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So I know this is a very general question but I was hoping I could enlist some 'experts' to give me and my wife some ideas to at least get started.
Some background: me and my wife are young (25), recently married (2 years) and have a wonderful 2 year old son. We both work, myself in financial services and my wife is a teacher. We currently live in the Boston suburbs and rent a nice little 2 bedroom bungalow currently (note: my parents always remark how remarkably similar it is to their first home, where I was born, on Nassau St in Bellmore). We both grew up in on the North Shore of Suffolk county (where our families remain), came to Boston for school and have settled up here (for now). However, as our soon grows up and we start thinking about having more, we realized we desperately want more "family time" and need to get back to Long Island sooner than later. This is probably a summer 2010 (hopefully) or even 2011 move we're talking about here, but we still occassionally check the MLS listings and whatnot and do try to get as much info as we can.
So now, my open question to the forum is, can you help us direct our search a bit more? Like I said, our expertise as far as Long Island is concerned is really the Smithtown, Stony Brook, Port Jeff, etc areas...which probably are not realistic both with price range and my probable NYC work location. We're definitely thinking Nassau County, but the problem of course is our general unfamiliarity with things like demographics, school districts, housing trends, etc in those areas.
So for a young family making circa $100,000/year (hopeful that a promotion and raise is coming soon for me, but we can keep it at the nice round 100K number for easy discussion purposes), interested in a 3 or 4 BR with at least SOME property to speak of, with a strong school district (as we want to settle; not jump around every 3-5 years), with easy access to both the city (via train) and Suffolk (so our little guy can see his grandparents on regular occassions, not just like the once-monthly dinner gathering) - what are some appealing options? Obviously a town on the "upswing" would be preferred, and we love going for walks - so something that would have a nice shopping district or something like that would definitely be a plus!! We really have no preconcieved notions of any places or any "preferences" as far as north shore, south shore, middle of the island, etc - the things I list above are really just the criteria we're looking for - we'll make anything else fit.
Ok, thanks for any insights you guys can provide!!
So I know this is a very general question but I was hoping I could enlist some 'experts' to give me and my wife some ideas to at least get started.
Some background: me and my wife are young (25), recently married (2 years) and have a wonderful 2 year old son. We both work, myself in financial services and my wife is a teacher. We currently live in the Boston suburbs and rent a nice little 2 bedroom bungalow currently (note: my parents always remark how remarkably similar it is to their first home, where I was born, on Nassau St in Bellmore). We both grew up in on the North Shore of Suffolk county (where our families remain), came to Boston for school and have settled up here (for now). However, as our soon grows up and we start thinking about having more, we realized we desperately want more "family time" and need to get back to Long Island sooner than later. This is probably a summer 2010 (hopefully) or even 2011 move we're talking about here, but we still occassionally check the MLS listings and whatnot and do try to get as much info as we can.
So now, my open question to the forum is, can you help us direct our search a bit more? Like I said, our expertise as far as Long Island is concerned is really the Smithtown, Stony Brook, Port Jeff, etc areas...which probably are not realistic both with price range and my probable NYC work location. We're definitely thinking Nassau County, but the problem of course is our general unfamiliarity with things like demographics, school districts, housing trends, etc in those areas.
So for a young family making circa $100,000/year (hopeful that a promotion and raise is coming soon for me, but we can keep it at the nice round 100K number for easy discussion purposes), interested in a 3 or 4 BR with at least SOME property to speak of, with a strong school district (as we want to settle; not jump around every 3-5 years), with easy access to both the city (via train) and Suffolk (so our little guy can see his grandparents on regular occassions, not just like the once-monthly dinner gathering) - what are some appealing options? Obviously a town on the "upswing" would be preferred, and we love going for walks - so something that would have a nice shopping district or something like that would definitely be a plus!! We really have no preconcieved notions of any places or any "preferences" as far as north shore, south shore, middle of the island, etc - the things I list above are really just the criteria we're looking for - we'll make anything else fit.
Ok, thanks for any insights you guys can provide!!
Im biased but Rocky Point NY 11778 is definitely on the upswing.
Affordable North Shore, Good Schools, Low Taxes, Miles of Beachfront, 5000 acre nature preserve, GREAT sense of community, 60 mi from NYC, etc etc etc.
The commute will be rough from anywhere East of 111.
Its a 30 min ride to the express rail at Ronkonkoma,not optimal but doable.
We moved here 10 years ago from Stony Brook and love it.
Id also put Miller Place, Sound Beach and Ridge in the mix.
100k doesent go too far on LI but you will live richly here and love what youre coming home to.
You really need to determine if NYC is a definite and make your decision accordingly.
Appreciate the suggestion, but we'd be trying to be closer to the city than where we grew up, not further away.
I would most likely going to be working in Manhattan (current company has a NYC presence or even if I change jobs when we move) - spending 4 hrs/day commuting would not be ideal for me.
Any ideas on places further west?
Also, that 100K salary is in Boston dollars - not sure what kind of "cost of living" adjustment there'd be, but I know when I was interviewing out of school, there was definitely a bump in offers from companies whether you were going to work out of the NYC office, or the Boston office, or Chicago, etc. So I don't know how to convert that to "real dollars" in NYC terms, but I assume itd be a bit more...regardless, budget is DEFINITELY our biggest concern. I should have some upward mobility in salary as I progress through my career, but obviously counting on such things is what gets people over their heads in debt, which is why I gave current numbers as a "benchmark" of sorts.
You're probabally gonna be limited to Nassau or extreme western Suffolk.
Nassau is super expensive to live. Housing prices are down, but property taxes and everything else is way up there. The quality neighborhoods are pricey.
Western Suffolk has some good value and nice neighborhoods, but the commute factors in. East Islip, regular old Islip have some good deals and decent schools, same for West Islip. Lindenhurst is fair too. The south shore areas of Suffolk I mentioned are close to the rails. Nassau will take a little more work to find affordable AND decent to live with an easy commute. Good luck.
So I know this is a very general question but I was hoping I could enlist some 'experts' to give me and my wife some ideas to at least get started.
Some background: me and my wife are young (25), recently married (2 years) and have a wonderful 2 year old son. We both work, myself in financial services and my wife is a teacher. We currently live in the Boston suburbs and rent a nice little 2 bedroom bungalow currently (note: my parents always remark how remarkably similar it is to their first home, where I was born, on Nassau St in Bellmore). We both grew up in on the North Shore of Suffolk county (where our families remain), came to Boston for school and have settled up here (for now). However, as our soon grows up and we start thinking about having more, we realized we desperately want more "family time" and need to get back to Long Island sooner than later. This is probably a summer 2010 (hopefully) or even 2011 move we're talking about here, but we still occassionally check the MLS listings and whatnot and do try to get as much info as we can.
So now, my open question to the forum is, can you help us direct our search a bit more? Like I said, our expertise as far as Long Island is concerned is really the Smithtown, Stony Brook, Port Jeff, etc areas...which probably are not realistic both with price range and my probable NYC work location. We're definitely thinking Nassau County, but the problem of course is our general unfamiliarity with things like demographics, school districts, housing trends, etc in those areas.
So for a young family making circa $100,000/year (hopeful that a promotion and raise is coming soon for me, but we can keep it at the nice round 100K number for easy discussion purposes), interested in a 3 or 4 BR with at least SOME property to speak of, with a strong school district (as we want to settle; not jump around every 3-5 years), with easy access to both the city (via train) and Suffolk (so our little guy can see his grandparents on regular occassions, not just like the once-monthly dinner gathering) - what are some appealing options? Obviously a town on the "upswing" would be preferred, and we love going for walks - so something that would have a nice shopping district or something like that would definitely be a plus!! We really have no preconcieved notions of any places or any "preferences" as far as north shore, south shore, middle of the island, etc - the things I list above are really just the criteria we're looking for - we'll make anything else fit.
Ok, thanks for any insights you guys can provide!!
Question: Is the $100K going to include your wife's income? Since she is a teacher right now, is there anything else she can do that will make her the approximate same amount of income you plan to have on LI? Reason being, it is very hard to get into being a public school teacher on LI and I heard that even the NYC Dept. of Education is on a hiring freeze. If you need her to work also to have the $100K income, please be aware of the situation for teachers in this area and plan accordingly.
As for the type of home you want to buy on a total family income of $100k:
Quite frankly, you will only be able to afford that kind of home on $100K in a NYC commuter friendly area of Nassau with a sizable downpayment or your mortgage (PITI) will be just way too high for you to pay it every month. I mean sizable as in maybe up to a 50% downpayment depending on the cost of the home. Homes with 3-4 bedrooms, on large lots and in great school districts, with easy, non-brutal commutes to NYC do not come cheap, although, admittedly, the home prices have come down since the bubble burst. Another curse on the homeowners on LI are property taxes. The type of home/property size/quality of SD you seek could easily add $1000 a month or more to your housing payment.
I think a good idea would be for you to check out this website:
It has houses that are currently for sale on LI, so you can see what you will be getting for your money. Each house's page also has a mortgage calculator that shows downpayment and interest rates so you can see what your monthly payment is for those two "portions" of the mortgage. The other portions, real estate taxes (current figures are shown on each home's page on mlsli, but once you buy the home, they probably will be raised) and the last portion of the mortgage, homeowners insurance, will need to be figured out on a house by house basis.
With this information, you can be armed with reality as to what you really can afford to buy on LI.
Then once you narrow it down to homes in specific areas you like, post again and ask our opinions on the area and the school district the home you like is assigned to.
Lynbrook, Rockville Centre, Wantagh, Seaford, Merrick (if you can afford it)
I grew up fairly close to Nassau St in Bellmore, by the way. Could always move back to Bellmore, although I don't care for it...but a lot of people like it. Good schools, affordable, yadda yadda.
Appreciate the suggestion, but we'd be trying to be closer to the city than where we grew up, not further away.
I would most likely going to be working in Manhattan (current company has a NYC presence or even if I change jobs when we move) - spending 4 hrs/day commuting would not be ideal for me.
Any ideas on places further west?
Also, that 100K salary is in Boston dollars - not sure what kind of "cost of living" adjustment there'd be, but I know when I was interviewing out of school, there was definitely a bump in offers from companies whether you were going to work out of the NYC office, or the Boston office, or Chicago, etc. So I don't know how to convert that to "real dollars" in NYC terms, but I assume itd be a bit more...regardless, budget is DEFINITELY our biggest concern. I should have some upward mobility in salary as I progress through my career, but obviously counting on such things is what gets people over their heads in debt, which is why I gave current numbers as a "benchmark" of sorts.
Again, thanks to all for any insights!!
If you decide to job hunt on Long Island, be prepared for a shock! LI employers are known to severely low ball everyone "because you don't have to commute to NYC," and especially low ball out-of-town applicants who don't know our cost of living, with salaries that are easily 10-20 years out of date compared to current cost of living! You are better off job hunting or transferring into NYC.
The only professions that pay more and have better benefits on LI as compared to these same professions in NYC are public school teachers and police officers, due to their strong unions that the politicians are afraid of and grovel to. They can easily make $100K family income just on one salary with some seniority (and that is why our property taxes are so sky-high). If your wife were to manage to get hired by one of the LI school districts, she will literally have hit the lottery or discovered a gold mine.
400k sale price 300k Loan (assumes 20% down and remainder for Closing expenses and whatnot)
Including Taxes and Homeowners
~2400-2500 a month
Assumes Level Billing
Electric ~150 Month
Gas/Oil ~ 150 month
TV/Phone/Internet/Cell ~150 moth
Water ~50 month
So your looking at 3k a month just to live in your new home
This excludes
Car insurance
Gas
Railroad Costs (for two)
Food
(Car Payments if you don't own outright)
Incidentals
So you can see how far you need to stretch your take home income to make it on a 400K home.
Not trying to deter you, but sometimes you need to really look at the numbers to see what you truly can afford.
Great post! I would also like to add, buy what you can afford comfortably! Don't choke yourself on the house payment by thinking, "oh well, it might be rough for awhile, but we will get raises in pay, etc., down the line." These days people cannot count on raises, let alone count on still having a job down the line. Plus if you are totally choking on the mortgage payment, what happens if there is a sudden emergency to pay for (boiler stops working, roof leaks, one spouse gets laid off, etc.).
So I know this is a very general question but I was hoping I could enlist some 'experts' to give me and my wife some ideas to at least get started.
Some background: me and my wife are young (25), recently married (2 years) and have a wonderful 2 year old son. We both work, myself in financial services and my wife is a teacher. We currently live in the Boston suburbs and rent a nice little 2 bedroom bungalow currently (note: my parents always remark how remarkably similar it is to their first home, where I was born, on Nassau St in Bellmore). We both grew up in on the North Shore of Suffolk county (where our families remain), came to Boston for school and have settled up here (for now). However, as our soon grows up and we start thinking about having more, we realized we desperately want more "family time" and need to get back to Long Island sooner than later. This is probably a summer 2010 (hopefully) or even 2011 move we're talking about here, but we still occassionally check the MLS listings and whatnot and do try to get as much info as we can.
So now, my open question to the forum is, can you help us direct our search a bit more? Like I said, our expertise as far as Long Island is concerned is really the Smithtown, Stony Brook, Port Jeff, etc areas...which probably are not realistic both with price range and my probable NYC work location. We're definitely thinking Nassau County, but the problem of course is our general unfamiliarity with things like demographics, school districts, housing trends, etc in those areas.
So for a young family making circa $100,000/year (hopeful that a promotion and raise is coming soon for me, but we can keep it at the nice round 100K number for easy discussion purposes), interested in a 3 or 4 BR with at least SOME property to speak of, with a strong school district (as we want to settle; not jump around every 3-5 years), with easy access to both the city (via train) and Suffolk (so our little guy can see his grandparents on regular occassions, not just like the once-monthly dinner gathering) - what are some appealing options? Obviously a town on the "upswing" would be preferred, and we love going for walks - so something that would have a nice shopping district or something like that would definitely be a plus!! We really have no preconcieved notions of any places or any "preferences" as far as north shore, south shore, middle of the island, etc - the things I list above are really just the criteria we're looking for - we'll make anything else fit.
Ok, thanks for any insights you guys can provide!!
Are you looking to buy or rent, by the way?
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