3 bedroom ranch on 1/3 acre in Ocean County here. Far enough inland to avoid disaster, but only 10 minutes from the ocean. Philly is 90 minutes west, Manhattan is 90 minutes north. Property taxes are about 4K. Gas is right around 3.30 at the moment. Bought the house in '86 for 163.5K Just made the last mortgage payment. Current market value is right around 250K. No complaints.

"Obvious?" Really, tardmitter? I bet you've never even been here.

And New York leads the nation in people trying to get back into New Jersey.

They pay me a lot of money to live in NJ.

Jersey is like a dog turd with a $20 bill stuck in it. There are some nice parts but you have to get covered in shiat if you want to get to it.

Many Italian Americans started leaving NYC in the '80s. They moved to New Jersey. Now, they're doing their final move - down south or to the desert. Enjoy.

i took this girl out and she told me to kiss her where it smells ,so i drove her to Jersey

I live in NJ. It's very expensive. Taxes are very high. The commute into NYC on the train is also expensive. There is a heroin problem.

Good. Get the hell out. Your absence will free up some room on the highways.

New Jersey eh?  45 minutes from the GWB, if you haven't brought your lunch, 45 minutes from the greatest city in the world you're going to go hungry.  IOW's most of New Jersey is far more like a Les Stroud vacation than "Escape from New York".

I work in New Jersey and live in Pennsylvania. I pay $2000 a year in road tolls but that's probably cheaper than actually living in New Jersey. I'm not sure I have a point except this place is expensive and the traffic sucks. Oh, I like the pizza.

"You can't blame Snooki," he said, offering instead the state's highest-in-the-nation taxes and small job growth.

What are tax rates in New Jersey? I thought we in California had the highest, with 13.3% personal income tax, 8.8% business tax, sales taxes at 9% or more in some areas, and gasoline taxed at 69 cents a gallon.

jjorsett: "You can't blame Snooki," he said, offering instead the state's highest-in-the-nation taxes and small job growth.

What are tax rates in New Jersey? I thought we in California had the highest, with 13.3% personal income tax, 8.8% business tax, sales taxes at 9% or more in some areas, and gasoline taxed at 69 cents a gallon.

I'm sure real estate taxes are at least partly what they're referring to.

FTFA: National trends show people leaving the Northeast and heading to the Southeast and Northwest

Please let this stop. There's a Flordia tag for a reason and native Floridians are only half of it.

EatHam: CA property taxes are insanely low

I pay $10k on a 1/4 acre with a 4 bed / 2 bath cape cod on it in Ridgewood.

NJ has some great qualities but it is
1) crowded
2) expensive
3) corrupt
4) crowded
5) expensive

This started a long time ago. There was a massive influx of New Jersey people fleeing to Maryland about 5-6 years ago.

Which is subsequently why I left Maryland.

AllYourFarkAreBelongToMe: 3 bedroom ranch on 1/3 acre in Ocean County here. Far enough inland to avoid disaster, but only 10 minutes from the ocean. Philly is 90 minutes west, Manhattan is 90 minutes north. Property taxes are about 4K. Gas is right around 3.30 at the moment. Bought the house in '86 for 163.5K Just made the last mortgage payment. Current market value is right around 250K. No complaints.

I am guessing you're in Brick, TR or Lakehurst.If you can find decent work locally in OC you're golden. Taxes in Monmouth are a little higher.

H31N0US: AllYourFarkAreBelongToMe: 3 bedroom ranch on 1/3 acre in Ocean County here. Far enough inland to avoid disaster, but only 10 minutes from the ocean. Philly is 90 minutes west, Manhattan is 90 minutes north. Property taxes are about 4K. Gas is right around 3.30 at the moment. Bought the house in '86 for 163.5K Just made the last mortgage payment. Current market value is right around 250K. No complaints.

I am guessing you're in Brick, TR or Lakehurst.If you can find decent work locally in OC you're golden. Taxes in Monmouth are a little higher.

TR would be correct.

AllYourFarkAreBelongToMe: H31N0US: AllYourFarkAreBelongToMe: 3 bedroom ranch on 1/3 acre in Ocean County here. Far enough inland to avoid disaster, but only 10 minutes from the ocean. Philly is 90 minutes west, Manhattan is 90 minutes north. Property taxes are about 4K. Gas is right around 3.30 at the moment. Bought the house in '86 for 163.5K Just made the last mortgage payment. Current market value is right around 250K. No complaints.

I am guessing you're in Brick, TR or Lakehurst.If you can find decent work locally in OC you're golden. Taxes in Monmouth are a little higher.

TR would be correct.

hello from Ocean Twp! *waves* My office is about 1 minute from LBI.

NJ is great but I live on the Bay. Its expensive as hell and after two years of back to back hurricanes in bwhich I sustained fairly major damage, I'm outta here. Heading west... my house goes on the market June 1st. All things considered, I've lived in NJ for the better part of 30 years and I loved it. As long as you aren't too poor, NJ is alright.  I have a mediocre post-collegiate office job and I'm single/no kiddos and its still pretty difficult to get by here, even in my tiny bayside community in a lower middle-class area. Looking forward to being comparatively rich and living in the boonies. Not looking forward to the 30 minute+ drive to the grocery store.
My taxes are real low (2600/year) but I'm less than a mile away from Oyster Creek so I'm being slowly irradiated instead of paying 12k for a half acre /yr like in Barnegat. We get the nuclear mutation discount.

Marcintosh: New Jersey eh?  45 minutes from the GWB, if you haven't brought your lunch, 45 minutes from the greatest city in the world you're going to go hungry.  IOW's most of New Jersey is far more like a Les Stroud vacation than "Escape from New York".

45 minutes away from London? NYC lost that title long ago.

I have a whole bunch of friends and classmates from Jersey. According to them, it's actually a nice place to grow up and live in, not that different from any other state, and all of this "People are fleeing the state!!!" stuff is over-exaggerated.

/of course, they're all from Bergen County so take that for what you will

From the Article: "Lane said he and his wife were thrilled to live so close to New York City. They are renting and have not experienced the housing market or high property taxes."

Really? Though they may not have experienced the housing market, they sure as hell are experiencing the property taxes. It amazes me how many people think renters don't pay property taxes. As if owners don't figure in their property tax when determining what the rent should be.

sammyk: BMFPitt: They pay me a lot of money to live in NJ.

I used to think that. Then my wife and I both got %30 increase in pay when we moved south. Bonus: I work from home now fulltime so I never have to drive through New Brunswick or see I-287 again.

/much happier person these days

They finished the RT 18 project and also widened 287 in parts. It's not so bad anymore. Though heading southbound on 287 towards Edison at 4:30 is still miserable. The reconstruction of 100+ bridges over the NJ turnpike from exit 6 to exit 9 however is sucking balls, but that should be over in two more years. Also the GSP to westbound 78 overpass was finally put in - you don't have to detour through Irvington to get on 78 westbound if you were coming north on the GSP. Doubling the number of lanes over the Raritan on the GSP/Rt 9/Rt 35 bridges helped a lot on cutting down congestion, as did getting rid of half of the toll plazas on the GSP and converting most of the rest to high speed EzPass.

The route 202/206/28 circle/overpass clusterfark is still around and the GSP through the Oranges are still too few lanes, so we haven't become a "pleasant" place to drive but it's much better than it was.

/You got lucky on the pay - most of my friends who have bailed NJ had to take cuts as high as 35%, and zero have seen a pay increase.
//Until Italian bakeries open in other parts of the country that know what they are doing you can't drag me from the NY/NJ metro area

ck1938: Marcintosh: New Jersey eh? 45 minutes from the GWB, if you haven't brought your lunch, 45 minutes from the greatest city in the world you're going to go hungry. IOW's most of New Jersey is far more like a Les Stroud vacation than "Escape from New York".

45 minutes away from London? NYC lost that title long ago.

Really? London?

The last time I was in London, I spent the whole day walking outdoors and then had to blow my nose. The tissue turned BLACK. I've been to cities in China with less air pollution.

Fissile: The Jersey where I grew up was no paradise, but it was a decent place compared to a lot of country, mostly solid working and middle class. Today it's a state of haves and have nots.

You just described 90% of all US states.

Welcome to the legacy of trickle-down economics.

jjorsett: "You can't blame Snooki," he said, offering instead the state's highest-in-the-nation taxes and small job growth.

What are tax rates in New Jersey? I thought we in California had the highest, with 13.3% personal income tax, 8.8% business tax, sales taxes at 9% or more in some areas, and gasoline taxed at 69 cents a gallon.

7% sales tax, with 3% in some "redevelopment areas"

Income tax rates: Up to 20k: 1.4%, up to 50k: 1.75%, up to 70k: 3.5%, up to 80k: 5.53%, up to 500k: 6.37%, above 500k: 8.97%

Business tax: 9% above $100k

Property tax: varies between 1.8% to 4% depending on local town (I'm at around 2.1%, the reassessment changes in 2010 took us from 4% with a assessment ratio of 41% to 2.1% with a 100% assessment ratio - boned hard to the tune of an additional $1200 a year)

NJ gas is usually on the cheap side - we are very close to the refineries, and we demonstrate again and again that "self serv" gas is not cheaper. $3.25/gallon for 87 octatane regular is the average among the gas stations around me this past weekend.

the_vegetarian_cannibal: I have a whole bunch of friends and classmates from Jersey. According to them, it's actually a nice place to grow up and live in, not that different from any other state, and all of this "People are fleeing the state!!!" stuff is over-exaggerated.

/of course, they're all from Bergen County so take that for what you will

We're first in population density at the state level, averaging just under 1200 people per square mile. Everywhere else looks underpopulated to us and thus have a significant number of people who leave each year.

That we also route the NJ turnpike through the worst industrial sections of the state doesn't help our image. As a counter-point, I drive past about a dozen farms to get to work each day, and barely see any industry. As a friend of mine once said - driving towards Elizabeth up the NJ turnpike was like driving towards Mordor. Black and grey clouds spew forth, with a great stink.

But once you get into any of the counties off the NJTP corridor (or Bergen) you get some really nice areas. Also, we do have all four seasons here, and they are each very distintive.

just try to ride a bicycle there.....TRY!
/dares yees!

Born and raised, lived there for 28 years. All over the place, too - so I have seen it all. Last place was in Bedminster.

Moved down here to Chucktown last December. Had enough of Nor'Easters in October. Had enough of my rent on a 1200 sq ft condo being more than a mortgage on a 2800sq ft house. Had enough of looking at WWII-era shacks for 350k+. No more tolls. No more ridiculous property taxes figured into any house I even thought about. No more 3 hours to go 2 miles to the beach - even going the back way through 18 or 9 to 35 or 130 or any other diabolical scheme my brain could come up with. No more beach tags! No more bros and juiceheads at every bar in town. No more 78, 495, GSP, NJ TPK, 287, 3, 46, etc.

I miss real pizza. I miss Grease Trucks (New Brunswick), I miss Empanadas (Morristown), I miss White Rose (though they did go downhill with the ownership change), I miss Tido Dog.. and an indoor mall that isn't in a shiatty location.

The pros outweighed the cons by a lot.

68 in Charleston

sammyk: That's nice. Its 65 in Charlotte today.

Charlotte is the weirdest city I've ever been to. It's like 10 blocks of what Walt Disney might think a city is supposed to look like plopped in the middle of a giant working class sprawl.

offacue: [i.imgur.com image 300x300]

LOL.

not2bright: Good. Get the hell out. Your absence will free up some room on the highways.

TimonC346: you have pee hands: sammyk: That's nice. Its 65 in Charlotte today.

Charlotte is the weirdest city I've ever been to. It's like 10 blocks of what Walt Disney might think a city is supposed to look like plopped in the middle of a giant working class sprawl.

Welcome to most cities in the United states--except replace "working class sprawl" with "area more dangerous than downtown Mogadishu"

Redevelopment is actually trying to fashion cities out of places that never really had them--I was recently in Reno, and man, did that place suck farts--but they sure were trying to make it look purdy.

I guess I'm just used to northeastern cities, but even Manhattan, which is rich as hell, has a lot more ethnic grocers / sidewalk hawkers / dive bars / hot dog carts / etc. mixed in with the $40/plate restaurants and places that don't even bother to list the price, because if you have to ask, you don't belong there. Charlotte's downtown seemed like it was exclusively a playground for the upper middle class. It was nice enough, I guess, just a little weird in a way I'm not sure I'm doing a very good job describing.

ck1938: Marcintosh: New Jersey eh?  45 minutes from the GWB, if you haven't brought your lunch, 45 minutes from the greatest city in the world you're going to go hungry.  IOW's most of New Jersey is far more like a Les Stroud vacation than "Escape from New York".

45 minutes away from London? NYC lost that title long ago.

London lost that title about 150 years before NY did. I'd rather live in London, Ontario at this point.

LemSkroob: ck1938: Marcintosh: New Jersey eh?  45 minutes from the GWB, if you haven't brought your lunch, 45 minutes from the greatest city in the world you're going to go hungry.  IOW's most of New Jersey is far more like a Les Stroud vacation than "Escape from New York".

45 minutes away from London? NYC lost that title long ago.

London lost that title about 150 years before NY did. I'd rather live in London, Ontario at this point.

London sucks. Hong Kong is the greatest large city in the world. NYC is still up there.

I would love to live in Savannah or Charleston though for a while. I can't see how I'd earn a living though, unless I set up shop and sold pizza to MrJesus. The trouble with that is the locals actually LIKE the Olive Garden and Dominoes. I've seen my share of good Italian places shut down in Vero Beach because not enough people appreciate them.