Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How do you know if makes sense to rent or buy in NYC? We’ve created a metric called the Tipping Point, which shows the number of years New Yorkers would have to live in a home for buying that home to become cheaper than renting it. The figure takes into account a number of market and macroeconomic factors (see below for our methodology) to weigh the costs of renting versus buying in NYC. Knowing the Tipping Point for where you want to live will help you decide whether it makes sense to become a homeowner here.
The Benefits of Homeownership vs. Renting
In New York City, it takes a median of 5.8 years for buying a home to become cheaper than renting one. That’s much higher than the national Tipping Point of just over two years. But to really know whether buying makes sense for you, look at the Tipping Point for the neighborhood where you want to buy, and then consider how long you plan to live there.
A recent report sought to answer the age-old question: Does it make more sense to buy or rent your home in New York City?
StreetEasy recently released an interactive map that charts out each New York City neighborhood’s “Tipping Point”, revealing how long it takes for buying a home in NYC before it makes more financial sense than renting. According to their findings, those considering buying a home in Queens overall would need to stay in the home for 3.5 years before it becomes cheaper than renting it.
The report found that the Queens neighborhood with the highest tipping point was Flushing, with residents living there for 5.29 years before the financial cost of buying to be less than the cost of renting. Following close behind is Long Island City, with a 5.04-year tipping point.
The third highest tipping point neighborhood is Astoria with a 4.75-year living period. Tied for numbers four and five were Bayside and Whitestone, both with a 4.54-year living period.
StreetEasy found that Ozone Park had the lowest tipping point in the borough with a 0.08-year living period, making it more affordable to buy rather than rent. Jamaica Hills was the second lowest with a one year tipping point, followed by Jamaica with a 1.46-year tipping point. Following behind are Jamaica Estates and Glen Oaks with a 1.50-year tipping point and a 1.54-year tipping point, respectively.
Where it pays off is when the home is paid off, mortgage free. Then there's no comparison, especially if you are retired. You are sitting on a lot of equity, which you can use to relocate and buy a nicer home for cash elsewhere, or stay in NYC, paying about the same to live in your own home and property as others are paying for a studio apartment.
Where it pays off is when the home is paid off, mortgage free. Then there's no comparison, especially if you are retired. You are sitting on a lot of equity, which you can use to relocate and buy a nicer home for cash elsewhere, or stay in NYC, paying about the same to live in your own home and property as others are paying for a studio apartment.
No comparison ? To that I say bull.
We are retired ,rent and have lots of investments paying our rent ..our investments are totally liquid ..we are not dependent on selling a house or loans to access our money ..banks closed helocs in 2008 .
In fact you need to meet the same criteria today for a heloc as you do a mortgage ..good luck if you lose your job and are denied .
We would actually have less cash flow if we still had our money tied up in a house .
So it isn’t about owning or renting ..it is about having the financial resources to have a choice.
You may be able to lower costs by owning but that comes at the expense of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in the property and not producing cash flow .
Or you can rent and generate higher cash flow with that money in higher yielding investments , which easily covers the rent .
You just need the resources to have that choice and either way works just fine.
In fact the reason we did so well financially Is just because renting allowed us to take the money not tied up in a house and buy a share in a real estate business. .
So I call bull on anyone who who says you have to own ...there are times it may be better and times it may be inferior depending on your personal Resources
Last edited by mathjak107; 12-12-2019 at 01:28 PM..
When we retired we sold our 95 year old colonial in Staten Island and bought a completely renovated flipped 3br/2b ranch on 1/3 of an acre in Howell, NJ. I had the money to add hardwood floors, crown and base mouldings, an island, storm doors, paint, add a trex deck in the back off the kitchen, add a new asphalt diriveway, all with the proceeds of the sale of the SI house. We live in a friendly quiet neighborhood, with my back yard backing onto wooded land. I pay about $1,000 a month to live here, including utilities, insurance, property taxes and maintenance. That would rent a studio apartment in Staten Island or Howell, or most anywhere else, without the privacy and surroundings we have here. How is that bull? My IRA and other liquid assets have never been touched. We don't use credit cards or any type of credit, and we still save about 10% of our gross income. Our cash flow is more than we need.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107
No comparison ? To that I say bull.
We are retired ,rent and have lots of investments paying our rent ..our investments are totally liquid ..we are not dependent on selling a house or loans to access our money ..banks closed helocs in 2008 .
In fact you need to meet the same criteria today for a heloc as you do a mortgage ..good luck if you lose your job and are denied .
We would actually have less cash flow if we still had our money tied up in a house .
So it isn’t about owning or renting ..it is about having the financial resources to have a choice
When we retired we sold our 95 year old colonial in Staten Island and bought a completely renovated flipped 3br/2b ranch on 1/3 of an acre in Howell, NJ. I had the money to add hardwood floors, crown and base mouldings, an island, storm doors, paint, add a trex deck in the back off the kitchen, add a new asphalt diriveway, all with the proceeds of the sale of the SI house. We live in a friendly quiet neighborhood, with my back yard backing onto wooded land. I pay about $1,000 a month to live here, including utilities, insurance, property taxes and maintenance. That would rent a studio apartment in Staten Island or Howell, or most anywhere else, without the privacy and surroundings we have here. How is that bull? My IRA and other liquid assets have never been touched. We don't use credit cards or any type of credit, and we still save about 10% of our gross income. Our cash flow is more than we need.
all well and good but thinking that you can't rent and do as well or better is nonsense .
all that matters is liabilities vs cash flow ...
lower expenses by owning with reduced cash flow since that money in the house is not generating increased income , may leave you worse off then those hundreds of thousands of dollars invested earning good returns with higher expenses .
in fact the economy of scale can be very different . we have loads of apartment buildings here in nyc and the boroughs which can be far cheaper to rent then buying a single family home with all the maintenance and bills. so the other issue is we rarely rent as much house as we would buy .
single family homes here in bay terrace start at a million . a 2 bedroom apartment can be had for under 2400-2500 a month
Someone created that calculator and decided to tell us whether we should buy or rent, that’s totally stupid.
If you cannot manage your money, then doesn’t matter who tell you to buy or rent, you will not make it. Buying or renting is totally up to an individual base on how they use their money and the lifestyle they have. Of course there is a minimum of what you make and the price you pay for would decide whether you can afford it or not.
If one owns two car, eat out every meal with an average of $30 per meal, and take Uber everywhere they go, etc... Unless the person makes a million, he or she would never be able to buy.
We could never afford Brooklyn houses so we bought in Staten Island. The economics are different there. A single family home in a nice neighborhood can be under $500K but a 2-3 bedroom apartment is about $1800 a month plus utilities, which can easily run another 300 a month. Having witnessed substantial dips in the markets a couple of times in the last 30 years, I'm not comfortable in investing now that I would have limited time to recover losses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107
all well and good but thinking that you can't rent and do as well or better is nonsense .
all that matters is liabilities vs cash flow ...
lower expenses by owning with reduced cash flow since that money in the house is not generating increased income , may leave you worse off then those hundreds of thousands of dollars invested earning good returns with higher expenses .
in fact the economy of scale can be very different . we have loads of apartment buildings here in nyc and the boroughs which can be far cheaper to rent then buying a single family home with all the maintenance and bills. so the other issue is we rarely rent as much house as we would buy .
single family homes here in bay terrace start at a million . a 2 bedroom apartment can be had for under 2400-2500 a month
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
