Are you 'locked in' to where you live?

[trof]

I don't think we could afford to live in another state.
Alabama lets you freeze your real estate taxes (after 10 years residency) at age 65.
I did that two years ago.
My tax is a bit under $1100 annually on a house that's worth between $600,000 and $700,000.
It's not a mansion by any means, but it is on the water.
16 years ago I bought it for $225,000.

The overall cost of living in Alabama is fairly low, at least compared to many states north of the Mason-Dixon line.
State income tax is relatively low and there are breaks for seniors.

I like our life here (except for being in a red state) but it would be nice to live within a few hours of our daughter (and GRANDCHILDREN!) in Boston, or at least within a day's drive, but I don't see anywhere we could afford the higher taxes and real estate prices.
Bummer.
:-(

[Droopy]

1. I'm locked in for a different reason

My family is all here in Ohio and we are a pretty close bunch. As much as I'd like to move to a warmer climate, I know I just wouldn't feel right. I wouldn't mind Ohio so much if I didn't have to drive for a living, and I'm trying to change careers right now. This has been the worst winter here for driving that I can remember.

[LaurenG]

3. I wondered about the weather this year

I moved here from Colorado nearly ten years ago and these last few storms have sucked. It's been warmer in Northwestern Iowa than here.

I think about truckers on the roads when they're bad and wonder how they can keep their nerve driving a rig when I'm sliding across the freeway just doing 30 mph in a car. :scared: Stinky ice, ugh.

[Droopy]

8. It's tough, Lauren

Many of my trucking comrades have the luxury of being able to shut it down when the weather gets too bad. Not me. I've been making deliveries where people said something to the effect of, "I didn't think you guys would be running today. We weren't expecting you at all." That's why I'm getting out of this shit. It's just not worth it to me anymore.

[trof]

13. I'm guessing Pullman Brown?

No answer necessary.

[Droopy]

14. I don't get the reference.

[auntAgonist]

29. Pullman Brown is the colour

of the UPS trucks.


:)

[trof]

5. Family is the only reason I'd leave.

When you get older, it becomes more important.

[Droopy]

9. It's important to me, too

That's why I'll be trucking it up here in Ohio for the foreseeable future.

[TroglodyteScholar]

2. I'm in NO way locked in...

Living alone in an apartment in a city I hate.
Working a job that's stable but soul-crushing...

I'm moving FAR away as soon as I can dig up a good opportunity.

[Arugula Latte]

34. Where do you see yourself moving?

Just curious.

[Bucky]

4. I'd ove to live somewhere besides Houston, but my pension is tied up in being here till I'm 61

Gah, that sucks. I blew my last chance to get out of town about 10 years ago. I'm stuck here.

[trof]

10. Miz t. is from Houston.

Well, Bellaire.
She didn't like it much either.

[kentauros]

30. What part of Houston do you live it?

It can really make a big difference.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear trof!

Yeah, we're pretty well locked in here too...

We built our house seven years ago, and we love it..besides, our daughters and grandsons are nearby...

The climate's good, and my husband has found a hobby that's keeping him happy here...

We really don't want to live anywhere else, actually...

:hi:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

11. I'm not sure of how I'd react to UtahPeggy or or NorthDakotaPeggy or WestVirginiaPeggy posts...

...it would be the SAME, but then again, it WOULDN'T be the same, you know?

For better or worse, CP, you and I and the rest of the California DUers are in this thing together, you know?

:rofl:

:toast:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. My dear Amerigo Vespucci!

We absolutely are in this thing together, for sure! I love California, and I have NO plans to ever leave her!

I wouldn't say my username has locked me in here, but then again, you never know...

:toast:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. No, but I found no peace in leaving, either.

A few years ago I had the freedom...financial and otherwise...to go pretty much wherever I wanted and start all over again.

Then I remembered Ralph Waldo Emerson's words from "Self Reliance"...

Traveling is a fool's paradise. We owe to our first journeys the discovery that place is nothing. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern Fact, and sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. I seek the Vatican and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated. My giant goes with me wherever I go.

http://www.youmeworks.com/selfreliance.html

Silicon Valley is an expensive pain in the ass and the only place I want to call home, all in the same breath. Within an hour I can be standing on the edge of the Pacific Ocean or buying top-grade green tea at the local Japanese market. There's more to it than that, but that's my answer to your question...I chose to lock myself in.

:toast:

[crispini]

24. Or, in the words of Buckaroo Banzai

"No matter where you go, there you are."

:D

Lots of truth there.

[fizzgig]

36. that's one of my dad's favorite lines

:D

[LeftyMom]

15. Temporarily

I can't really afford to go to school anywhere else. I'd lose my state-issued financial aid, and I'd have to pay out-of-state rates.

That said, I love where I live. My family is here, I grew up here, I have deep ties to this place. But for the right reason, I'd give it up.

[madrchsod]

16. yup

560 dollar mortgage/insurance/tax payments ,the kids are with in 1 hour drive,one lives at home,and my wife has a decent job and i just retired. ain`t going anywhere any time soon...

[TheCentepedeShoes]

17. Yes

Property taxes are frozen since Mr Pede is over 65
House has stable value
Job is stable (cross fingers, knock on particle board)
Money... er Mommy... Dearest lives here and I need to keep an eye on things

[CreekDog]

18. You know, I don't know

I love this place, but I do get restless.

Although my mortgage and property taxes are basically locked in...at $1900 + $350 per month, it's not like that's a deal I couldn't walk away from. :rofl:

[mwooldri]

19. A whole balance of things has me "stuck" here.

It's not a bad place to be "stuck" but still...

The cost of living here in Greensboro NC is far cheaper than the Surrey Hills area back in England. With the combination of being very close to London, in a nice rural setting and housing being in very short supply, houses (well about a year ago) started around $400,000 for a studio apartment. My sister and her other half snagged a nice ex-social housing house at a little over $600,000.

Plus believe it or not, I can get paid more here to do the same job I do than I would back in the UK. Especially since the £ has collapsed lately, I'm being paid about £8-10k a year more than my UK counterpart, and all I am is a call center coach.

So I get an effective pay raise and have to put down lots less money to get a whole lot of house? Financially being here is a no-brainer.

Yep, paying for health care the way we do here sucks and if I lost my job I wouldn't know what I would do. I'd much prefer a National Health Service, I'd prefer a BBC, I'd prefer proper social housing, a proper welfare safety net for those who really need it.

Mark.

[Kali]

20. Sort of

My Greatgrandfather homesteaded this place and his father-in-law started the place to the east of us. I love the ranch and always have, although I grew up in the big city. If we were to ever lose the place I would seriously consider moving to Mexico.

[femmocrat]

21. Not only locked in. Permanently stuck.

I "joke" that just because some ancestor got off the boat 100 years ago in Western PA, I'm still here.

We really want to retire to NC, but it seems like a vanishing dream at this point.

[supernova]

22. Quasi Locked in, I suppose

I own the house, but I cannot freeze my taxes. x(

The reason it's especially permanent to me, is it's my chilldhood home. I'd have to think especially carefully before deciding I was really ready to sell it. It would have to be for a very compelling reason, not just I want a bigger place, or a nicer neighborhood.

If I were to move, there would have to be really extra ordinary circumstances.

[hippywife]

23. Yes, unfortunately.

We will never be able to afford to leave Oklahoma. x(

[Lyric]

25. Sadly, yes.

We can't afford to live elsewhere (WV is cheap) unless I get some mega-huge scholarship award, which isn't effing likely.

[SarahB]

26. Kind of.

It has more to do with sharing custody with my ex than finances. We'd love to live in New York City or Philadelphia instead of the 'burbs of Hartford, but that's where life is for us. It just is what it is.

[Rob H.]

27. Nope

I've been hating my job for the last year and my parents retired to Montana (dad's from there; I'm living in Tennessee right now). I just started looking for a job near them and hope to be up there by the end of this year. That's one nice thing about being single and a renter--I can pull up stakes any time and pretty much move wherever I want.

[JitterbugPerfume]

28. I hope not

none of my kids are here , and it is damn cold! You would not believe the events that landed me in this gawdforsaken place

hint---divorce , sickness , death, poverty, job transferred, and desperation

it has been a good life

[kentauros]

31. No, not due to anything out of my control.

I simply HATE moving. I would like to find a place I can die in. I love Houston, but we'll see how the city fares in future decades with Global Climate Change. If I am forced to move, then I will. But I'm only "locked in" here because moving is a chore I could do without in my life. Why can't we just move the whole house/appartment? :D

[WinkyDink]

32. Try paying 3X more on a house worth 50% less.

[PRETZEL]

33. In a sense,

I don't own a house any longer. My kids are now adults. My wife's kids are for the most part (except for my step son who lives with us) are on their own. So there is no other real big compelling reason to leave here except for work. I have a job that has both great benefits and pension plan so it's for that reason alone that I'm pretty much locked in here until they either offer early retirement or I reach normal retirement age.

[raccoon]

35. Yes, and my state (SC) is a lot like yours. COL relatively low.

The summers are a mofo and most of the population as red as a baboon's ass.

My family is here, that's one reason I wouldn't leave. Another is I have a job here but don't think I'd have much chance of getting one somewhere else--I'm close to 60. Even in good times it's hard to get a job at that age. And of course, these aren't good times.

[fizzgig]

37. i'm locked in by money

i have no savings and little money to save, so i'm here for some time yet. i still live in my hometown and my dad and sister are still here, so there's some reason to stay, but i wouldn't sat that i'm locked in here because of that.

[Wapsie B]

38. No not really.

I'd love to live somewhere I don't need a snow shovel or ice melt.

[krispos42]

39. Yes. Divorce settlement

Neither of us can move out of state without the other's approval.

But it's Minnesota, not a bad state to be stuck in. :-)

[LaraMN]

40. Given the housing market, probably.

x(