Moving From Queens to LI..First Time Home Buyer..Scared (New York: real estate, rent)

[queenschic]

Born and raised in Astoria, Queens, recently married, and ready to make the move from renting to owning (we think First time home owner, and we know nothing so, here I am, hoping to get some advice!

We have been researching various parts of L.I. and have visited some open houses in Valley Stream (school dist 13) Franklin Square, Malverne and Oceanside. We both work in the city and would like to keep our commute reasonable. We would ALSO like to find a decent size home (60x100), and TRY to keep the taxes under 9K, in a GOOD area, with GOOD SCHOOLS, since the reason of our apt to house move is primarily to have children Sounds easy enough, but it has been anything BUT.

Combined we make appx. 160K, no debt, and EXCELLENT Credit history (thanks to moi, ha)

Hearing so many MIXED opinions on the "quality" of the neighborhoods, especially in regards to the school districts? Any comments?

Do you feel this is a good time to buy?

Should we wait till we have more than 60K as a down payment?

Places we should stay away from? Look into more?

We are prepared to look for houses 400-450K range, to hopefully keep our monthly payments (mortgage, insurance taxes) under $3400 a month, is this even reasonable or are we missing things that only you start to learn when u actually BUY a home. I know there will be incidentals, but this is a rough draft?

Just trying to be prepared as possible. Thanks so much for reading my ramble, ANY advice will be MUCH appreciated!

[ncc1701]

Didn't you already post this in another thread???

[Rosalind_75]

i am in the same boat as you. except for the married part.lol
we are both born and raised in queens and are looking to buy our first home. we just got out of contract due to false paper work but if you want to know more about that send me a private message. there are many many wonderful towns in long island. we are hoping to move to bethpage. they have great schools. the challenge for us is to find a house in walking distance to the train. meaning less than a mile. reason is we have different schedules and the buses are useless in long island. nothing like queens!! another reason is parking at any train stops looks like to be a nightmare.

whatever town you do decide please be sure to check it at different times of days and differnt days of the week. you really want to see whats going on when you there and when your not.

i really do feel this is a good time to buy but only if you have a good down payment,credit and debt to income ratio which i see you have. see if you can get a pre approved not pre qualified letter from the bank. also let the sellers agent know you rent that way they know that your not waiting to sell before you buy.

towns to stay away from are from my own research based on schools test percentage,city data info based on zip code and driving in the towns at all times of the day. i would stay away from freeport, baldwin and westbury.

hope this helps
if theres is anything else let me know

Originally Posted by queenschic

Born and raised in Astoria, Queens, recently married, and ready to make the move from renting to owning (we think First time home owner, and we know nothing so, here I am, hoping to get some advice!

We have been researching various parts of L.I. and have visited some open houses in Valley Stream (school dist 13) Franklin Square, Malverne and Oceanside. We both work in the city and would like to keep our commute reasonable. We would ALSO like to find a decent size home (60x100), and TRY to keep the taxes under 9K, in a GOOD area, with GOOD SCHOOLS, since the reason of our apt to house move is primarily to have children Sounds easy enough, but it has been anything BUT.

Combined we make appx. 160K, no debt, and EXCELLENT Credit history (thanks to moi, ha)

Hearing so many MIXED opinions on the "quality" of the neighborhoods, especially in regards to the school districts? Any comments?

Do you feel this is a good time to buy?

Should we wait till we have more than 60K as a down payment?

Places we should stay away from? Look into more?

We are prepared to look for houses 400-450K range, to hopefully keep our monthly payments (mortgage, insurance taxes) under $3400 a month, is this even reasonable or are we missing things that only you start to learn when u actually BUY a home. I know there will be incidentals, but this is a rough draft?

Just trying to be prepared as possible. Thanks so much for reading my ramble, ANY advice will be MUCH appreciated!

[Da41695]

Valley Stream and Malverne school districts are decent. Franklin Square school district is better. But, the best out of all of those is Oceanside, good school district, good commute, nice neighborhood. But, finding a home in Oceanside for $400-$450 is kind of a squeeze. You might have to go a little bit further down in Wantagh. The school district is just as good as Oceanside, and homes are less costly, you would be able to find what you're looking for in your budget. Wantagh is a little bit further from New York City than Oceanside, but Wantagh is close to South Shore beaches, something that is a great bonus over the summer time.

[lawoman4368]

I would look on MLSLI.com – Long Island Real Estate – Find A Home in Nassau, Suffolk & Queens, if you havent already. Seems like your looking on the south shore, what about Massapequa-generally middle class, working people and great schools.