I've been checking out more real estate in NJ. I've actually looked as far as Pennsylvania. Some people live in the Poconos or Bethlehem and commute. But it is 1 hour each way, sometimes more with traffic. I can't imagine spending 1/8th of my waking hours in a car. But you can get a 6,500 sf house like this or a 7,100 sf house like this.

I don't actually want a house that big. Something must be wrong with that 2nd listing because there is snow in the picture. In North Jersey, you can get this ugly 2 BR for $600k. Or this ugly ranch sells for $600k as well. [edit: links dead, but take my word for it they were ugly]

And taxes...property tax ranges from 2% to 3%. That is crazy with these high housing prices. Rates have stayed the same even as housing prices have skyrocked in the past few years. In Virgina, my property tax was a few hundred dollars per month. $1000-$1500 each month is crazy talk. Blue states are crazy.

I would like to note that I hate the pop unders that appear when you use realtor.com. I have no idea why they use them. I think because Realtors are basically bad people. The windows 'pop under' on every page you navigate. If you are zipping around the site, you literally will have dozens of American Express ad windows open. What a horrible idea. Ms. Realtor, you are already making rediculous amounts of comission of our home purchases, you don't need pop under ads too.

It just adds to my general derision toward Realtors. With houses costing as much as they do these days, there is no reason to charge 6% transaction fees. They don't provide $36,000 worth of value on a $600,000 transaction.