Schools start later in CA

[hal2kilo]

All very interesting points.

In NJ I pay like 50 bucks for my accord to be registered a year. For the last 10 years

Vehicle property tax seemed like a big thing on the whole east coast. Here it's just boats, trailers, and ORV's, but not your car.

 

[ch33zw1z]

There's so many things that affect your overall cost of living outside of the purchase price of your home.

- Property taxes (which vary wildly down to the zip code you live in, you can't directly tie that to city/state, it's much more specific). An 800k house on the SE side of the river in Portland is $9,000 a year in property taxes. Go across the river to the SW side and it's $14,000.

- Property insurance. I paid almost $2500 a year in homeowners insurance on a $400k home in Kentucky. I pay $400..yes $400 in Portland on a $750k one.

- State income taxes. Anywhere from 0 to over 9% depending on the state and your income level.

- City taxes. When I lived in Lexington, KY there was a 1% city tax. In Portland proper I have a similar tax but it's only on income over $100k.

- Car insurance. My car insurance doubled moving to Kentucky from IL because of a premium on no-fault payouts. It was almost $2k a year for a minivan and camry with no accidents/tickets.

- Sales tax as mentioned. I live in a state where there isn't any. And when you go to buy a car, well that's pretty nice to not have to pay that.

- Car registration. In IL I paid under a $100 a year. It used to be $78 per car to register. In Nebraska it was tied to the value of your car. Moving to Nebraska and getting a $600 annual registration renewal sucked. Kentucky was similar. It was $400 a year for my Minivan.

- Utilities. Move from a moderate climate like SoCal or PNW to swamp ass southeast and enjoy your $200+ a month electric bill. My electric and gas for the month of May in Portland was $80. $60 for electric and $20 for natural gas. And we're even on the expensive and bougie renewable energy only plan.

- Commute and gas costs. My wife and I can commute to work and back on bikes for the low price of...$0 a gallon in gas. If you live in a rural space and have to drive everywhere, enjoy your hundreds in gas each month. And when you live in ass crack no-where with little to do, you just end up driving more and more to actually do things. Costing even more.

All of that stuff adds up to overall COL burden.

damn, that registration fee in NB tho, lol. I pay $50 per car per year, and $35 for annual inspection.

MA has an excise tax tied to the value of the car though ☺️

 

[nakedfrog]

Vehicle property tax seemed like a big thing on the whole east coast. Here it's just boats, trailers, and ORV's, but not your car.

In Nebraska, the value-based property tax ends after the car is 14 years old, so my 1992 Miata was $26/year for registration versus the $123 in WA. Not a huge deal, IMO. My 2015 would be $210 this year, but instead, here it's the same $123.