Is Buffalo back?

[jblake78728]

$179K is a good price for a decent suburban house in Colorado, no doubt about that. When I lived there (late 90's early 00's) you couldn't touch a nice suburban house for under $250K (I suspect that once the economy gets better the prices will start to climb back up. I'm glad that you got a deal but I don't believe those kind of deals will be a long term thing in that market, especially if the Californians continue their mass migration to the state). That being said you can still get a nice house in safe neighborhood of the Buffalo metro area for $100K (granted it wouldn't be in Williamsville but you can easily find them in many towns in the area). Even if I paid $2K more in taxes than you (and my current tax bill is only about $1150 more than what yours is) it would take me 40 years to get to the point where I exhausted the $80K I saved on the original home cost. I really don't remember what I paid for utility bills out there but I do know that my water & garbage was more than the $0 I pay here for garbage & $20/month for water.

[coloradots]

I feel like we're beating a dead horse here. One more post though, forget about the house I bought. There are plenty of houses in suburbs that are in the 100-150 price range that pay half the taxes I do here. So consider me living in a nice home in Williamsville/East Amherst. The suburbs Westminster, Arvada, Lakewood would be like Tonawanda, Kenmore, West Seneca where the neighborhoods are relatively safe, homes cheap but maybe a little older. The house I sold was in Ken-Ton. We sold for $115 ish. We were paying taxes of $3800 per year. You could easily find a house like the one I sold for about 130-140 with property taxes in the neighborhood of 600-700 per year. I guess my point is for virtually the same mortgage payment we "upgraded" to a better house/neighborhood moving here in addition to all the other savings. fyi our water and garbage is the same. Gas and electric is provided by the same company and our avg bill is $70 TOTAL. Like I've stated before we are doing better financially here because all these savings add up. A little extra take home pay because of less income taxes, cable is a little cheaper, utilities cheaper, gas, groceries, etc. I would like to add I'm not bashing anything personal about Buffalo and the people who choose to live there but financially it is not the affordable place it's made out to be. Honestly I don't know how you have only a $2500 tax bill in Hamburg. I looked at houses there about five/ six years ago and the taxes were higher than that then.

[coloradots]

I do miss Ted's and Charlie The Butcher

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by coloradots

I feel like we're beating a dead horse here. One more post though, forget about the house I bought. There are plenty of houses in suburbs that are in the 100-150 price range that pay half the taxes I do here. So consider me living in a nice home in Williamsville/East Amherst. The suburbs Westminster, Arvada, Lakewood would be like Tonawanda, Kenmore, West Seneca where the neighborhoods are relatively safe, homes cheap but maybe a little older. The house I sold was in Ken-Ton. We sold for $115 ish. We were paying taxes of $3800 per year. You could easily find a house like the one I sold for about 130-140 with property taxes in the neighborhood of 600-700 per year. I guess my point is for virtually the same mortgage payment we "upgraded" to a better house/neighborhood moving here in addition to all the other savings. fyi our water and garbage is the same. Gas and electric is provided by the same company and our avg bill is $70 TOTAL. Like I've stated before we are doing better financially here because all these savings add up. A little extra take home pay because of less income taxes, cable is a little cheaper, utilities cheaper, gas, groceries, etc. I would like to add I'm not bashing anything personal about Buffalo and the people who choose to live there but financially it is not the affordable place it's made out to be. Honestly I don't know how you have only a $2500 tax bill in Hamburg. I looked at houses there about five/ six years ago and the taxes were higher than that then.

I believe jblake, because for the house I live in suburban Syracuse, I only paid 2100 in taxes and we got our house for 87k. So, it does depend on where you are in NY, as things vary, even within the same town. Here's a few homes in the Williamsville area under 200,000: RealtyUSA | New York Real Estate | (There are others that are listed under Amherst on that site too)
Same for Lancaster: http://www.realtyusa.com/property/proplist.asp?selRegion=buffaloniagara&VAR_AllowSav eSearch=1&VAR_Propertycity=Lancaster&VAR_Propertyc ity=Lancaster+-+Village&PRM_PropertyTypeCode=RES|CND&PRM_Minimum_ Beds=3&PRM_Minimum_baths=2&PRM_Minimum_Price2=7000 0&PRM_Maximum_Price2=200000&MapStatus=LISTMAP&VAR_ SortOrder=DESC&VAR_SortField=pPrice&PRM_MLSNumber= &PRM_Minimum_DateListed=&PRM_SchoolDistrict=&PRM_A ddress=
Orchard Park: http://www.realtyusa.com/property/proplist.asp?selRegion=buffaloniagara&VAR_AllowSav eSearch=1&VAR_Propertycity=Orchard+Park&VAR_Proper tycity=Orchard+Park+-+Village&PRM_PropertyTypeCode=RES|CND&PRM_Minimum_ Beds=3&PRM_Minimum_baths=2&PRM_Minimum_Price2=7000 0&PRM_Maximum_Price2=190000&MapStatus=LISTMAP&VAR_ SortOrder=DESC&VAR_SortField=pPrice&PRM_MLSNumber= &PRM_Minimum_DateListed=&PRM_SchoolDistrict=&PRM_A ddress=
Hamburg: http://www.realtyusa.com/property/proplist.asp?selRegion=buffaloniagara&VAR_AllowSav eSearch=1&VAR_Propertycity=Hamburg&VAR_Propertycit y=Blasdell+-+Village&VAR_Propertycity=Hamburg+-+Village&PRM_PropertyTypeCode=RES|CND&PRM_Minimum_ Beds=3&PRM_Minimum_baths=2&PRM_Minimum_Price2=7000 0&PRM_Maximum_Price2=190000&MapStatus=LISTMAP&VAR_ SortOrder=DESC&VAR_SortField=pPrice&PRM_MLSNumber= &PRM_Minimum_DateListed=&PRM_SchoolDistrict=&PRM_A ddress=

[VegasRocks]

A house that's cost $190,000 $200,000 range
in Lancaster, Amherst, Orchard Park
Property taxes are $6,000+ a year and going up
every year. A cape cod 800sqft in Cheektowaga at $75,000
property taxes are approaching $4,000 a year and the
Cheektowaga is becoming the new east side

[jblake78728]

Originally Posted by coloradots

Honestly I don't know how you have only a $2500 tax bill in Hamburg. I looked at houses there about five/ six years ago and the taxes were higher than that then.

Guess it depends where you looked as taxes vary greatly between town & village as well as HSD & FSD. I live in Frontier SD in the Locksley Park area of Hamburg. I live in 14075, look at houses in that zip & north of Rogers .........

RealtyUSA | New York Real Estate |

........ and you can tell me how much taxes would be on my $94K home.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by VegasRocks

A house that's cost $190,000 $200,000 range
in Lancaster, Amherst, Orchard Park
Property taxes are $6,000+ a year and going up
every year. A cape cod 800sqft in Cheektowaga at $75,000
property taxes are approaching $4,000 a year and the
Cheektowaga is becoming the new east side

Again, that might vary even within Cheektowaga too. It's a big town with 90,000 people. So, the whole town will not be the same.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by VegasRocks

A house that's cost $190,000 $200,000 range
in Lancaster, Amherst, Orchard Park
Property taxes are $6,000+ a year and going up
every year. A cape cod 800sqft in Cheektowaga at $75,000
property taxes are approaching $4,000 a year and the
Cheektowaga is becoming the new east side

If someone jacks up the real estate prices in Cheektowaga to the likes of Amherst and Orchard Park, then it has no chance to become the new East Side. $75,000 for a house you say. Even a hoodlum from our Roxbury, Dorchester, or Mattapan neighborhoods could invest in a $75,000 house and still have more than pocket change left. Property taxes are not going to stop illegal drug dealers from moving in because the initial price is so low. Of course, that would mean that there needs to be higher paying jobs in the Buffalo area so people can afford higher prices.

I have some doubt that it would ever fall down to this though. Only the western fifth of Cheektowaga bordering right next to Buffalo is more vulnerable. If you pull up a crime map, you will still see that the majority of crime incidents still happen within Buffalo's borders. And the growing biotechnology sector in Buffalo is sure to provide higher paying jobs so somewhere down the line, the spread of ghetto will stop.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by Urban Peasant

If someone jacks up the real estate prices in Cheektowaga to the likes of Amherst and Orchard Park, then it has no chance to become the new East Side. $75,000 for a house you say. Even a hoodlum from our Roxbury, Dorchester, or Mattapan neighborhoods could invest in a $75,000 house and still have more than pocket change left. Property taxes are not going to stop illegal drug dealers from moving in because the initial price is so low. Of course, that would mean that there needs to be higher paying jobs in the Buffalo area so people can afford higher prices.

I have some doubt that it would ever fall down to this though. Only the western fifth of Cheektowaga bordering right next to Buffalo is more vulnerable. If you pull up a crime map, you will still see that the majority of crime incidents still happen within Buffalo's borders. And the growing biotechnology sector in Buffalo is sure to provide higher paying jobs so somewhere down the line, the spread of ghetto will stop.

You have to figure in the cost of living though. $75,000 in Boston is different than $75,000 in Buffalo.