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Hi,
me and my husband have been saving for a house for what seems like forever. We finally have enough for a down payment. However, we are very scared of jumping into the market as it stands right now and have decided to just keep saving for a nicer house.
We are thinking that in a year we will have enough for 600k house. My question is how much will this actually get us and where do you think we can find a nice home for this amount. Ideally we are hoping to find a place that would be a fast commute into the city and have good school districts.
Hi,
me and my husband have been saving for a house for what seems like forever. We finally have enough for a down payment. However, we are very scared of jumping into the market as it stands right now and have decided to just keep saving for a nicer house.
We are thinking that in a year we will have enough for 600k house. My question is how much will this actually get us and where do you think we can find a nice home for this amount. Ideally we are hoping to find a place that would be a fast commute into the city and have good school districts.
Thanks for all your insight
A mansion in a bad school district/area
A nice house in a middle of the road district/area
A starter in a top rung area/district
You need to define what a "fast "commute" is..then you will get some more useful responses.
There is no such thing as a fast commute.
600K will get you something real nice in todays market.
However, think long term affordability.
If you guys have secure and stable employment, then it wouldn't be too bad an idea to spend up to your 600K budget. Don't be afraid to buy a home. Values will go up again, someday, in fact they will probabally skyrocket again at some point in time.
The biggest thing is being able to live comfortably. Be smart.
Don't spend the entire 600K on a super fancy house just to impress your friends and family. Utilities and property taxes will continue to rise. So, while you may be able to swing a higher mortgage now, as property taxes continue increase, you might find things getting tight. The cost of everything rises annually, hazzard insurances, taxes, electric, heating can go up and down, but if you get a winter where the rates are high, it could crush you financially.
In this market, there are a number of neighborhoods with excellent schools with a reasonable commute, where you can get one heck of a home for 400-500K, maybe even cheaper. Oceanside, RVC, E Rock, etc...
Trains from Babylon, which has a good express schedule, can get you into NYC in an hour. Don't know if that's fast enough but if so, you could get something nice for around 600K in West Islip which has a good district and is the community right next to Babylon. There's also Babylon Village itself though I'm not familiar with that school district.
There are waterfront (canal) neighborhoods in both communities, if that's something that interests you. Babylon Village also has many charming Victorian houses. You didn't mention taxes though; is that a factor?
I guess I should add a few more details. My husband works in jersey city so we would like at most an hr commute into penn station. I am a teacher and so my salary is not great but decent, my husband's is really the bread winner. I agree that taxes and insurance are all big expenses but we live a very realistic life and know exaclty where the money is going and how much money we are bringing in. We save a lot of our income as it is and so should be ok.
That being said I am more concerned about good school district and good neighborhood to raise a family. If I can get a cheaper house and still fulfill that then all the better. Ideally I would like a 3-4 bedroom house with a big yard. Preferably I would like to ahouse where I have to do very little work. Neither me or my husband are handy and he works long hours.
If your husband is working in Jersey City, you need to look in western Nassau--and you won't get a big yard. Only big yards in western Nassau are multi-million.
Maybe around Herricks school district, like a split-level in New Hyde Park?
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A few more details
