Gorgeous houses in Virginia for the price of a shed here!

I just found this website of these huge, huge, huge, houses with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, library, kitchens as bigs as my house and they went for like $350,000. These were my dream homes but we would have to move and I showed my mom and she sayed 'Well it is either a nice house or being near us' Now I feel guilty for even thinking about moving..I know she would never move with me. But I really can't afford to stay in NY . For the price of an OK house here, I can get a mansion there. What do you think?

It's a tough trade up.
(I moved to Fl right b4 we married. )

But in VA you are only 5 hours from family if you needed them vice versa.
So you would not be in that bad a position to see your mom and freinds when the mood struck.

I get the guilt thing. My father CRIES everytime I leave for Fl. It's horrible!!

And while I'm sure that your mom will be sad to see you go, when she visits you in your beautiful home, maybe she'll realize that it was a good idea. After all our parents only want us to have a better life than they did.

A few other things to think about...

What field of work are you in and what is the pay scale for that area? I'm guessing you'd still have a good size mortgage for that house - can you both get a job that pays enough to cover the mortgage.

Another thing to consider - if the choice is rent here or buy somewhere else, you may want to move away for a few years to build equity in a home instead of paying rent, then sell and move back. It's a way to 'save' instead of tossing money away on rent.

On the flip side - we lived in Boston for 6 years and were lucky enough to have a room available at Granny's whenever we wanted to come to town, but the drive got really old after awhile, and we came less and less - and that was under 4 hours drive. Also, when I was in the hospital on two occasions it was difficult for DH to try to handle things alone.

It is tempting however, when you compare the options here and there!

This is a very personal decision, so I can only speak for myself.

I am very close with my mom and sister. My mom lives 20 mins away from me and my sister lives 3 minutes away.

I own my house, it's an OK house, not terrible but certainly not like that pic that you posted above, but even in the most beautiful house it would mean nothing without my family. I would be miserable. I want my son to see his grandma and aunt and cousins without having to get on a plane or drive 5 hours. I want to be able to call up my mom and say 'let's do lunch' and meet her 1/2 hour later. That is very important to me.

I know I have a relationship with my family that alot of people don't have, so maybe it wouldn't be an issue for them but to me it's just not worth it.

Hope this helps

I am also very close to my family, and would hate to leave them. Dh's family is slowly moving to florida, and we talk about it.

I am still here because I do not want to leave my family, but can't imagine how we will ever afford a house here, even a little one.

Its a very tough and personal decision.
I know someone said you have to keep pay scale in mind and that is very true. For instance a friend of mine just bought a beautiful house in PA for about 200,000. Where as we are looking at houses for 350,000 but my friends even though they have good jobs and are have recieved good promotions in the past year, still make about 10,000 less than us. So although the house price is less, the salaries are as well and that is something to think about.

I have considered the idea of moving but FH and I sided with the idea of being closer to our family. We are lucky and both have good paying jobs so we can afford to stay here but our deciding factor is that we want to be aroudn to see our neices and nephews grow up and we want to be able to have impromtu bbqs on a sunday. And a big thing to us is having family around for when we start our own family. My cousin lives in NJ and both her parents are deceased. Since she had her daughter, she is over on LI (we are her closest family) all the time to see us because her DH family is all over North America and she says she feels like she wants her daughter to know what its like to have family around. She didnt think anything of it until it wasnt just her and her DH anymore.

My brother moved upstate a few years ago and even though I still see him once a month on average, I know he feels bad because he feels like he is missing everything. Especially seeing his god daughter.

But like I said its a personal choice that only you and your FH can make! Do what is best for the 2 of you but make sure that you do take all factors into consideration becuase I know a couple that moved to another state only to have to come back because they couldnt find work that paid the bills!!
GOOD LUCK!!
PS if you do move your mom will come around!

I lived in Virginia for four years...and there are some parts that are absolutely beautiful, but they are just as expensive as Long Island, some areas are even more expensive!

Then, there are some parts that are so desolate and dreary, and it takes hours to get to a main city.

Where in Virginia are the homes that you are looking at? I LOVE Northern Virginia, even D.C.....I'd move to Georgetown in a heartbeat (if I had the $$$$ for one of those pricey townhomes )

FH and I were just in Atlanta this past weekend and decided that we need to move there. We could have SO MUCH more down there then we would here. We would become homowners much earlier then if we stayed in NY. Hey there are always plane tickets, right?