Tag Archives: moving neighbor

Life After The Joneses Moved

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The neighbors directly across the street from us moved last year in June (2010) to a much larger house.  At first, I thought it was a foolish move and that I was glad I was staying put since I had just paid off my house and I no longer have a house payment. 

I wish I could telly you that I’m doing great now that they are gone.  But quite the contrary is true.  You see, now I’ve changed my mind, I miss our neighbors, they were friendly, good people.  The couple that moved in are much younger than we are.  The new neighbors are in their very early 20s, and they don’t have any kids yet.  My son and daughter miss the old neighbor’s kids too, they all played so well together.

Since my neighborhood has changed, I’m feeling the urge to move to a location where there are larger houses and more land.

So what does my urge to move have to do with the Joneses? 

Well, I honestly don’t think I would be wanting to move as badly if they were still across the street from us.  Oh sure, I’d still complain about the small yard and the smaller rooms, but as long as I knew my almost similar neighbors were in the same boat, I don’t think I would mind.  In fact, I’m sure I would be pretty content knowing that I no longer any debt.

So now I understand why the average person want to keep up with the Joneses, after all nobody likes being left behind.

So what am I going to do about it?

Nothing for now.  I like not having a mortgage payment to pay each month!  Besides, my kids are still happy with the neighborhood, even without the Joneses kids to play with.  But they are missed!

-MR

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The Joneses Are Moving To A Larger House

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The great neighbor that lived across the street is moving. Basically, they are moving to a richer neighborhood (he’s an attorney and his wife is a nurse).

They bring in more income than we do… probably at least double the amount…

So just for some background information, their house is probably worth about $220,000 to $250,000 which in our city is a pretty decent house.  They are moving to a house that is in the range of $400,000 to $500,000.

I think it’s a bad move, here’s why:

  • They are only moving about 1 mile from where they live now.
  • The Elementary School their kids will go to will be a worse one that they are currently at (more crowded, and a bit rougher).
  • Based on who much they put into the house across the street, I’d say they are losing about $10,000 to $20,000 in enhancements and upgrades.
  • The economy isn’t that great, anything is still possible.
  • They need to start to build their non-retirement financial assets.  I know they have a lot of credit card debt.
  • They would have had their original house paid off in another 5 years.
  • Their real estate taxes will increase by double (so it will be $6,000 a year).
  • They’ll gut and refinish the new house like they did with the old one.  I’m not even going to guess how much that will cost.
  • They oldest kid is 14 and I don’t believe they have started saying for college yet for her.

So basically they are going to pay more that what it appears for this new house.  At least they did get to take advantage of the fed tax credits for moving!

What do you think of such a move?   To me it seems like a pretty large expense!

-MR