Well, if you're ok with our screwed up little state and it's $40mil gap in the budget, the beginning of laying off of essential personnel -- paramedics, soon to be police officers, etc. (along with 5% pay cuts for state workers -- county workers Im not sure but I think pay cuts are coming also?), along with the 25% increase on property tax, 21% (i think its 21%) increase from Artesian Water, and the fact that we have 9 million school districts instead of say... 3 that continuously want more money that you as the homeowner pay for each year regardless of the fact that you have kids or not, and then if you're lucky enough to have a pension from your job, PA doesn't tax you on it, DE does -- living in delaware is your best option. In fact, now that I think about it, yes, please buy a house in new castle county! You'll be helping to close that $40m gap in the budget that the head moron Chris Coons can't seem to figure out -- so he's taking the Markell way out of everything and just increasing taxes. Oh, did we point out that crime is becoming more and more prevalent here in NCCo? I say more prevalent because Im not sure if the actual crime rate has increased, or if the news urinal has started to report more of it.
That old addage about "you get what you pay for" is true. In PA, you might pay more, but you also get more services!
And the newspaper thing, it's not a big deal. Unless you're expecting that a specific person is reading through the announcements looking just for your name, I dont think anyone reads those things. Even if they do, why would they want to come and burglarize your house if they knew you had a gun? I think it works the opposite way.
I'm sure you're aware of this, but thought I'd throw it out there... the taxes don't have anything to do with the size of your lot.. its the total square footage of the home.
Good luck in whatever your decision is. Oh, if you do find out from the state about the whole references thing, let us know. I'm sure Im not the only one who would be curious to see what they tell you.
Moosie