Advice Needed - Living in America

[Huskymaniac]

Originally Posted by 92 SVX

I would stay far away from southern, or any part of California. The Taxes will be extreme, the state is doing everything it can to pull in money.
I have not had a chance to talk to my neighbor yet, but I do recall him saying he pays about 1500 per year in property tax he has several acre's though.

That's a friggin bargain! I pay 6k a year in property tax!!!!

[Huskymaniac]

Originally Posted by svxcess

I totally agree with Marisa. The area around Austin, Salado and College Station is absolutely exquisite; I would move there in a minute! I visited my sister, who has a very large cattle ranch in Salado, back in May. My niece was graduating from Texas A&M, so I got the tour of the entire area. Low crime, affordable living and the friendliest people I have ever met. Lots of culture and a great educational system. Plus people there really know how to drive. A large and diverse population, yet it doesn't feel crowded.

I guarantee you will be greeted with genuine warmth and respect. As my sister says, "everyone who lives here is a Texan, some just don't know it yet"

.

How did she like Texas A&M? That is yet another school on my son's list. Nate is trying to convince me it isn't that cold in Madison WI. This kid's choices are literally all over the map.

[svxcess]

Did I mention that Texas has NO state income tax?

Only one of seven states. The others are:
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
South Dakota
Washington
Wyoming

.

[92 SVX]

Now if we could combine that with NO SALES TAX that would be great. lol

[svxfiles]

Danny,
I would look at the crime rates in FL
before you make a decision.
It only takes one bad encounter to change your outlook look on life.
FL however does allow concealed carry!

[Huskymaniac]

You might want to check this site out:

http://outflux.net/weather/noaa/

Texas has a pretty wide range of climates. The climate varies rapidly as you go from Houston to College Station to Austin and they aren't very far apart. Still, even Austin gets really hot and humid in late summer. And forget Florida if you want to avoid humidity and extreme weather.

None of these places compares to central to southern CA for weather. It is actually quite shocking when seen on a graph.

[dragoontwo]

Originally Posted by svxcess

Did I mention that Texas has NO state income tax?

Only one of seven states. The others are:
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
South Dakota
Washington
Wyoming

.

You forgot Tennessee.

[Huskymaniac]

Everyone pays eventually. If you have no income tax you will pay some other way. The question is, how. Maybe it is property tax. If not, maybe your schools suck and you need to send your kids to private schools, if you care about that. At every stage of our lives we want to live in a different state with a different tax structure. For example, if you have school age children, you want to pay property taxes as that is what makes the schools good but you want low sales tax and maybe even low income tax. If you are retired, you want to live in a state with low property tax and high income tax and sales tax.

If he has kids he needs to look at the quality of the schools and not worry so much about property tax. As he has said, taxes on small businesses is what he really needs to be low.

I have been gathering college data for my son and I ran the climate search on cities closest to the schools he is looking at. Here they are:

[92 SVX]

Tony one thing about Southern California is the cost of living. Everything is very expensive from Gas to Groceries from what I can tell. Rent/housing price will be very premium priced, And also from what I have read many business's are debating leaving the state because of the cost of doing business, in fact I read that compliance with the laws, for example handicapped accessible were getting so expensive it was less expensive to close up shop and move.

[Ron Mummert]

Originally Posted by 92 SVX

Tony one thing about Southern California is the cost of living. Everything is very expensive from Gas to Groceries from what I can tell. Rent/housing price will be very premium priced, And also from what I have read many business's are debating leaving the state because of the cost of doing business, in fact I read that compliance with the laws, for example handicapped accessible were getting so expensive it was less expensive to close up shop and move.

Just wait 'til Cali decides they need transgendered handicapped poopers, & floor level urinals for dwarfs. Sorry - I mean height challenged individuals.

[Huskymaniac]

There is a reason it is expensive. The weather is insanely nice. It is our mediterranean.

[SilverSpear]

Originally Posted by 92 SVX

I would stay far away from southern, or any part of California. The Taxes will be extreme, the state is doing everything it can to pull in money.
I have not had a chance to talk to my neighbor yet, but I do recall him saying he pays about 1500 per year in property tax he has several acre's though.

California is nice, but living in an area known for earthquakes (and could vanish on the face of the map anytime) is not what I am really looking for. I love watching science stuff on Discovery, National Geographic and so... Japan and California are "Naturally Threatened" places.

Originally Posted by Blacky

What about Canada? Eh?

If you don't mind 4-5 months of snow it's amazing here.

Also almost no guns like our crazy southern neighbors.

No poisonous snakes like Down Under.

In the Ottawa area where we are from there is a huge Lebanese population. My wife has worked for 4 or 5 Lebanese families at their restaurants and the owners of the grocery store where she works now are Lebanese also. She even speaks quite a bit of Arabic from all the exposure.
Do you have any family in Canada?

LOL... yeah I know that Lebanese are abundant in Canada, and the latter facilitates things for immigrants to its territory.
We do have relatives and friends there. But living in cold and snow is not what we are looking for.
It would have been the perfect place and I wouldn't have started this thread

Originally Posted by LarryIII

Northern Delaware is a nice quiet place to live.

Will look it up, thanks

Originally Posted by svxcess

Did I mention that Texas has NO state income tax?

Only one of seven states. The others are:
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
South Dakota
Washington
Wyoming

.

Thanks for the info, will consider them.

Originally Posted by svxfiles

Danny,
I would look at the crime rates in FL
before you make a decision.
It only takes one bad encounter to change your outlook look on life.
FL however does allow concealed carry!

Yeah that was one of my concerns in the first place, mentioned it twice before. The major reason I am looking to leave is for safety.

Originally Posted by Huskymaniac

You might want to check this site out:

http://outflux.net/weather/noaa/

Texas has a pretty wide range of climates. The climate varies rapidly as you go from Houston to College Station to Austin and they aren't very far apart. Still, even Austin gets really hot and humid in late summer. And forget Florida if you want to avoid humidity and extreme weather.

None of these places compares to central to southern CA for weather. It is actually quite shocking when seen on a graph.

Great link, thanks man!

Originally Posted by Huskymaniac

Everyone pays eventually. If you have no income tax you will pay some other way. The question is, how. Maybe it is property tax. If not, maybe your schools suck and you need to send your kids to private schools, if you care about that. At every stage of our lives we want to live in a different state with a different tax structure. For example, if you have school age children, you want to pay property taxes as that is what makes the schools good but you want low sales tax and maybe even low income tax. If you are retired, you want to live in a state with low property tax and high income tax and sales tax.

If he has kids he needs to look at the quality of the schools and not worry so much about property tax. As he has said, taxes on small businesses is what he really needs to be low.

I have been gathering college data for my son and I ran the climate search on cities closest to the schools he is looking at. Here they are:

Well... a sacrifice has to be made somewhere, I have no doubt. Settling in first is what really matters. We can do adjustments later.

[Sean486]

This has been running through my head ever since I first saw the thread posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHqUipinDyw

[steamer99]

[QUOTE=SilverSpear;730918]


LOL... yeah I know that Lebanese are abundant in Canada, and the latter facilitates things for immigrants to its territory.
We do have relatives and friends there. But living in cold and snow is not what we are looking for.
It would have been the perfect place and I wouldn't have started this thread



Winters are much milder in this part of the country (Canada), and far enough from the coast so as to not be naturally threatened, if that is all that worry's you. Taxes are quite high as we usually say BC stands for Bring Cash but worth looking at. I even saw a SVX last time I was in Kelowna.

http://www.okanagan.com/

[Wikedjuggalo]

Have you looked into the pacific northwest? It gets warm during the summers but not too extreme. We dont have much in the way of snow in the valleys and the humidity is nice and low (coming from NC ). The people tend to be friendly and the costs aren't terrible. Oregon has no sales tax and Washington has no income tax. If you dont mind some rain (light for the most part) its a great place. There is the coast that is close and mountains if you desire close as well. If you want more specific information and have questions feel free to message me. Might add that the drive from where I am to the coast is about an hr and to the mountains is about an hour and a half. It is nice and green year around.