Author Topic: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?  (Read 6973 times)

teachcsg

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Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« on: September 05, 2017, 05:44:14 PM »
Hi All,
Long time reader but dont comment or post too frequently. I am 45 y/o, married, 2 kids, making around 200K a year (small business owner). We have been making this amount for around 4 years. Before that we were in the 60-75K a year salary. During that time (higher income) we have become debt free including our home and 1 rental property. We have 100K in a Vanguard retirement account to which we contribute 25K a year. We also have 140K in our savings account for emergencies and business / investment opportunities. Our monthly expenses are around 4K-6K.
My question is the following: We live in a decent neighborhood but they are starting to build apartments all around us and that has us thinking of moving. There are some new neighborhoods about 30 minutes from where we live that have some very nice amenities (walking trails, pools, lakes etc..). The houses in that neighborhood are in the 300K-400K range. Around here, that is a good size / higher priced home. For comparison sake, your average homes sell for 150K. I think we could sell our house for 180K and use our savings to purchase a new house cash. The problem is that those new neighborhoods have very high property taxes. On a yearly basis the taxes would be around 10K compared to 3K that we now pay. What do you all think? I like the idea of having the nice neighborhood, beautiful houses, walking trails, trees, lakes etc.. but hate the idea of spending so much on taxes forever! Are the amenities worth it? Anyone that has made the move to a nicer neighborhood..did you all regret it or do you still enjoy the nicer neighborhood? Thanks!

Frankies Girl

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2017, 06:26:13 PM »
~looks at website address above, reads post again, gets really confused~

Um... are you maybe lost? Because if you've been a long-time reader, I have no idea how you could even ask that sort of thing on this forum. But for the sake of assuming you might be having a brain fart of something... no, it's a terrible idea.

Higher insurance, higher property taxes, you sound like you'll likely need to buy nicer things to fit in in the "nicer" neighborhood, so expect to start frittering away more money on furnishings and fancy stuff.

You don't have sidewalks or trees in your neighborhood? There are no public parks with the same sort of amenities FOR FREE in your area? No schools with playgrounds and walking trails?

You don't like apartments near your current neighborhood (?) so you want to move to a 2X+ more expensive neighborhood for walking trails and trees? So you can look at the neighbors' "beautiful" houses? What about the neighbor's beautiful car they'll likely have... how long until you start thinking "yeah, I deserve that too. And hey, they just got a $2K thingamajig I think I might want and our family room could use all new furniture since the stuff we have is so blah compared to the neighborhood standards and of course the kids have to go to $$$ private school and participate in the $$$ after school stuff the other neighborhood kids do so they'll fit in..."

I'm not even going to get into my annoyed confusion trying to understand any sort of logical reason for sitting on 140K in a saving account for "emergencies/business/investing." Your portfolio is below average for your age (compared to other FIRE folks) especially considering your income, and you're wanting to tie up even more soldiers in a stupid primary house upgrade instead of going hard at building your investments.

If your current house isn't working out for you because of real reasons, like crime rates have soared or you need to move closer to family, then you look for another comparable house that is a better value in the location that makes the most sense. Lateral move or downgrade like a boss, not upgrade like a chump.

If you seriously are interested in FIRE (assuming you are if you really are a long-time reader) then you need to take a HARD look at your thought process that led you to even ponder the house "upgrade" and do some remedial reading here until the upgrade-itius fog clears and you can think rationally again.

There's nothing wrong with what you have and what you want, as long as you're not interested in FIRE or being mustaschian. You'd be considered to be doing quite well if you discussed this sort of thing with all the normal population and they'd encourage you to go get that awesome house in that awesome neighborhood because you've worked hard and you deserve it and that's what money is for of course... but as you're on this site, I'm offering the advice I'd expect to receive myself if I asked the same thing, because we are all about maximizing your little green soldiers, considering that good enough actually is good enough, and luxury is all relative and easily adapted to be commonplace if you're not paying attention.

Laura33

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2017, 07:10:50 PM »
Some thoughts:

1.  How stable is the $200k income?  Looks like you've made $200k for 4 years, and $60-70k for the @20 years before that.  You don't want to lock in increased expenses based on a $200k income if that income may not be permanent.

2.  What is your FIRE plan - or retirement at all?  If you are currently spending @$70k/yr, the 4% rule says you need $1.75m invested to generate that through your retirement.*  You currently have $100k of that figure.  Have you run the math to confirm that your $25k/yr investments are sufficient to get you to your target by your planned date?  And how would that be affected by putting that $100k towards the larger house (not to mention the higher taxes and everything else that goes along with the bigger house**)?

3.  You have two kids.  What are your plans for college?  Are they on their own, or do you plan to cover all/part?  If the latter, anything set aside for that?  Planning to cash-flow tuition?  How does that fit into your current budget?

4.  Life insurance and disability insurance covered? 

IMO, these are all the necessities that need to be fully addressed before you even consider upgrading.

But I also have to say, I just have a very different view of what is "upgrading."  See, I am lazy.  So my idea of "upgrading" was a location that provided me a 15-minute commute, good (free) public schools, sidewalks everywhere, and various shops/libraries/playgrounds within easy walking distance so my kids could get their own damn selves where they wanted to go and I didn't need to spend 20+ years as a chauffeur.  IME, neighborhood "walking trails" means a development designed around the car (minivan), where mom gets to spend her days driving the kids everywhere, and then walk for exercise on the weekends.  I prefer to flip that.  And those property taxes are fucking insane.

But, really, this is your decision.  Just recognize that this choice is a consumption choice, not an investment, and that it will therefore set back any FIRE plans.

*Obviously some of this can be offset by SS, but given your entrepreneurial background I don't want to assume here.

**FWIW, the 4% rule says that increasing your property taxes by $7k/yr increases your needed 'stache by $175k.  By itself.

Tl;dr:  no.

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2017, 07:27:09 PM »
Some of us are mustachian in most areas so we CAN spend on things that are important to us. Nice areas aren't especially important to most here, but if they're important to YOU then it may well be worth it. I would add up the costs first and ask yourself if it's that important to you. If it is, go for it. I know I would be willing to spend a lot, lot more to live by the sea in my city. Not quite as much as it would actually cost me at the moment, however. Instead, I often spend on a 40 minute drive just for some salt air and wind and driftwood. We all have different priorities in life. Don't let someone talk you out of something important IF you can genuinely afford it.

RWD

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2017, 07:42:07 PM »
It it worth an additional 2.5 years of working? That's what I roughly calculate it would take at your income level. Those taxes in particular are ridiculous.

SC93

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2017, 07:43:56 PM »
Back 15 years ago I went from a $127,000 house to a $705,000 house. Not only were we not as happy but it never felt as 'at home' as the cheaper house. Plus we had a dentist who was a real prick for a next door neighbor. So then I went from the $705,000 house to an apartment. All things have come around full circle, house and now apartment (this apartment was my office but we spent so much time here because we like it that we just moved here) and now we are buying another house. This time only $170,000 on a quiet street in an older neighborhood. That's just my story but I wish I would have stayed in the original $127,000 house.

pdxmonkey

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2017, 08:21:01 PM »
It doesn't sound like you can afford it. It sounds like you have very little savings for having $200k pretax income for 4 years. What have you done with the money during those 4 years besides pay off your current home? What are your current annual expenses before moving.

Also, how does "building apartments" around us actually affect your life? Have people moved into the apartments yet? Have those people in any way done anything to affect the life you were living before the apartments were there or is this just some fear that because there will soon be apartments nearby that "maybe bad stuff might happen someday maybe....possibly."

SC93

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2017, 08:41:37 PM »
I don't know where you live but the apartments around here, even the 'cheap ones' are kinda high class. There is never any trouble or loud music or anything.... just 'regular' people. Plus, with apartments if there is a problem all you have to do is tell the manager and if it is a real problem they will take care of it. If you buy a house and have a dentist prick for a neighbor in a house, you might have to live by him for 28 years or else sell your house.

mountainfamily

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2017, 10:04:38 PM »
Another factor is whether moving to the nicer neighborhood will let you have a simpler, car-free lifestyle. Will you feel less of a need to go on vacations since you'll be living closer to recreation? I live in a city and spend a lot of time/gas money commuting to trail heads and going on weekend trips. Since reading MMM, I've cut back on this and tried to make myself more content with what's close to me, but driving to the outdoors it probably our biggest discretionary expense... In this new neighborhood, can your kids walk to school? library? the store? friend's houses? Will you recreate, shop, study, and have community in your new neighborhood, or will you be commuting back to the city for appointments and work?

Given the opportunity, I personally would tack on 1-2 years of working to live in a place where I could, for example, access miles of singletrack mountain biking from my door, bike to a relatively wild beach or river, or go on a beautiful, quiet road ride without potholes and car fumes. I'm just not completely happy living in a big city, but our careers have us here for now. The quality of life upgrade would be worth it to me if it fit well in the larger context of my family's financial, lifestyle, retirement, and career goals. Note: I'm not interested in a fancier house, but rather access to what makes me happy.

Wings5

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2017, 11:01:16 PM »
We moved recently. Our housing cost doubled. Our quality of life went through the roof. In sports they talk about the guys who make hustle plays. . ."That doesn't show up in the stat sheet." Some things in life just don't show up in a spreadsheet.

Old neighborhood we could have paid the house off in a a matter of months at current income levels. Spouse and kids felt the neighborhood was heading downhill:

-Barefoot, shirtless man who walked around the neighborhood at all hours.
-Neighbors behind us let pool stay very swampy and bred mosquitos.
-Middle school across the street. My first task when I got home from work was to get a garbage bag and pick up a full-size garbage bag of trash that the students dropped in my yard daily.

New neighborhood:
-Near a lake with trails.
-Green belt through the city. We ride bikes to most sports practices.
-Lots of bike-friendly signage

So, it's costing us a fair amount more in housing, but I don't care. We're still able to invest and provide ourselves with a comfortable cushion.

Our quality of life is through the roof.





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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2017, 11:03:08 PM »
That's just my story but I wish I would have stayed in the original $127,000 house.

Similar story, except not as extreme. Our old house sold for $140k and we bought a $300k house in a neighborhood with houses closer to the $400k price. We realized it didn't make us any happier and was holding us back financially, so we sold and moved back to a different $140k house. Things of note from my experience:

    You don't get rid of the riffraff/trash. We had the repo guy showing up every other week trying to haul  away someone's boat, trailer, or car. All sorts of shady shit was still going down.

   There's some serious keeping up with the Jones crap in more expensive neighborhoods. "So and so got a trailer? Well I need one to!" "So and so's kids don't go to public school!" There was also a lot of drama from all of this one upping too.

  You'll use the walking trail, pool and other amenities the same as you do now. Moving to a new house isn't going to make you suddenly do outdoor activities you don't normally do.

   It was a lot farther away from things than we had originally thought. The new house was 10 minutes from my parents...and 25-40 minutes away from everything we did. It added so much onto our commute and errands. We knew we were moving farther away; we just didn't realize how far away it was until is was impacting us every single day.

Do I miss the nice, new house? Parts of it. Would I move back to it? No.

Remember, the grass ain't always greener on the other side.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2017, 04:44:25 AM »
For me, nicer neighborhood is totally worth it. I wish I could find a smaller house in one though. Ours is ridiculous.

Our old neighborhood, even though we were there was very transitory. Despite our trying, we never knew anyone there. People came and went too quickly. Neighbors who kept up their houses moved and turned into drug dealers. They got evicted and a promising couple moved in who let the house go to shambles.  If there were kids around, we never saw them etc.

New neighborhood kids roam like I did in the 80s. We have two yearly neighborhood parties. People take care of their property, but more importantly take care of each other. When my son was stillborn, the neighborhood organized to bring us meals, including newer neighbors I hadn't met yet.  They got us an engraved rock for him and planted a tree in our yard. When my husband was hit by a car, neighbors mowed our lawn all summer. When he was in the hospital with appendicitis 2 weeks after I gave birth, a neighbor came and held the baby while I took a nap.  We have friends in the neighborhood, but in all these cases, these weren't the people we regularly "hang out" with.

I assume there were good people in the old one. But we weren't able to connect with them. 

So that's worth every cent of the increased housing price.

It isn't as walkable as the old neighborhood, but is still quiet bikeable. Husband bikes to work (and skied there once). We can bike to a lot of the town amenities. My commute is longer, but very reasonable (15 min with daycare on the way)

« Last Edit: September 06, 2017, 04:48:13 AM by iowajes »

Raenia

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2017, 06:04:56 AM »
Where is all your money going?  Based on a very rough calculation: 200k income - ~43k taxes (fed) - 25k savings - 72k spending = 60k unaccounted for.  Some of that will be state/local taxes, but still!  But of course that's not the question you asked :)

Whether the amenities in a nicer neighborhood are worth it depends on exactly what those amenities are.  Neighbors houses nicer to look at?  Not worth it.  Walkable sidewalks to get to libraries, parks, and stores?  Totally worth it.  Moving 30 min closer to work?  Totally worth it.  Moving 30 min in the opposite direction?  Not a chance.

Given the limited information we have, I'd say don't do it.  Your savings are pretty low for your age by the standards of this forum.  Taking a big percentage of your savings for the privilege of paying triple the property tax forever sounds like a no-brainer to me.

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #13 on: September 06, 2017, 07:06:51 AM »
For me, nicer neighborhood is totally worth it. I wish I could find a smaller house in one though. Ours is ridiculous.


That's an interesting point for the OP. Maybe s/he could find the smallest/cheapest house in the neighborhood and thereby still get all the benefits while minimizing costs.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2017, 07:25:10 AM »
For me, nicer neighborhood is totally worth it. I wish I could find a smaller house in one though. Ours is ridiculous.


That's an interesting point for the OP. Maybe s/he could find the smallest/cheapest house in the neighborhood and thereby still get all the benefits while minimizing costs.

We have one of the least expensive houses in the neighborhood. A few are less than ours, but not many (and they weren't there when we bought).

I will say, if you are a "keeping up with the Joneses" type- cheap house, expensive neighborhood is hard.
I often come home thinking my freaking 2,500 square foot house is small.  Everyone else has SUVs, boats, basketball courts, amazing play structures, entertainment rooms, etc.  Luckily my keeping up with the Joneses vibe is pretty low.

ElleFiji

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #15 on: September 06, 2017, 07:45:41 AM »
I think it really depends on the nice neighbourhood vs the bad neighbourhood. Your neighbourhood doesn't sound BAD, it sounds good and growing.

If you were concerned about long term impacts on your health and safety due to drug users in your house, prevalent racism, high theft/vandalism/assault. Then yes, move, I've done it.

But to run away from scary apartments? Apartments are cool. I love apartments.

Laura33

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #16 on: September 06, 2017, 07:47:00 AM »
I will say, if you are a "keeping up with the Joneses" type- cheap house, expensive neighborhood is hard.
I often come home thinking my freaking 2,500 square foot house is small.  Everyone else has SUVs, boats, basketball courts, amazing play structures, entertainment rooms, etc.  Luckily my keeping up with the Joneses vibe is pretty low.

This.  I don't particularly want to buy stuff to keep up with the Joneses (good Lord, I don't need that pressure); but at the same time, if I am surrounded by people who have better "stuff" than I do, I feel like I've done something wrong with my life that I don't deserve such cool stuff!  Yes, I know, this is a personality failing, and I should fix that -- but I've been trying for 50 years and it's still there.  So until I can become perfect, I might as well work with my failings instead of put myself in the way of temptation. 

The best thing about my current neighborhood -- which we discovered entirely by accident after the fact -- is that it matches the level of "stuff"/"lifestyle" we like, NOT the income we make.  So for the stupid consumerist consumption things that I really enjoy (house/car/vacation), what we can afford is on the mid- to high-end for the neighborhood; and for the other "stuff" that I really don't care about (private school, clothes/makeup, social climbing, etc.), we are at least within the range of "normal" here.  So I feel like I "fit" and have a nice comfy life, even while continuing to throw lots of cash at my 'stache.

J Boogie

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #17 on: September 06, 2017, 08:45:14 AM »
I live in the best neighborhood in my city.  However I own a 2bd/1ba duplex on a busy street, and I've had to do quite a bit of remodeling.

ketchup

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #18 on: September 06, 2017, 09:16:40 AM »
This is one of those "is it worth it?" equations where going from the 5th percentile to the 45th percentile makes way more sense than going from the 45th percentile to the 85th percentile.  Going from meth labs and arson to decent quiet neighborhood tends to "worth it", but going from decent neighborhood to "nice" (whatever that really means) gets fuzzy (or negative depending on your point of view).  "Good schools" are often an excuse, but the brand new McMansions in my area are in the same school district as my "old" cheaper subdivision (first built in the 60s) so I don't get why people pay triple the price.

And building apartments near your house means that your area is growing and people want to live there.  It sounds like you already live in a nice place.

teachcsg

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #19 on: September 06, 2017, 09:25:18 AM »
Thank you for everyone’s thoughts, advice, questions and experiences. I appreciate them and they have made me pause and think more profoundly about moving.
To answer some questions/comments posted..we actually have looked at some of the smaller houses in the neighborhood (250K) but they are smaller than our current house and it seemed like we would need more space. I know this is ridiculous because they are still >2000 sf but it ‘felt’ that way as we toured the home.
I did considered the ‘keeping up the joneses’ aspect of nicer neighborhoods but driving around I did not see too many fancy cars. Everyone looked pretty ‘normal’ and not too fancy pants.  Maybe it changes once you actually live there and start feeling the pressure (?). 
The questions/comments about moving due to apartments being a bad reason, it is partly due to the congestion that seems to have sprung up around here (due to more people living in the area) and some increase in crime in the surrounding area we have heard about. Nothing major but more so than in the past. With some more development we fear it will only get worse.
The commute time would increase for the kids school, church and friends. I work from home so no change there.
The frugal part of me hates the idea of the higher taxes and cost associated with the move. The other part of me looks at the nice area, woods, trails etc and thinks, “well you only live once and it seems like I would enjoy the neighborhood more”. Our current neighborhood is nice but really has no ‘walkable’ areas. Houses and streets is all there is.
Having said that, someone mentioned college for the kids and plowing more money into the retirement accounts, which I do need to consider. Funny thing is that when I run the numbers on the retirement calculators they all say we should be fine (including SS).
Thanks for everyone’s input I appreciate it!  It has given me a lot to think about before making such a big move.

Dee18

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #20 on: September 06, 2017, 09:34:38 AM »
I started to write earlier just to say that everyone has to decide what matters most.  For me the number one factor has usually been minimizing car time.  As far as the crime issue, check this anecdotal evidence out with your police department before relying on it.  If there are more people in a geographic area there is likely to be a proportional increase in criminal acts, but is the actual percent of people who are victims of burglary, etc, going up? Is it really different in the neighborhood you are considering?

FireHiker

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #21 on: September 06, 2017, 09:59:23 AM »
I moved to a "nicer" neighborhood almost five years ago. We had a 3br/2ba house in the old neighborhood, and had three kids with an awkward mix of ages/genders. We wanted something with 4 bedrooms since we didn't want to pair up any combination of the kids. I have mixed feelings in hindsight, but there had been increased crime in the neighborhood, including our car and garage being broken into and finding a knife out front afterward. We looked for a 4 bedroom in our old neighborhood and there was nothing for sale for months; the market was just starting to pick up around that time and nothing stayed listed for long.

So, we moved to a nice new construction, McMansion-ish (houses don't fit most of the criteria on "McMansion Hell" aside from the size, hence the -ish) neighborhood. Cut our commute in half (4 miles with monster hill on super busy road, to 2 flat miles). I LOVE my neighborhood, but I wish we had gotten a house about 1000-1500 square feet smaller than we did, which is what we wanted, but there are a number of reasons why that didn't happen: awkward floor plans, too busy of a location, one we loved but asking way too much, etc.

Almost five years down the road, I still have mixed feelings. I really love my neighborhood; we hardly ever leave our little community. Much of our community is comprised of engineers because of the tech nearby, so we see a mix of new Teslas and old Hondas (with a smattering of BMW, Lexus, Mercedes in the mix). Our community is VERY kid-centric, so there are always kids at the park, active sports, etc. There is a much higher end community to the west that is not as kid-friendly, so we have met families in our neighborhood who are definitely able to be in that next higher tier but chose our neighborhood for the kid-friendly nature of it. Our neighbors are mostly pretty down to earth. I actually think because many of our neighbors are pretty secure financially, you don't see so much the showy displays of "wealth" that you sometimes see when people are trying harder to appear wealthy. The schools are extraordinary, and a lot of it is because of the community support, both financial and volunteer time.

I do NOT, however, love our giant mortgage and property taxes. When the oldest goes to college in a couple years I want to downsize to a townhome closer to the high school. We do our own cleaning and yard maintenance, and it takes a lot of time. I would highly advise reconsidering the smaller homes in the nice neighborhood and see if you could find a way to make that work. I thought we "needed" more space, but we definitely overdid it there and I look forward to pulling back. I recommend taking a hard look at all your "stuff" and asking yourself whether you really NEED it or not, and consider downsizing the stuff before you consider upsizing the house.

Good luck with your decision. I know your quandary is not common around here, but at least you are asking here and considering the full impact before making a decision.


soccerluvof4

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #22 on: September 06, 2017, 10:01:34 AM »
I second the point on type of clientele and checking with police etc..  I downsized in the same area to reduce my taxes by over 6k but nothing in aspects of school etc.. changed.  I would think if there building newer apartments and you check into the rent prices etc.. you would know what kinda of residence there going for. If middle to upper end you will be fine.  I would be one to stay away more from an area that has old established apartments that are shifting negatively. It also depends how close they are. Down the street? across the street or a couple of blocks or more away. But more money for a house, more taxes...unless the clientele  is a negative one and within a block or so, not a chance.

acroy

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #23 on: September 06, 2017, 10:06:32 AM »
Good responses thus far, good luck with your decision OP.

Our experience: 8yrs ago we moved to a place which was 70% more expensive to buy, and almost 200% more expensive to own (utilities, taxes etc). It was totally 'worth it' for QoL (Quality of Life). New place is such a nice neighborhood, great neighbors, 'right sized' for the fam, bigass pool to keep the mini mmm's busy and healthy. it did not change the commute.

You have to determine the price vs QoL equation.

Good luck!!


BFGirl

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #24 on: September 06, 2017, 12:08:48 PM »
I moved into a master planned community 3.5 years ago with all the walking trails, lakes, pools, amenities/activities.  It has been totally worth it to me.  The taxes are expensive, but I have budgeted for it.  I have made so many friends in this neighborhood and the quality of life is fabulous.  Although I have traveled some since moving in, I would really prefer to just have staycations, because most of what I am looking for in a vacation, I have in my neighborhood.

As long as it doesn't derail your FI/RE goals, you also have to consider your "present" self in addition to your "future" self.  Being Mustachian also means that you are able to prioritize and that you have the financial security to make choices that work for you and your family without being a slave to keeping up a consumerist lifestyle. 

partgypsy

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #25 on: September 06, 2017, 12:26:02 PM »
If you must move, I would definitely look into the 2K square feet house than the larger houses, for the reasons already mentioned: the initial and property taxes will be less, it will take less time to clean. It makes the equation slightly more in favor of moving. I'm happiest in smaller homes I think, with slightly larger lots.

BFGirl

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #26 on: September 06, 2017, 12:29:28 PM »
If you must move, I would definitely look into the 2K square feet house than the larger houses, for the reasons already mentioned: the initial and property taxes will be less, it will take less time to clean. It makes the equation slightly more in favor of moving. I'm happiest in smaller homes I think, with slightly larger lots.

I would agree with this.  It is much easier to clean a smaller place.  When I lived in a larger house, I had maid service every week to keep up with it.  I do all my cleaning now and keep from buying "stuff" because I don't have the room to expand.

BTDretire

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Re: Is a move to a nicer neighborhood worth it?
« Reply #27 on: September 06, 2017, 06:36:42 PM »

Having said that, someone mentioned college for the kids and plowing more money into the retirement accounts, which I do need to consider. Funny thing is that when I run the numbers on the retirement calculators they all say we should be fine (including SS).


 You didn't give any numbers for your invested savings, so we can't refute whether you will be fine or not.
But, Raenia calculated you are spending between $72k and $130k At a 4% spend rate you will need a networth of $1.8M
to $3.25M minus your SS. So, will you really be fine?