Most expensive cities in the US

[Tow411]

This Question was asked on Tow411 back in May of 2013 (10 years ago)

 

There are several cities in the US where to cost of living is high.

Washington DC, New York City NY, Stamford CT, San Jose CA, San Francisco CA, Los Angeles, CA, Honolulu HI

How do Tow Truck Operators afford to live in these areas?

 

BOROTOW said:

I am living  & working in an affluent town in NJ.  It borders Princeton NJ, & Hunterdon County NJ, part of the richest portions of NJ. 

 

My shop is less than 1/4 mile from the Johnson estate, owners of J&J. My house is across from the shop. We also purchased a small home for our two oldest kids in the same town 2 miles away. At the height of the economy we paid 385K and it was a dump, put in another 40 just to make it livable, now worth well less than half.  Seems to be a lot of $$ around here, but we barely make ends meet.

 

My home is small, 32X45 ft ranch on a 100X100 lot. My shop is 36 X 110 ft on a 100X250 lot with a 150 X 300 ft flag lot off of it where we store cars boats, trailers etc. The taxes on these pieces of property total over 38K per year.  A small home like mine in this area is 350K & up, most small ones hover around 500K. Nice large ones are in the 800K to 1.5 million with taxes north of 50K per year. 

 

Paid 480K for mine well before the economy dumped. (under water now) It is very difficult to survive. Insurance is high as everyone knows, but on small homes like mine its about 12-15 hundred a year, which to me is high. Shop insurance (inc trucks -5) all in is about 800.00 per week. Our private car insurance with my wifes Suburban, my Mercedes (dont get the wrong idea, its an 03 C240) , my 4 kids cars, 1 extra and my bike is about 12,000 yr.

 

The down side is we have to price our services and products like cheap neighboring towns /places, as well,  as rich as it seems here people are dollar tight. I have no idea how we do it, when its on paper it appears impossible to pay our bills. My health insurance alone for my immediate family is over 2 grand monthly, though that appears to be a bargain as we use it a lot and have almost no co pay or deductible and can go where ever, when ever we want, with no pre auth or referrals.

 

I put in a lot of hours, my son puts in a lot of hours, wife doesn't work (has no job, but does work here ass off at home), but some how we make it work. It at times is very scary, and soon to get more so, as the oldest boy who has been working to take over is now leaving, has had enough of fighting for every penny just to make ends meet. I love what I do, to the bottom of my heart, and I love where I live, its close to NYC, the shore, Philly, best airports, hospitals, has mountains, lakes, and much beauty, but I do despise the cold do to the cost of heating oil and being old.

 

I sometimes wish I took a different path and did better, I have never had the ability to put money aside for retirement, soc sec won't pay me very much, but I have survived living in an expensive area all my life. How do I leave this area now? The business, the people, the place I am happy? Without the son taking hold, I may be forced to sell or lease, and my wife wants to go somewhere warmer, cheaper, nicer year round.

 

How will I survive living anywhere, cheap or expensive? No idea. But I too wonder how people make it in expensive areas, around here a shop (auto repair/ body repair/towing) falls around 12-15 hundred per bay a month. I have six bays and a large yard, that would be around another 10K a month if I was leasing renting or held a Million dollar mortgage. I can't figure out how we did it, how others do it and feel bad for the young coming into these fields. Being all light duty I don't know how people do it. Even heavy duty, unless you have a good volume of good paying roll overs and the like I can't seem to make the numbers work. Yet we are always accused of over charging the public with 100 dollar tows, and 25-35 a day storage. I love it, but I believe its ruined me staying with what I loved. Not like having a 26 hr a week job making 100+k and retiring after 20/25 years and getting life benefits and an 80% pension.  Having to do it over, I would still do the same, my life has been great, fun, exciting...................its just lacked money.

 

But years ago I did have an opportunity to buy a place along Rt 13 below Chincoteague Va (or close by) where Churns Motor Freight was, (Tony Georgiana I believe was his name) maybe it would have been better. I would like to hear how others make it in places that are even not necessarily rich or expensive, but not cheap, it always interests and amazes me how we all make it work.

 

Al Campbell
Boro Collision & Towing
WreckMaster 67A

 

Kelleys Towing said:

i'm about 70 miles outside of L.A. and we take it one tow at a time there a lot of competition here..

 

marktows said:

I moved 50 miles away to NH and commute. Just got tired ofBoston.