<p>But if you are living in NYC and want to go even * farther* west, living in Honolulu, will only save you a couple hundred bucks.
( but think of all the money you will save on clothes- instead of designer suits you can wear Hawaiian shirts and chinos!)</p>
<p>
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It seemed that every time I tried to get my car serviced, it cost $600-$1000. Now I just pay the local shop in cash for oil changes and brake jobs and ignore all the remaining service recommendations.
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LOL! Ain't it the truth? Luckily, H is a shade-tree mechanic & can handle most car issues. My last Toyota mini-van made it to 211,000 miles. Hope the new one keeps chugging along. Living in the lap of luxury here in NJ, guys. Aren't you all jealous? Highest property taxes and auto insurance costs in the nation. Yipee!</p>
<p>Everyone should go back & read 2boys post #10 to get an idea of how fast that $140grand income was whittled down. They are a family who turned a nice profit on their first home with sweat equity. Night school for a masters. And yes, the teachers in these parts are very well paid. But I didn't think this family was whining.</p>
<p>Yes, I lived in the San Fernando valley. The cost of living on LI is much more expensive. It also seems that the COA calculator you posted did not include taxes.</p>
<p>I too wish to applaud what dancersmom said. Although we do not live a lavish lifestyle by the standards of our neighbors, we are, by any reasonable measure a very well-to-do family. It appears that my oldest S will be attending a prestigious LAC, and that we will be paying full price. I'm not saying that we aren't gulping at the cost. But that is OUR choice. We could easily have insisted that he go to a school where he would receive merit aid, or even pay very little at all.</p>
<p>The problem in this country is not that upper income people like us are paying too much for college. It is that we have made a college degree almost a sina qua non for economic success, and that less advantaged people (for a variety of reasons) have difficulty getting through college at all.</p>
<p>EXCLUSION OF TAXES: ACCRA is fully cognizant that state and local taxes are an integral part of the cost of living, and that tax burdens vary widely not only among states and metropolitan areas, but even within metropolitan areas. Due to the multiplicity of state and local taxes, taxing jurisdictions, and assessment procedures, it is not feasible to calculate local tax burdens reliably. ACCRA has opted to produce an index which adequately measures differences in goods and services costs, rather than to produce an inaccurate measure which attempts to incorporate taxes levied on real and intangible property, retail sales, and income.</p>
<p>the calculators don't include taxes its true- however just like airfare or college costs- milage apparently varies on taxes paid</p>
<p>"We would like just once to see something come back for all the taxes we pay. Unfortunately the NY SUNY schools are not too impressive. Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina and a whole bunch of other states are way ahead."</p>
<p>The undergrad education offered at Geneseo can easily stand up to comparison with these schools (but no big football or basketball team).</p>
Y'all may be right about your COL, and I'll trust you on that. But if I could pay for two Yale's on the price of one house where I put in weekend sweat equity , I don't know how much complaining I'd be doing. That is an option not available to very many folks, none of whom are in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma.....</p>
<p>I think the lesson is not to talk to reporters. THis is one of the posts that reminds me of the carnival game "whack a mole" or whatever it's called. Someone puts something out there, and the soft sculpture hammers come down on their head. </p>
<p>I think the comment on the difficulty of Long Island students getting into colleges has to do with the large pool of applicants and the competition that results. Those students aren't bringing geographic diversity - same for all students in the northeast. </p>
<p>It's easy to be outraged when you read a few pithy lines about someone else's life. I'm still choking on the thought of a $3,000 plus monthly mortgage payment. </p>
<p>There's at least one piece of college admissions that recognizes differences from state to state, and that's the PSAT NM finalist cutoff scores.</p>
<p>Geneseo was my D's "favorite" safety. Forget the grossly ugly 1970's institutional facilities. Forget the extreme isolation of the area and the absense of ANYTHING to do off campus - except for the alcohol related activities that goes with the long-standing party reputation for this school. Forget the 20:1 student:faculty ratio. Even bigger considerations were the relative weaknesses of the areas of interest. My D's saturday music program was miles beyond what Gennie had to offer. She would have quit music, rather than deal with that level. Sciences seemed like a poor choice at Gennie. Maybe that will change. Construction was just starting on a new science building. Sorry but Geneseo seemed a lot like a big high school, moved into the middle of a frozen wasteland. Down the road, is Binghamton. I lived it and I would not want to inflict that on anyone.</p>
<p>Sperlings Best Places info was updated in 2005</p>
<p>The indexes vary- I was surprised to see that Portland is supposedly more expensive than Seattle. Perhaps I can get D to move back here- Seattle has a more active job market is my impression, even if it isn't as "hip".</p>
<p>The calculator used by umich ( a great source for stats) is offline as they are updating</p>
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There's at least one piece of college admissions that recognizes differences from state to state, and that's the PSAT NM finalist cutoff scores.
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Yup. And NJ has the highest cutoff. Doesn't matter if the NJ kid lives in Camden or Newark. He still has to score substantially higher than the most privleged kids in several other states.</p>
<p>I have. Selectivity is greater than UMichigan. Percentage of faculty with terminal degrees teaching undergrads is higher than UNC and UVA. Median SAT scores are higher than Michigan, Washington, and Illinois. Average class sizes for undergrads are lower than ALL of them. And (given state of residence) it is half the price of those others.</p>
<p>curmudgeon, I'm one of those NJ homeowners who could sell my home today & take in the cost of two Yales in profit. However, once Uncle Sam sucked out his share, I'd still have to find a place to live. Not even a condemned house in my town would be affordable for what we paid years ago. I know you're starting to hear violin music to accompany my tale of woe. But this is my HOME! Not a hedge fund or some type of fortunate investment that I'm now eager to cash in. Home equity is a wonderful thing. But it is a risky asset to play around with. I sure hate the idea of being without a home if the real estate bubble bursts.</p>
<p>agreed, but these particular folks were doing this as an investment. To make money. Not as a home. They did sell it. Isn't that different? And the money is clearly not in the home they are living in, now is it? think: $3700 payment, they didn't pay cash, did they?;) </p>
<p>Where is the $400k? When did he retire? When the Brink's truck showed up? I don't think y'all want this family as your standard bearers . </p>
<p>I wonder how many of us will retire before our kids go to college , or even grad school. (There were no mention of health complications. )</p>
Yeppers. I made the same argument about the ranch to Yale and Amherst. "Sorry, Charlie. It's a ranch and we're treating as a business asset instead of a home even if you do live on it. But since it loses money some years, we won't treat it as a business to help you out on the income side and you can't write off the loss or even the depreciation against income." What????? Seems infinitely fair, don't it? </p>