Cost of living US VI vs NYC

Robin, I moved down from western NY in Jan. I am very familiar with NYC cost as I did live in Westchester form time to time and have family in Jersey city. First the moving costs. Decent vehicle { 4 wheel drive, room for child and shopping, insurance with Med/ collision/liability } 10,000, Housing, decent 2-3 bed room { safe, quiet, parking } 1300-2100 + utilities { electric [ more later] water,propane} First, last , and a deposit at some but at least first and last. WAPA is the electric and is out of site due to total oil base generation. figure 200 + a month. If you shop smart food is close in cost. furniture is plentiful on the second hand market and reasonable new. NO SALES TAX !!!!! The best advice I picked up on the site was from Anita, which you found and Trade. Trade said bring $$$$$. total to move down first two months $19,000. Cost for two per month now, With weekly nights out to dine well and no A/C about $3000.00 2300 rent, util,cable,phone. It truly is a great place to live with the majority of the people being as great as any place in the world. I am a lucky man to be able to awaken here every day and have a cup of Coffee and look out at blue water and islands. I have many good friends already who I will stay in touch with the rest of my life. So Good Luck and I hope it works for you. Oh yeah DO a PMV. The majority of people that I have met that are negative about their choice came down cold! Thanks again TRADE!

hi Robin
I moved to STX from NYC in 2000. (ok, well, I lived in Brooklyn but that's close enough to NYC) Yes, prices are comparable to NYC—prices for food and "stuff" are comparable to NYC prices and rents are starting to get pretty close to NYC prices (well at least the outer boroughs...seems that only Europeans, investment bankers and the independently wealthy can afford to live IN NYC anymore!)

I spend on average $400/mo just for groceries, sometimes more. And that's not including the monthly trip to KMart for other stuff.

You might find a somewhat decent 1br for $600-$900 mo on someone's property but the condo prices are anywhere from $850-$1400/mo just for a 1br and they go up to $1400-$2200/mo (or more!) for a 2br. And as the poster above stated, you have to come up with first and last month for deposit.

Restaurants range in price from $10 - $40 per entree, but there are cheaper places to eat, some with GREAT local food.

WAPA is out of control. They just raised electric rates 22.9% and water rates 14.6%...so residential customers using 500 kilowatt hours will pay $208 and residential water customers using 2,400 gallons a month will pay $65.03. I don't know what the current ConEd rates are but back in 2000 I used to pay around $100/mo for electric and water was included in my rent.

Thanks so much guys! It sounds like we should be ok.
Utilities have gotten out of hand here too, but we haven't quite reached that craziness. So I guess we'll have to sock away extra each month for that one. I really appreciate the info!
Best Wishes 🙂