That Murray Hill apartment looks like a reasonable deal … But a $2000/ per month maintenance fee? Is that typical for NYC co-ops? Seems high to this Californian.
That’s actually a reasonable maintenance. But on co-ops the maintenance includes taxes.
Oh! Including taxes, that’s reasonable. My mistake.
Wow, that’s not bad then.
Are you talking about a full on house? Or is a co-op or condo ok? I think you can still find plenty of choice in the under 500k range in Brooklyn or Queens (commutable into Manhattan) for a 2BR co-op. Less for a 1BR. Check out sites like Trulia.
Manhattan? Not so much. Holy bleep, I had not even looked at the asking prices in Manhattan lately. If I told anyone what I paid for my 1BR in Hell’s Kitchen in 1994 they would probably come after me with a pitchfork. :))
@dstark, does your S want to move out of NYC or is this just wishful thinking on your part?
Niece and her H lived in Greenpoint, worked in Manhattan. Left to try life in Portland, Me. where the H is from, A year later they are back in NY. She got her job back (actually a promotion) and he hasn’t decided yet - he’s a chef but worked for Danny Meyers Rest group not in a kitchen. They are living for now at my sisters in Ct with their 2 yr. old.
They moved for all the reasons people leave NYC. Expensive, will never be able to afford to buy in the city unless it’s a closet, school issues for kids, blah, blah, blah. And yet they’re back. And Portland is a really cool town to live in.
I do not want my daughter to move to Austin.
The next time she brings it up, I am going to mention your post. 
@HarvestMoon1, if you have residences in two states including NY, doesn’t NY have an income tax system where you pay income taxes based on time spent in NY? So if I spend a month in NY, I have to pay taxes on 1/12 of my income?
@morrismm, sounds awesome!
@emilybee I’m surprised they wouldn’t want to stay in Portland, ME. I think it is a very livable area, especially for younger people and someone who is a chef.
@emilybee, my son told my wife and me he is never leaving NYC. I said to him you might change your mind in 20 years. You might get sick of the weather. You might come back to California.
My son said, “Maybe in 20 years. Doubtful”.
I said, “Great. I will be 80 in 20 years”.
I was living in SF. I was happy there. “My wife said I want to move to Marin”. We live in Marin. (I think my wife was right).
So who knows? His future wife, whoever she is, is going to have a say.
I like information. Just in case.
I do like the fact your niece and husband moved back.
@doschicos, This was actually their second try in Portland. He did the chef thing there when they moved from SF (where he has been a chef.) Yes, Portland is a foodie town but not like SF and NY. This time he went back to take over his dad’s business, Dad was going to ease himself out but not as quickly as her H wanted. Dad is a builder/entrepreneur and H wanted to open a restaurant at one of his inns in Ogunquit but didn’t wanted the dad to be involved in that end of it, etc, etc - and there was conflict - so back to NY they went.
We love Portland. S went to Bates so we spent lots of time there.
@thermom, you would have more credibility if you looked at prices.
@dstark, unless the law was changed in the last few years I don’t think so. My understanding is that you do not pay NY state or city taxes unless you are considered a “resident.” Residency is established 2 ways:
You are "domiciled’ in NYC - meaning you have the “intent” of making NYC your permanent residence. You can have more than one home but only one legal “domicile.” Think case law has established that where an individual has two home in different locales the presumption is that the first one purchased remains legal domicile until proven otherwise.
Second way to establish residency is to spend at least 183 days in NYC.
I remember when we had a place in Manhattan and our home in the burbs H used to have a calendar that he religiously marked every day he/we spend in NYC. There is also some weird formula for what constitutes a “day.” If we got within 10 days of the 183 days he would get nervous as he always wanted a “buffer”. I paid cash for everything while in the city at those times!
Don’t quote me on this, I don’t do our taxes. This is just my general understanding. And this scenario might be different if you are actually employed there.
@dstark, yeah, you never know. It is hard once there are kid(s). To get anything affordable - even outside NYC - you are looking at a long commute. The close in suburbs - Nassau County, Westchester are basically unafforable. My cousins kids who have young ones mostly live in townhouses in Fairfield County. Can’t afford to buy a single family house in good school districts yet and they are lawyers, consultants, etc. One older one does own a single family home but it’s on a super busy street and she could never let them play outside by themselves or walk/ride bikes to friends. These are all two income families, too.
There are plenty of low cost areas in NYC that are less than an hour away from Manhattan by subway. Are they much less desirable than the Williamsburgs and Bushwicks and Midtowns of the world? Yes. The trick is to get a house where gentrification has not hit yet. The L train is the main vein of gentrification of NYC. It’s incredible how you can literally see the demographics of the city transform along that train.
8 Ave Manhattan to Jefferson street stops will likely be too pricey for what you are interested in. Anything from East New York to Canarsie actually has seen decreases in the prices of homes. If you want to buy a home in NYC, that will likely be where you want to go.
In East New York, there are 215 3BD/2B homes for under $1 million.
http://www.trulia.com/for_sale/5090_nh/3p_beds/2p_baths/0-1500000_price/
You can book it though, East New York is next on the list for gentrification in NYC. If your child buys a house there now, in maybe 2-3 years, it will be Williamsburg adjace and they will be proud of the early investment. East New York gentrification is not in full swing yet. It’s slowly happening, so try to get there now.
There are three non-gentrifying neighborhoods in NYC.
South Shore, SI; Canarsie, BK; and Bay Ridge, BK.
Wanna buy a house? For really, really cheap? Go there.
The people who complain about the prices in NYC the most are the ones who want to live in the most expensive, bustling, thriving parts of the city. Obviously, those will be the most expensive parts. The great part about NYC is that you can really get to almost every part of the city, from every part, by Subway in 90 minutes or less.
Let’s take Bay Ridge. There is easy access to 3 trains, the R, N, and D train. By the water, and fairly close to Manhattan.
Here’s a home that has 2BD/1bath and is $379,000.
http://www.trulia.com/property/3191251744-9411-Shore-Rd-2M-Brooklyn-NY-11209#photo-9
With your budget, there are 28 3BD/2B homes under $1.5 million in Bay Ridge which is fairly safe.
http://www.trulia.com/for_sale/5029_nh/40.5823942816,40.6674729345,-74.0439234498,-73.9452181581_xy/3p_beds/2p_baths/0-1500000_price/LOFT,SINGLE-FAMILY_HOME,TOWNHOUSE_type/featured;a_sort/13_zm/
There are options out there.
@HarvestMoon1, thanks. I am sure you are right.
Your husband cracks me up.
I do not know the answer to ‘what are the affordable yet desirable neighborhoods for under $1.5 million in the NYC area’, but will now follow this thread to learn.
Right out of college (mid to late 80s), everyone I knew moved to the UES because it was safe and there were seemingly thousands of sharable apartments (temporary walls erected in newer buildings). Safety was a HUGE concern then because of the crack epidemic. I moved every year or two, and made a point of never looking at apartments on streets with schools or churches because those areas were abandoned at night, and the homeless slept on the steps. (Banners across the street: ‘Attention drug dealers–this is a crack-free school zone’, as if that were a deterrent.)
Doormen buildings were generally unaffordable on starter salaries, except for those working on Wall Street, so the rest of us lived in walk-ups and hoped for the best.
Many friends (self included) suffered crimes ranging from petty to serious: daytime break-in where only CDs were stolen; gold chain ripped off neck on subway platform during daytime hours; gun held to head entering non-doorman building late at night, etc.
At the same time, we would take a car service to visit the intrepid friends who had moved to Brooklyn because we didn’t know Brooklyn and felt it unsafe. Now, those Brooklyn rents are sky high and the UES is one of the most affordable rental markets in Manhattan. In twenty years, today’s hot neighborhood may be supplanted by today’s marginal areas. I never would have imagined the growth of the High Line area. At these same time, Hell’s Kitchen was supposed to have been the growth area in the mid-80s and I don’t feel that it has fully taken off.
As to traffic…oh my…it is everywhere! I have just returned from spring break college tour and spent far too much time in traffic driving in and out of Boston, in and out of Manhattan, in and out of Baltimore…and the lovely trek back up to CT during the Friday rush. Desperate traffic in SF when looking at colleges there in Feb. Terrible traffic in Seattle last August. Perhaps it is just cities on the water but I have to live near the water, so I will always live with traffic.
Know a lot of business contacts that do the commute into NYC from NJ, Fairfield and Westchester Counties, etc. Commutes of 1-2 hours each way plus long work days leaves little family time. Tons of people do it, of course, but definitely not the life I ever wanted.
@dstark, yes - they loved SF. He was a chef at Delfina. They owners sent him to Itsly to study for six months. He even got to cook a private dinner for Alice Waters. But she wanted to go to law school and one of the schools she got into was U of Maine so they left. She hated law school so quit after one semester and he wasn’t happy with the restaurant scene there - so they went to NYC.
My other niece (her younger sister) is still in SF. Happy as can be. She moved there in 2006, right after college.
That’s gentrification for ya. I have some relatives in Brooklyn. The house they bought in the 90s in Bed Stuy for a measly $250,000 can be sold for at least 350% profit based on what their neighbors have sold their homes for. Include the renovations they made 2 years ago? Fuggedaboutit.