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I live in Forest Hills Garden, Queens. It's extremely relaxing here but i live with my parents (23 years old)
Since i graduated college i decided that i wanted to buy a home, but i can't afford the $1million+ homes here in forest hills garden. I currently work as a Radiologic Tech making $75k yearly and my girlfriend works as a nurse making $60k yearly. We want to find a home thats around $850k so that our mortgage monthly payment is below $4k.
What we want:
- Great community
- Comforting SAFE neighborhood.
- If possible something family-friendly, but then again this is NY lol.
- Decent schools for when we have kids.
- At least 30min drive into Manhattan/Bronx/Queens. 30min drive on the best possible traffic, i know it could be more.
- Things nearby like malls, movie theaters, restaurants etc..
- No where near any housing projects
- No "ghetto" areas AT ALL, has to be 100% safe so where if i wanted to walk around my neighborhood, or BBQ in my backyard i will feel safe.
But the most important thing is really safety, here in Forest Hills Gardens i know all of my neighbor we all have each others keys, we walk into each others houses to eat whenever we want. Its extremely nice here since its dominated by wealthy older people( some with kids ). I know nothing about westchester so yea..
A few places we thought about but we don't really know anything about:
- White Plains
- Dobbs Ferry
- Hastings on Hudson (maybe)
- New Rochelle
- Eastchester
- Yonkers (maybe**)
We are open to more locations but it has to be 30mins to 1 hour (MAX) to Manhattan/bronx/queens
I know im asking for a lot, but the more info i give the better my outcome is!
Thanks!
Do you have money stashed somewhere? Because that combined salary is nowhere near what you need to support an $850k house. Sure, you can afford the mortgage—and probably tightly—but what about taxes, maintenance, money saved to handle household emergencies like a boiler catching fire (ours just cost $9,000 to convert to gas), utilities, transportation, furnishing, groceries, and living the quality of life you're used to?
Frankly, I think you're in over your head at this number. A few more things to consider:
1) You're not engaged. What happens if you break up? Buying a house is a major investment and strain on even married people. Can you support the mortgage on one salary?
2) What if one of you gets sick or loses their job? Again, can you support the mortgage—and all the factors mentioned above—on one salary?
3) Are you handy? Repairs and renovations are expensive, and it sounds like your finances could be strained at this house price.
4) Do you have a money saved for a down payment? Do you have additional money saved? Do you have stellar credit?
5) Do you have a keeping-up-with-the-Jonses mentality many Westchesterites have? That's another hit on the wallet.
I'm not expecting you to answer me, but you should answer those questions for yourself. My husband and I make a combined $160k and we bought a house for just under $300k with all those factors above in mind. If one of us can't work, we can still live comfortably. We were able to pay for the new boiler in cash because all of these cost factors aren't draining our paychecks.
Do you have money stashed somewhere? Because that combined salary is nowhere near what you need to support an $850k house. Sure, you can afford the mortgage—and probably tightly—but what about taxes, maintenance, money saved to handle household emergencies like a boiler catching fire (ours just cost $9,000 to convert to gas), utilities, transportation, furnishing, groceries, and living the quality of life you're used to?
Frankly, I think you're in over your head at this number. A few more things to consider:
1) You're not engaged. What happens if you break up? Buying a house is a major investment and strain on even married people. Can you support the mortgage on one salary?
2) What if one of you gets sick or loses their job? Again, can you support the mortgage—and all the factors mentioned above—on one salary?
3) Are you handy? Repairs and renovations are expensive, and it sounds like your finances could be strained at this house price.
4) Do you have a money saved for a down payment? Do you have additional money saved? Do you have stellar credit?
5) Do you have a keeping-up-with-the-Jonses mentality many Westchesterites have? That's another hit on the wallet.
I'm not expecting you to answer me, but you should answer those questions for yourself. My husband and I make a combined $160k and we bought a house for just under $300k with all those factors above in mind. If one of us can't work, we can still live comfortably. We were able to pay for the new boiler in cash because all of these cost factors aren't draining our paychecks.
We have $375k total saved for downpayment then another $150k for repairs & anything.
We both have 720+ credit scores.
We both have cars, she has a fully paid off 2011 Bmw and i have a Mercedes Benz C250 that im gonna finish paying off next week ( about $5k ) ( we just pay $360 for insurance total )
Yeah were not engaged yet but im about to ask very soon lol. First were gonna rent to see how we live together then from there buy a home. I just wanna be ready when the time does & so does she.
An 850k house will have taxes of about 25k (~2k per month on top of the 4k in mortgage). Why do you want to pay for all of that when you don't have kids in school. Why don't you get a nice apartment for half of that price and invest that money elsewhere. If you want to live in suburbia there's nice place in Hartsdale, Pelham and White Plains.
at 23, I would wait until late 20s the earliest...a LOT can happen in the meanwhile. I was in a similar position as you at the same age.
sidenote: I wasn't aware that people in FHG was really THAT friendly.
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