Moving costs from Boston to Pittsburgh--$12,000!!

F

Frwinkley

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 10, 2016
My DD and SIL are moving back to Pittsburgh after spending 4 years in Boston. They have a very modest home and have gotten quotes from 2 moving companies ranging between $8,000 to $12,000. At those prices, I'd say leave the furniture in Boston and buy new stuff when you get to Pittsburgh!

Does anyone have any alternatives? They're not really comfortable driving 10-12 hours in a rented truck, not to mention just getting their furniture, etc. in the truck.

Has anyone used PODS?

I'm open to any and all suggestions!
 
no alternative suggestions but if they do go with a moving company-check them out on-line to make sure they are reputable, see if they will let you lock in fuel rates (company we used allowed that, good thing they did b/c fuel rates went WAY UP between booking and use), and make sure they've got insurance coverage on their belongings (we had it through our homeowners b/c we had purchased prior to our move)-i suggest this one in particular b/c we once saw a furniture truck that had jackknifed on a road-all the belongings were destroyed and laying on the road, over hillsides.


i'll agree that it might be cheaper to repurchase. as it was we did a small enclosed trailer w/our antiques, electronics, treasured items-and the stuff we needed to live for 5 day window of delivery for the moving van.
 
I know they don't want to drive but having driven a uhaul towing a car from Seattle to NC and back again 6 years later, it's really not that bad and they have a much shorter drive. They could hire people to load the truck and unload the truck and then drive themselves. If they don't want to pay that much and they aren't interested in selling their furniture and buying new it's what I would suggest. They could split the day in half so they can take breaks and not get stuck in rush hour traffic. This is what I'll do the next time I move, even if it's just across town. I'm done lugging furniture, especially mattresses.
 
We used a pod-like company when moving DS from Pittsburgh to Seattle, but he only had 1 pod full of stuff and it was still fairly expensive. It took a couple of weeks to arrive at their warehouse, then he was able to have them deliver it to his new apartment. I think it may have been called Door-to-Door? They actually came to our house and loaded the Pod in about an hour and drove it away. I'm sure your DD & SIL will have more stuff than he did.

Like afan mentioned, we have hired people to help unload (and carry stuff up 4 flights) when moving kids' stuff with a Uhaul rental. I have driven Boston to Pittsburgh, it is a long one day trip!
 


I feel your DD and SILs pain. We are moving from Rhode Island to Texas and our quotes have been crazy. Our house sold in 2 days so we are putting everything we own into storage for 2 months before making the move. We got quotes of anywhere between 4k to 12k just to get us to the storage place, and that doesn't include the monthly storage fee. I thought about pods but I don't want my furniture warped because of humidity. I haven't even began looking a long distance company to get us to Texas. It's a lot of money but I also don't want to buy my whole life again once we get there. We have 3 full bedrooms plus a dining room and all the other household stuff including lawn tractors and gym equipment. It's a huge undertaking.
 
We used PODS and they were great. We loaded our POD, they picked it up and stored it at their facility until we moved, and then delivered it when we called. I don't remember how much it was, but we were only moving about an hour away.

When we were moving stuff from MIL's house in TN to our home in central NH we rented a Penske truck at Home Depot and did it ourselves. It was very reasonable. Less than $1000.
 
We moved 550 miles last year dallas to kansas city , there are so many pod companies and they all compete. We ended up with u pack they made us the best deal.
The uhaul was a good deal but we did the math with gas it was only going to be 350 cheaper and the dumb truck only goes 65. So it would take forever. It was the best thing we ever did. We hired movers by the hour on both sides for the big stuff. I packed the pods with boxes myself left all the heavy stuff.
 


That does seem high for Boston to Pittsburgh and I'm sorry I have no advice. For both DC to Honolulu and then Honolulu to Colorado we were $10K each time. And that was when moving for work was tax deductible! I feel badly for people moving now; unless it's military connected, it is no longer deductible. I hope you find a good solution! Maybe a friend could drive the truck instead?
 
OP here: I think they are going to go the Uhaul route and drive themselves. Although the drive will be long, it's the most reasonably priced way to do this. The move from Pittsburgh to Boston was paid by my SIL's company. This move to one that they are choosing to make, so the expense is on them.

With the median housing price around $120K in Pittsburgh, no way would I expect to pay 40K-50K to get here!
 
That leaves me just speechless.

Are salaries really that equivalent? How in the world can anyone afford to live there?
 
wendow said:
Y'all have the craziest cost of living. I just cannot imagine. Here in the Denver area, we think homes are high but the avg cost is so much less than yours!

OP, moving isn't cheap but it should not cost 12k! We've always driven our own truck though and just hired movers on each side to load/unload.
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If you go outside the city limits of Seattle housing isn't that much. There are still houses in my area, 12ish miles from Seattle, that sell in the upper 200's to mid 300's. The further out you go the lower the prices. Granted your commute is awful but people do it. Now new houses, my distance or further are in the upper 300's to 400's, but established neighborhoods with houses from the 50's to 70's aren't that bad, not quite as cookie cutter or at least don't look it any more and you aren't on top of your neighborhood.

It's expensive to live here, our sales tax is 10% but we don't have state income tax. However the PP also seems to post negatively about pretty much everything. But for sure housing in Seattle proper is starting to turn into SF but not that bad yet cause you'll at least get a bigger yard and it won't be 1/2 of a Victorian it'll be a whole house. It also wouldn't have gone up that much if people didn't want to spend the money to live there. If I could take my tiny 2 bedroom house in NC and plop it here I'd have no problem selling it for 3-4 times what I bought it for yet back there I'm stuck renting it until the market continues to get better and I make money.
 
afan said:
If you go outside the city limits of Seattle housing isn't that much. There are still houses in my area, 12ish miles from Seattle, that sell in the upper 200's to mid 300's.
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The houses in Seattle that are selling for the most are those next to future subway stations. Most of the single family houses next to the stations are getting torn down and replaced with high density apartment buildings. Same thing will happen in the suburbs next to the subway stations they are building.
 
Frwinkley said:
That leaves me just speechless.

Are salaries really that equivalent? How in the world can anyone afford to live there?
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My employer pays many people at our office $100k+ per year with no overtime required, a juicy pension, and excellent health insurance, and yet people are still leaving for other employers. I have no idea what Amazon and the other tech companies pay but it must be much more.
 
tvguy said:
LOL. And after watching that HGTV show "Home Town", you learn there are still places where that house might be $12,000. Okay, $65,000 if you include the top to bottom remodel they do.
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But they are not next to subway stations. That is the difference.
 
MillauFr said:
But they are not next to subway stations. That is the difference.
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LOL, the Laurel homes? No subway there, you can walk everywhere, don't need a car or public transit. Welcome to Mayberry in 2019
 
tvguy said:
LOL, the Laurel homes? No subway there, you can walk everywhere, don't need a car or public transit. Welcome to Mayberry in 2019
Click to expand...

Yes having a high walk score is also correlated with high property values as well. All the real estate agents here list the walk and transit scores on high ranking properties. Almost more important than the schools.
 
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