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yup I agree with you, prices for homes in Bergen county and the taxes suck! Prices came down to what we can afford 290k ish for maybe 2-3 years but recently they have now once again started rising quickly over the last 6 months. we got priced out in the early 2000's when home prices became sooooo inflated and overvalued and I swear it seems to be itching back to those horrible days once again, we have learned nothing, and the taxes here are ridiculous. If you find a nice townhome in your budget, the taxes and maintenence fee's which run around 300 and up make home buying almost out of reach for us once again. The mortage rates went 1% or more in just weeks after sitting at aproxx. 3.6% for almsot a year. I hate NJ and bergen county but my entire family is here..I don't wanna see one more dump home that need many updates for over 300k with 8000 or more in taxes anymore...geeshh NJ we have a 60k downpayment and make 70k and 730 credit score, bank will lend us 230k and we still can't find a decent home we can afford, been looking for 2 years and don't want a short sale
300k? try 400k and you still looking at dumps that has no upgrades, probably need to put another 50k into the house to make it decent.
I feel you pain, I was looking for 2 years ago also, market was down a little in 2010-2012, the rates were 4.5 then. and now since the rates are so low, houses won't go down.
Sometimes if you really need a house, you should just bite the bullet and buy one, it won't be your dream house, at least from what I can see, bergen county is too populated for the value to go down much.
The problem is those places are disappearing rapidly. How many truly middle-class towns with moderate priced housing and good (not necessarily great) schools are left? Towns seem to be going in one direction or the other. There are plenty of towns for the super rich, and some for the not-so-rich (and just about all of those not-so-rich towns seem to have declining schools and increasing crime rates). The formerly middle-class towns are being pulled into the group with the rich towns (towns like Midland Park, Waldwick, Westwood, Fair Lawn, Nutley, Edison) or into the groups with the less affluent towns (towns like Bloomfield, Belleville, Clifton, Wanaque, or Butler).
RIP, middle-class.
This is the kind of post that always gets me shaking my head.
Bloomfield? Belleville? Clifton? Those are solid middle class towns. WHats wrong with them? Also, if thats the only place you can afford to live, then guess what, you are solid middle class. Also, what makes you so good to live in any of those towns? Why do YOU deserve better? Better being the subjective word here.
I think its comical when people that make 100k a year ***** about not finding a house in NJ.
"Oh Westfield is soooooooooooo expensive, how will me and my spouse ever afford a house".
Awesome field! I actually wanted to be a marine biologist when I was young but I get horrible motion sickness on boats that there was no way i could pursue it. I even vomited on the Nile cruise I was on in Egypt with a motion sickness patch on and those bracelets so there's no hope for me. But I can go on ANY roller coaster in the world and not be phased one bit. Go figure.....
A fellowship is completely different in medicine though and is done after all "regular" training/schooling is complete.
I sort of had heard that about medicine.
I used to think I didn't get motion sickness. Been on dozens of cruises (research ones) open ocean and daily locally. But on the way to the Gulf of Mexico during the spill, we hit 20 foot seas off jacksonville Fl. I got sick. It sucked.
After talking to the NOAA core guys I think everyone gets sea sick at some point.
...A fellowship is completely different in medicine though and is done after all "regular" training/schooling is complete.
I dont know if that is a very accurate way to put it. It is what one does after residency training to sub-specialize. For example, I am board certified in the specialty of Anesthesiology. If I wanted to sub-specialize and get board certified in Pain Management, Pediatric Anesthesiology, or another sub specialty of anesthesia, I would do a fellowship. Cardiology, gastroenterology, etc are subspecialties of internal medicine and require a fellowship beyond the internal medicine residency. A fellowship is very much like a continuation of residency. Long hours, crappy pay, research, etc, etc. So I actually consider it part of "regular" training if you want to go into one of the fields that require it.
I dont know if that is a very accurate way to put it. It is what one does after residency training to sub-specialize. For example, I am board certified in the specialty of Anesthesiology. If I wanted to sub-specialize and get board certified in Pain Management, Pediatric Anesthesiology, or another sub specialty of anesthesia, I would do a fellowship. Cardiology, gastroenterology, etc are subspecialties of internal medicine and require a fellowship beyond the internal medicine residency. A fellowship is very much like a continuation of residency. Long hours, crappy pay, research, etc, etc. So I actually consider it part of "regular" training if you want to go into one of the fields that require it.
I wrote that in a previous post so I was trying to simplify it. I said in that post "I think you meant to write "scholarship" instead of "fellowship". A fellowship is only in human medicine and is done after a residency in a specialty field".
When I said "regular" training I meant after the point you are a physician in a general field. Poor wording on my part. I know how bad the residency and fellowship programs are. I used to hear about it all the time when I worked as a medical assistant (and understand exactly what they were talking about now!). I worked for a practice which specialized in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology. My classmates and I used to say all the time while we were in clinics that we had NO idea how human doctors do it. After that year I was so exhausted (and with the exception of the 2 ICU overnight rotations and 2 Orthopedic surgery rotations - which were brutal beyond words and probably the closest experience to what you guys go through) I have no idea how you guys do it for so many more years and so many more hours. The stories I hear from classmates who were doing internships and residencies are horrible - they get all the crap work and are on call 24/7. I'm sure you had it much worse for much longer. A Doctorate degree in medicine is a major that will suck the life out of you that's for sure....
...... By the way, you said everything was paid off, which is great. For people in their 20s and 30s just starting out, trying to make something of themselves this is not the case; we have a lot of debt.
RobR is in his 30's, has two kids, and makes less than 100K per year. He doesn't complain about not having the newest of vehicles or not being able to buy a $500K house. He works a second job; he does what needs to be done to do well and live. Rob could teach some of the complainers a thing or two.
I wrote that in a previous post so I was trying to simplify it. I said in that post "I think you meant to write "scholarship" instead of "fellowship". A fellowship is only in human medicine and is done after a residency in a specialty field".
When I said "regular" training I meant after the point you are a physician in a general field. Poor wording on my part. I know how bad the residency and fellowship programs are. I used to hear about it all the time when I worked as a medical assistant (and understand exactly what they were talking about now!). I worked for a practice which specialized in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology. My classmates and I used to say all the time while we were in clinics that we had NO idea how human doctors do it. After that year I was so exhausted (and with the exception of the 2 ICU overnight rotations and 2 Orthopedic surgery rotations - which were brutal beyond words and probably the closest experience to what you guys go through) I have no idea how you guys do it for so many more years and so many more hours. The stories I hear from classmates who were doing internships and residencies are horrible - they get all the crap work and are on call 24/7. I'm sure you had it much worse for much longer. A Doctorate degree in medicine is a major that will suck the life out of you that's for sure....
You just do it, live through it, and be stronger for having done it. I'm sure you know what I am talking about.
Those 40 hour shifts I did back then make the 24 hour shifts that I do now seem like a walk in the park. 40 on...8 off...40 on... for a month straight make you ready for anything. Unfortunately, they have made that illegal since I was a resident. But that controversy could take up a whole thread of it's own.
No, it really isn't. Once you start getting ultraconservative, of course you'll never buy a house. No matter what the number is, you'll say "too much", and then feel cheated because people with less money and more risk tolerance have a house.
When my wife and I moved here, 3 years ago, we bought a house with that same multiple (3.5x) of our gross income, and in West Orange so higher taxes. And we did it while we still had a mortgage and a home equity loan on my previous house. That was overextended (debt to income was around 40%), but we took the risk to avoid having to move twice (not an insignificant expense, and a lot of trouble). Once the previous house sold, everything was fine.
I can see a housing crisis coming again very soon.
But this time,there will be no coming back.
I'm sorry,but isn't that why we got into the housing crisis in the first place?
People who couldn't afford homes because they bought houses 2x their incomes?
(I'm not talking about you specifically)
The reason I'm risk averse is because I work 2 full time jobs as it is now.
I'm trying to buy a home based on 1 of those salaries(about 53,000).
i have 2 cars, insured in west orange, full coverage (i mean full - we maxed everything except the towing since we have AAA, and i might have dropped the rental car coverage) - $163/month.
For both cars,I have towing.
I also carry gap insurance,and I opted for 0 deductible if a crash were to happen.
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we have a 60k downpayment and make 70k and 730 credit score, bank will lend us 230k and we still can't find a decent home we can afford, been looking for 2 years and don't want a short sale
