Mastic,Mastic Beach, Shirley...Whats really going on? (Floyd, Minerva: property taxes, vacation)

[MinervaJean]

My husband and I are first time homebuyers looking to move our family to Suffolk county Long Island.the taxes are VERY high, and initially we considered buying in Mastic or Shirley because the houses are very affordable.The question is.....why are they so affordable when everything else on LI is going for 350k+?

Why is everyone moving out of these parts of town?
According to the demographics, there are over 75% white people in these areas, and the crime rate is relatively low, so Im curious as to why people consider this a not-so-nice area....what gives?Why is it bad? Is it worth moving my family to,or am I going to be getting myself in a worse situation than what im in now, living in the Bronx?

Im stuck on this one...any advice is GREATLY appreciated.

[omigawd]

Let's put it this way... you get what you pay for. If all the houses in surrounding areas are going for 350K plus and the area you're looking in is going for 225K, that clearly tells you something about the area.

[rocafeller05]

As I always say...some people have no problem living there, others would never even think about it. Let your own observations and research make your decision. Take a day and a night, when its warm out, and scope out the area.

Originally Posted by MinervaJean

My husband and I are first time homebuyers looking to move our family to Suffolk county Long Island.the taxes are VERY high, and initially we considered buying in Mastic or Shirley because the houses are very affordable.The question is.....why are they so affordable when everything else on LI is going for 350k+?

Why is everyone moving out of these parts of town?
According to the demographics, there are over 75% white people in these areas, and the crime rate is relatively low, so Im curious as to why people consider this a not-so-nice area....what gives?Why is it bad? Is it worth moving my family to,or am I going to be getting myself in a worse situation than what im in now, living in the Bronx?

Im stuck on this one...any advice is GREATLY appreciated.

[MinervaJean]

that doesnt necessarily say something deleterious about the area....the housing market stinks right now and many sellers are letting their homes go for a fraction of the value.

[kenjay]

Originally Posted by MinervaJean

My husband and I are first time homebuyers looking to move our family to Suffolk county Long Island.the taxes are VERY high, and initially we considered buying in Mastic or Shirley because the houses are very affordable.The question is.....why are they so affordable when everything else on LI is going for 350k+?

Why is everyone moving out of these parts of town?
According to the demographics, there are over 75% white people in these areas, and the crime rate is relatively low, so Im curious as to why people consider this a not-so-nice area....what gives?Why is it bad? Is it worth moving my family to,or am I going to be getting myself in a worse situation than what im in now, living in the Bronx?

Im stuck on this one...any advice is GREATLY appreciated.

i bought and sold many homes in the mastic beach area during the early to mid 1980s and made money.actually i bought my first home on elder dr. i was robbed twice.sold it and bought a home on revilo in shirley.no problem there.stayed for three years and then california here i come....bought a home in palm springs,when i moved in there were dirt-bags camping out in my back yard! so there you have it,my opinion is to scope out the area,talk to neighbors,by the way in the early eighties,on neighborhood rd.people were selling drugs to kids,the welfare office was in mastic,then moved to patchogue,and those that received their welfare checks,then,stayed in the mastic area and the slumlords accommodated them...just one big happy family.anyway it doesn't matter where you are at in the good old u.s. of a. there is that element allover.good luck!

[nynraleigh]

The prices in the Shirley/Mastic area are way over-inflated as well, in my opinion. I would buy a smaller home in a nicer area then to sink money into a home in that area. I have posted before, I looked there a few years ago because other areas were way out of my price range. I researched extensively, found a few homes that may have worked, but the overall vibe of the area, not to mention from street to street, left me very unsettled. I am happy I went with my gut feeling and decided not to buy. My home I had built here in NC would go for about 400k on Long Island, if not more. I paid in the area of 150k...with property taxes at about $1,100 per year...as opposed to Shirley taxes of $5-6k on some the homes I was vieiwing. This is not bash Long Island or bash Shirley/Mastic, but if I were you, I would invest in a better area, whether it be on or off Long Island, my opinion.

[omigawd]

Originally Posted by MinervaJean

that doesnt necessarily say something deleterious about the area....the housing market stinks right now and many sellers are letting their homes go for a fraction of the value.

Then why did you ask?

[freedomjunkie]

William Floyd School District, ack. That's not to say some parts are no good. Anything in Suffolk beats the Bronx by a landslide. Make sure to look up pedophile addresses and stay away from Neighborhood Rd., go to the Police Precinct and look up recent crime rates, they'll give you the scoop. And if you have a house in particular, ask them about that neighborhood. Knock on the neighbors doors and tell them you are interested in buying that home, how is the neighborhood.

[LIMA]

These people are talking about 20 years ago...

Go there and look, just recently they made a wbli appoligize, a jerk off community doesn't make you appologize..

20 years ago the majority of the neighborhood was rented out, the majority of it was owned by people in the city as vacation homes, they stopped vacationing and rented to whoever would pay..then the big rip off came around and everyone got stupid and thought there homes were worth 400k and better...so they sold, the neighborhood changed and now well you got people in trouble all over...
Like i say and i see every neighborhood is the same now...

Go and look there are some nice houses there, better then alot of other houses made of sheetrock and just thrown up (any levit built home, coram, mt sin,parts of pj)

You need to look for yourself though, im from queens originaly and i find a lot of li'ers exagerate and everything is going to kill you....it's silly...

[LIMA]

What part of the bronx are you in....