> The cost of living must be terrible in the Northeast! Those gas prices! I know what a house costs there and it is almost twice what the same house costs down here. We don't even have a state income tax. The only place we get soaked real good is sales tax. I pay 8 3/4 %.

It's very variable. New England is as diverse as the whole South, crammed into a relatively small area. Massachusetts and Connecticut have insanely high taxes, expensive houses, etc. New Hampshire has no sales tax and no state income tax (the only state besides Alaska that doesn't have either, I believe). In New Hampshire, we get nailed with property taxes and, to a lesser extent, meal tax (8%). But the cost of living isn't so terribly high in northern New England -- probably more than rural Georgia, but that's because you have a lot farther to go to get anywhere unless you're near Atlanta. In New England you can be in the most rural areas (except northern Maine) and be within a comfortable driving distance of Boston or New York City. I think that's probably it. I used to live in Virginia, just far enough away from Washington D.C. to be in "the country," but the cost of the houses there were pretty steep.