Appreciate the insight. I did see NY banned all fracking over 10 years ago. How are places like elmira, ithica, binghamton? I see a bunch of A rated schools there so thats good.. ME is absolutely stunning, we honeymooned there along the entire coast. Unfortunately too far from family in Toronto. NY state may be the way to go for us. Adirondacks look very nice.

NY property taxes scared me away at first but then realized the 2 places on zillow i saw and called about did in fact have 15k/a year taxes-zillow estimated them at 12. Then 5 others i called about, zillow estimated 12+ when they were actually all under 5k and 20+ acres. Cant trust everything on the internet..

We are looking at NY and VT as well. PA just seemed reasonably affordable and not so much govt oversight like NY. i do see tons of great schools according to niche, in the souther ny state line that borders PA, nice mountains still. the Adirondracs are gorgeous, i dont see quite as many home prospects for sale there. West VT is also on the menu.

Im typing on my phone, dont care about grammar on a message board. Every single place on earth has its own issues, pick which are the least of the evils you are willing to deal with.

You clearly havent spent time looking for work in my field and don't pay attention to the canadian real estate market. Thats fine, i wouldnt expect you to.Real estate all over US is coming down, sales are still happening for solid pricing. I know this due to sales in my zip code. I see this as I watch prospective properties in areas I like. When they cut the price to a level Id feel comfortable with, others agree and listing goes pending. There is also a ridiculous amount of engineering work in MI, along with now-remote. The pay is also ever increasing in my field.

Canadian real estate prices are not coming down. Will they? maybe, i dont have a crystal ball. They have continued to go up until about December 2022. Now they are stagnant. Yet, somehow..people are still buying. i don't know where they get the money from.I mentioned earlier, the job prospects in my field in Canada are 1/20th of the availability as they are here. Cross border remote work is extremely rare due to taxation and business structures so that option is out for me.

thank you for the insight.

School shootings i said. Everyone everywhere gets an ass whooping.We just had Oxford shooting last year, now MSU. Downvote all you want, school shootings are very, very rare in Canada.

See this is the insight I am looking for. Opinions of people from these areas. This is constructive feedback in my opinion.

ok...so why didnt you just say that in the first place instead of making some weird comments.that is what I am ooking for.20+ acres, limited restriction land, mountain views.But ill tell you...I havent seen anything like that currently for sale 20 mins outside of pittsburgh thats 1m or less.

guess you know some weird people then.
Kind of hard to keep and work on heavy equipment and also have a hobby farm in the suburbs..

This one was definitely not cheap..

lol why is this getting downvoted now?? You mad i want to be away from people? unreal. Im a loud person working on cars and fabricating late into the night. I don't want to piss off Jim and Bob.|smh

do tell

Thank you for your input.
What do you mean by "College provided for kids?"

This is the only way we are considering the move. I have a good remote job, can work it as long as its within US territory.
the PA geography looks much more pleasing to us than MI boonies (and MI land tax is outrageous!) We are somewhat bound by proximity to family...otherwise we'd be in some real mountains out west.
NY state is very nice too but..to hell with their taxes on taxes and front plates on cars.

If the real estate market and job prospects werent a wasteland...we would.
The average home price in toronto now is well over a million dollars and you need 200k income to qualify for a mortgage.
Sure toronto is a prosperous city...but houses are still near a million bucks 6 hours away where the major employer is tim hortons and a home hardware.
The same kind of jobs (of which there are 1/20th that are here) pay roughly 30% less while getting taxed more than 15%+ more than here., and sales and carbon tax is another 20% on much of the commodities you buy, gasoline, natural gas, oil.

Home prices and salaries were totally normal and inline 10 years ago. I don't understand how anyone survives there now as a new resident or new home buyer...

Yes, on a statistic level i agree. America also has 11x the population of canada so the chance of literally any event (robbery, murder, car accident) is 11x higher.

Lol why am i getting down voted for this and anytime i bring up catholic religion?

If you read my opening remarks, youll see that we are from canada, and the american school system is foreign to us, being that our oldest is just going to start this september. All i have to go on is anecdotal evidence from people we know that have similar age children, which are only a handful. And what you read in the internet has to be taken with a large scoop of salt as everyone has an opinion, from all areas and walks of life..

I ask about “here” as im sure life and education/environment in philly is different than a valley in bradford.
I mentioned we are near flint. Life in flint and quality of education is a polar opposite of what its like in my little town, 30 miles away.

Yes I am naive to life in PA. I have never been, just drove through the mountain regions of southern NY, looked beautiful. And the homes, land in PA look gorgeous as well.

Do you think what i am chasing exists, somewhere? And where is “here”? Id like to hear your full take and experiences to this concluding thought.

We currently live half hour from Flint. People hear that and think we live in a wasteland, where in reality it couldnt be further from the truth.

Constructive comment. Why?

20+ with mixed clear and wooded is ok for us. Enough that you dont see neighbors looking out your kitchen window. Fine seeing a property in the low lands thats 2 miles away..

Care to explain further? What do you mean by not very family? What do you mean by not nice?

Indeed we will be taking our rv to potential areas for a week trip early summer to scout locations.

I have seen some nice homes in poconos area!

Plenty of 10-50 acre parcels where i am and the properties i saw in PA where you dont see anyone in view..

Thanks will look there too!