reached its capacity around 1980.
Taxes – Remember that 2,400 Sq Ft house we were paying $13,000/year taxes on?
We now own a 3,200 Sq Ft home here, and pay $2,700/year
Now, the question is….. Why are you still in New York?
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