Ok, I have been doing a lot of thinking on this as I was asked what I would miss the most about Charlotte, now that we are moving away. I still haven’t come up with anything. It has been over a week. Though I was happy to leave NYC when we did, there are so many things that I miss. There were always things to do for free and for cheap. You could just walk and find new things, check out new shops… lots of artsy stuff, and great food for all incomes. However, the cost of living was crazy… or so I thought. I mean, it was but… I had a really great studio in Chelsea with a sleep loft that was big enough for a queen bed, two dressers, a night stand, a chair and a television. It also had a really big storage loft and a pretty nice amount of space below the loft as well, all for $1300/month. Ok, that’s a lot compared to what we can get a nice two bedroom for in Charlotte in an apartment community with a ton of amenities. However, in Charlotte, we need a car.
So, if I take in to account the cost of having a car (monthly payment, insurance, gas, maintenance) minus the cost of getting a metropass, we can take off at least $400. That brings rent down to $900. Ok, but the place wasn’t big enough for me, husband, baby and two dogs… really it’s just the baby. We lived there with the two dogs without a problem.
So then, we can go out to Jersey. The last year we were in the NYC area, we lived in Jersey City. I know, yuck. But we had a 2 bedroom apartment that was half of a walkup building with a nice size living room, fair sized bedrooms and a whirlpool tub. It had just been remodelled…. and that was only $1050. We didn’t need a car initially but we did eventually (what with me being pregnant and all). But if we had managed to stay in a state of not needing a car (I mean lots of people there didn’t have cars), and we take out the extra money for Jersey Insurance, we would be spending a lot less overall me thinks.
Ah well. I hated Jersey City. LOL. I still don’t want to go back to NYC either. Live and learn. I am looking forward to Raleigh though I still have a few other ideal places I’d like to live.