Does living in NY mean you'll never be able to buy a home? (New York: for sale, real estate)

[gourami]

With the cost of living, isn't it hard to ever save enough to buy a home of your own? What do New Yorkers think of never being able to buy a home?

[TheMachineStops]

It can certainly be difficult to save enough to buy a home or apartment, based on the current economy, the cost of living in New York, etc. That said, there are plenty of houses in New York that have New York city owners. So I don't think it's correct to state that "New Yorkers will never be able to buy a home". The statement is true though for MANY New Yorkers.

[Spac3d]

Home ownership is not a right, it is a luxury.

That being said, if you want to own a home, NYC is not the easiest place to do so. Indianapolis is.

[DAS]

Originally Posted by Spac3d

Home ownership is not a right, it is a luxury.

That being said, if you want to own a home, NYC is not the easiest place to do so. Indianapolis is.

I don't know if it is a luxury. My cousin in Columbus OH, is single and makes about 30K a year and owns a modest well maintained home in a nice middleclass section of the city. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a full finished basement. He bought this home himself, it was not passed down to him. That would be virtually impossible in NYC.

[tpk-nyc]

Originally Posted by Spac3d

That being said, if you want to own a home, NYC is not the easiest place to do so. Indianapolis is.

Yes, but then you have to live in Indianapolis. There's more to life than cheap housing.

[clevedark]

Only within the past 20 years has it become common to own apartments in NY. Traditionally it has been a city of renters.

[saturnfan]

We used to live in Manhattan and now live in Raleigh, NC.

Have been here 20 years and still rent.

Homeownership is very overrated. Lots of hassles and unexpected whammy repair bills. Especially awful are the new homes built by undocumented workers with Chinese garbage materials.

If you want a home, you need to go where you can afford one. Of course, as in where we now live, salaries may be much lower following the trend of home prices and rents.

Do your numbers and decide what works but don't get caught up in the "American dream" crappola.

[gradstudent77]

From realtor.com, there are 698 listings for sale in brooklyn under 300,000.
17 in manhattan.
I couldn't get queens to work.
547 in the bronx.
727 in staten island.

From NJMLS.com (which is a pretty good resource for nj real estate listings)
913 listings in Bergen County, NJ
307 listings in Hudson County, NJ


Only a lunatic would call this affordable, but the fact does remain that there are places people can go to get somewhat decently priced housing for sale. In NYC, it just requires taking a smaller space in a somewhat rougher neighborhood than other metro areas. If you want to go to slum areas of Jersey City, you can get all the 1BR condos you could ever want for $120k/each.

[znycgirl]

It depends on how much of your income goes to rent & how much you earn.

You need to simply SAVE the amount of money for a downpayment...
Be it 100K, 200K or even 10K for the condos in NJ...

This is not easy if you spend all your money on rent & the rest on entertainment.

That being said...I agree that owning a home is a luxury (and expensive one in NY)...and there is more to life than home-ownership.

[Bklyn4Life]

Originally Posted by saturnfan

Homeownership is very overrated.

My vote for the understatement of the century! I own in Jersey, chased the American Dream...now I wanna come back home. And rent.