Where is East New York? Is it the same place as Alphabet City?
"Watch the supply of homes in an area. If the supply starts increasing and it takes longer to sell a home, prices could decline. "
I put a house on the market in the NE in the summer of '08 and sold a year later. That was a difficult experience. The town records for recent sales showed me nothing, not one single place, was selling at our price point. We sold one of the few houses at X price in our town that year, maybe the only one, but for less than what “everyone” thought it should go for. We still made a very nice profit (because we bought during a downturn) and I only needed enough to buy the next house.
East New York is basically a low income area in eastern Brooklyn near JFK. Alphabet City is the part of Manhattan near East Village where the Avenues have letters (A, B, C, D).
My son works in the financial industry in NYC. If my son buys a place, and the financial markets take a hit, my son’s income could drop or he could lose his job, while the real estate market drops.
A double hit. Similar to SF and the tech industry. That wouldn’t be fun.
We have to take some chances in life. There are no guarantees.
Over the last 10 years, aren’t median home prices up 3 percent a year in Manhattan? That’s not huge if I am right. Aren’t real estate prices skewed in NYC because of new construction and remodeling?
yes. they are all young. what’s the worst that could happen? there is plenty of time to recover.
my new mantra
“If you buy a place with income limits, then when you go to sell, you have a limited market to sell”
@dstark, I think it’s a very popular program in Boston. The problem is more you will be limited on asking price when selling it still increases ( listing showed the price history and it definitely increased but not huge amount.
Program is also by lottery.
Here is the listing if anyone is curious. They took the pictures down. 
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/251-Heath-St-APT-101-Boston-MA-02130/87793631_zpid/
@greenwitch, in Brooklyn and not to far from JFK. Terrible neighborhood, at least when I lived in NYC.
@alh, SF home prices flatten out. Maybe drop a little every 7-9 years or so.
There were down periods in the mid 80’s, early 90’s, 2001, 2009…
The numbers never make sense in SF real estate.
Prop 13, which limits property taxes, had a large effect on real estate prices in Calif.
If your son is going to move over the next several years, probably doesn’t make sense to buy.
We did help my daughter buy a place in the suburbs of SF. A little cheaper and you can buy a house. My wife and I want my daughter here. So, if prices drop and we take a hit, it is worth it for us to have my daughter here.
You don’t have that issue.
Yes. You are right, @emilybee.
I’m glad you finally got a place for your daughter, @dstark. If I remember your old posts about it, it sounds like a crazy process.
Not quite true. NYC real estate market is not driven by the financial industry. Truth to be told, IBs have not been paying out big bonuses like they use to. It is the overseas market that’s been keeping the NYC real estate market up, as well as the tech market.
@dstark – Denver is one of the top destinations for college grads/professionals. You can easily buy a nice 3-bedroom home within 15 minutes of downtown for under 600K. A million range will get you a large brick house in a historic district with mature trees and doctors & lawyers for neighbors 
More than 300 days a year of sunshine. (But don’t look at the weather today.) For outdoorsy types it’s a wonderful place, as long as you don’t mind living in a landlocked state. A huge adjustment to former NYC/California types.
My 27 year old daughter is moving back to Denver this fall to go to grad school. She spent the last decade living in Boston, Washington DC, Manhattan and Brooklyn. Before she made the decision, she talked a lot to former big-city dwellers how they liked living here. Most gave her a big thumbs up in terms of quality-of-life-for-the-money.
@oldfort it is more the cash rich Russians and Chinese than the tech industry keeping RE prices high.
But if we have another 2007-8, you will definitely see a reversal. Or if those countries suffer and the owners now need their cash back home…the will see and a downturn will occur.
Real estate prices in close-to-Manhattan Brooklyn dipped very little, especially compared to the rest of the country, in 2008-10, and now they are way over what they were before. I keep wondering where all these people who can afford to pay $1 million +++ are coming from, but they keep coming. It’s not like they are getting mortgages for which they aren’t qualified–those days are over.
“Or if those countries suffer and the owners now need their cash back home…the will see and a downturn will occur.”
I do not know if you have followed the financial news, but those countries have been suffering for a while (e.g., the Russian currency dropped from 30 to 70 ruble/USD and the Chinese stock exchange plummeted and is still in the dumps), except the suffering does not apply to the new money.Those wealthy Russians and Chinese are still rolling in cash and are busy parking their money here in the “safe harbor” of the US real estate. At some point the money will dry out… But it might take a while.
It’s one way to keep their money safe, investing in US real estate. My D’s LL is Russian, and they own several rental properties. Didn’t feel good giving them all sorts of financial info to be her apartment surety.
Way back in post #16 a poster wants to buy a house they can then sell to their kid- bad idea. The S/D may not want to live in that area/like the house et al.
H has a young relative working for the city of San Francisco. He and his wife can’t afford to own in the city. He owned a house in Hayward but has since sold it to rent closer. Commute times and distances (bridges required) figured into decisions as well.
Seattle- son there. He has his car from Madison (great place to live, my childhood home county, U) so now he pays for parking. He is frugal. His first apartment he told the person helping him find rentals he wanted “new”- he got a parking spot for half the price away from his building (btw, even new construction does not have A/C there). A mile plus from work- he walked (CC runner in HS, still runs). After his lease expired he moved to a cheaper studio around 1/3 mile from his building. Perhaps owning could be good- but he may want to move in a few years. Who knows what the market will be, if an available condo will keep its value with the ongoing construction…
Renting is good for young adults who may want to leave unpredictably.
@Chardo That’s what a lot of people have said about most of Brooklyn, until it was gentrified and became one of the most desirable places to live. Bushwick, Bed Stuy, and Fort Green were never places people wanted to live. Now? You’d be hard pressed finding a nice home there for under $1 million.
A/C is really a waste in Seattle. You only need it maybe 2 days a year.
I agree that renting is good while they try to figure out their professional path and date. Buying makes sense for someone ready to settle down - that time usually comes when they start a family. With kids, moving becomes harder and harder.
@CaliCash, East New York is just further and less accessible to Manhattan than Ft. Greene, Bed Stuy and Bushwick. And all the aforementioned neighborhoods had more really beautiful old (built 1880-1920) housing than East New York does. I know this well because I live in Bed Stuy and previously lived in Clinton Hill which is between Ft. Greene and Bed Stuy. I moved to Clinton Hill in 1989 and Bed Stuy in 2007.
How is St. Louis? DS accepted a great job there, will move from NY this summer.