Paul wrote a nice post about our frustrations with the tax situation in our States-side home, New Orleans. He also posted to the Uptown forum about the situation and the responses were very interesting. Some examples of the responses to his forum post:
“We pay the highest life insurance ratets, the highest car insurance rates, one of the highest electric/gas utility rates IN THE NATION, high if not highest health insurance rates, highest water/sewer rates ( did you know some places provide it free to their citizens?) and some of the highest property tax millages (for those of us who pay the tax, along with businesses) IN THE COUNTRY. I also am ready to leave, shut down my business, go somewhere else where it’s easier…”
“I have been here over 60 years, through thick and thin, have endured the heartache of violent crime, and generated lots of sales taxes, paid lots of property taxes. I’m afraid, though, that I’ve reached that “tipping point” where it doesn’t make sense to do it any longer, and that saddens me to no end. I want it to be different, but do not see that it will.”
It is hard to live in such a wonderful place and not be able to enjoy it. Between the high costs of daily living and incredibly high costs of child care (which is not specific to New Orleans, necessarily, but endemic of our society as a whole) we truly are slowly going bankrupt. It is a ridiculous situation when you consider our current earnings. Granted, I am a doctoral student, and by definition, we are seriously financially constrained folk. But now that I am done with classes, getting on track with a disseration, and do not have the requirement of being in the general vicinity of my program, does it really make sense to stay??
Which brings us to the question: where the heck do we want to live? The bottom line is that we have no idea. Added to that is our love of community: we adore our neighbors and we love our current quality of life. But, as discussed above, it’s hard to feel good about living there. Peru is looking better and better for the next 2 or so years while I work on my disseration — we have to be here for a least a year for the research phase of it, and there is no reason why I couldn’t stay here to write. Plus, with a committee member (Valerie) living and working here, it may be a great situation…? Still, the question… what do we do with our house in the States? Do we rent it? (This would happen most likely at a loss, getting what we need out of it to pay mortgage, taxes, and insurance is in all likelihood impossible.) Do we sell it? And if we do sell it, when? Before/after the baby? Do we still make repairs? If so, how much? And do we pay to store our stuff and go into the “2 year” countdown of putting our equity into another home? I think if we sell, we’d want to buy a small investment property… somewhere… to store our stuff. But again, where??
If anyone wonders what keeps us up at night these days, this is it!!
Eli | 19-Jan-06 at 12:43 pm | Permalink
Quick thought…
If you chose to leave NOLA and move to Lima why not buy a property somewhere you know the rent will cover the mortgage. It doesn’t have to be in the ultimate place you want to live but could be somewhere you might want to live.
In doing so, you don’t face Capital Gains on the sale of your house because you’ll be rolling it into another home. You can pick a lower property tax area, find a good renter etc. At the end of two years chose to sell or move in and have enjoyed the modest investment.
Just my thoughts…
As for storing your stuff…isn’t that what parental garages are for????
Randy | 19-Jan-06 at 12:55 pm | Permalink
Come home to Virginia!
And if you are really just looking into an investment / short term property find a professional real estate investment adviser to help you out.
Did I mention that there are some homes on the market in my neighborhood?
Holly | 19-Jan-06 at 8:55 pm | Permalink
If we sell our house in NOLA, we would definitely buy a property elsewhere. But, like I mentioned in the blog, we have no idea where. Florida is the biggest contender (no property tax). Once we figure out what our options are we’ll be able to move forward. It is just a difficult situation as there are so many choices and none of them easy or clear.
Unfortunately, there is no way we could store our all stuff in my parents’ house. If we sell or long-term rent partially furnished, we’ll have to find another property or secure a climate controlled storage facility.
Fluorescences | 20-Jan-06 at 3:21 pm | Permalink
Seattle, Seattle, Seattle.
Holly | 20-Jan-06 at 3:45 pm | Permalink
We need somewhere cheap. Housing in Fairfax and Seattle… well, maybe if those markets take a 50-75% percent hit, we could think about it! Although I think if we were going to think about Seattle, we’d cross over to Canada.
Mostly, we need to be somewhere that won’t kill us in taxes while we are abroad and being close to family is a big plus. (Hence Florida.)