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As I see the quality of life being eroded across America for the working stiff, I'm just as happy to be here on the Island as anywhere else on earth.
Sometimes I consider the comparative quality of my life in light of how it once was as opposed to what it now is. I bought my first and only home in '74, here in
Copiague, a "middle-class" neighborhood which didn't have the best of reputation at that time but it was one of the few places where I could afford a $29,500
GHI (no money down) mortgage on a modest Cape-Cod home. When we left our $100.00 a month "railroad flat" in Ridgewood Queens with our 4 children, the
concept of paying $325.00 a month in order to leave Gates Avenue and to have a house with a yard and grass, trees and property that we could call our own,
was the most important financial step in our lives but because we knew that we'd be changing and upgrading the quality of our lives, we jumped at the chance.
Taxes on my eighth-acre property were reasonable, $750.00 per annum, we had a street light in front of the house, a stop sign at the corner, a driveway of our
own and every appointment that comes with being a homeowner rather than a renter.
I was working as an architectural detailer (draftsman) when we bought the house, fortunate enough to be making about $25,000 a year, commuting to Manhattan
and learning to adjust to suburban living, there was a definite quality of life but like always, we needed to remember what it was like when we lived on Gates avenue
before we could get the true reflection of an upgraded level of quality in our lives but still and all, we were in George Jefferson's words, "movin' on up".
As I see it, there will always have to be a contrasting point of reference in order to make an honest, apples-to-apples comparison in determining or even defining quality
and ideally, that value would want to be increasing in value, as time and life went on. Perhaps it is the apprehension of not feeling secure with whatever level of quality
that we're presently getting in our lives, when we live in a world which constantly reminds us that wherever in the spectrum of quality that we may lie, we're somehow,
still left to feel inadequate. I guess when you are endlessly being bombarded with the glitz and glamor of being a Kardashian or a Hilton, a Lohan or a Justin Beiber,
we'll all always come away feeling somewhat, short changed.
One needs to look at the great rate of change throughout the world today, to fully understand just where they are, in that scale of perspective which must be used
as the "truth stick", to gauge and identify the level or lack of quality, no matter where we may live, no matter what we may have, or not have. Things are not going too
great here in my life but I keep in mind and focus upon the lives of those who have much less than I do, rather than succumb to envy over every newborn personality from
Snooki Polizzi (Jersey Shores) and that collection of misfit "guidos", to desperate housewives or big brothers and those who appear to us as having true quality in their lives.
Good luck to you, in your quest for an answer. As for my Long Island neighborhood, it suites me fine. I'm sure that there is a place here on the Island where you will find
whatever quality it may take to appease the "gods of quality", in your life.
I know that my husband and I make a little over 100k and are house hunting on LI. And I have been able to (to my surprise) find many homes in our price range of $295-$325K in Suffolk County.
100k is not going to cut it for 325k house, unless you have 20% to put down...PMI will be a couple hundred a month!
I don't get the whole 100k or more a year thing. I'm doing just fine on well below that with all the standard American dream crap. And I don't live in Wyandanch.
I don't get the whole 100k or more a year thing. I'm doing just fine on well below that with all the standard American dream crap. And I don't live in Wyandanch.
That is because you bought your first home BEFORE the bubble and when you changed homes you had the resultant equity to back you up. She is addressing someone trying to buy a home for the first time. If you were trying to buy the house you live in as a first-time buyer right NOW with no equity from the sale of another home, would you have the appropriate downpayment and be able to pay the mortgage? That is where the over $100K comes in. There are plenty of people living on LI with less than $100K total income per year, but if they are homeowners, they are living in houses that if they had to buy them as first-time buyers right now they could not afford if it meant the firing squad.
As others have said, "quality of life" is subjective.
For some, a 90-minute commute on a train would be hellish.
For others, a 90-minute commute on a train would be the only peace and quiet they get during the day and they would enjoy being inaccessible for the sake of reading a good book or listening to some music.
That is because you bought your first home BEFORE the bubble and when you changed homes you had the resultant equity to back you up. She is addressing someone trying to buy a home for the first time. If you were trying to buy the house you live in as a first-time buyer right NOW with no equity from the sale of another home, would you have the appropriate downpayment and be able to pay the mortgage? That is where the over $100K comes in. There are plenty of people living on LI with less than $100K total income per year, but if they are homeowners, they are living in houses that if they had to buy them as first-time buyers right now they could not afford if it meant the firing squad.
It was relative. I bought my first house without a pot to **** in.
Put the bare bones minimum down and was scared to death I wouldn't be able to carry the mortgage. Then, not long after moving in, Mr. Suozzi double my property taxes within 2 years. Somehow, I adapted and was able to keep things going, even on my crap wages back then. And I guess, according to this magic 100k plus number I'm still a pee-on, but I still own a house and I'm not in foreclosure and don't plan to be either.
I made a lateral move on each home purchase, financially. I didn't go from bungelow to cape to McMansion. I've always stayed in the same boat.
So I say hogwash to the 100k thing. I got the same bills as everyone else, and a pretty big mortgage according the numbers I see flying around this forum.
It was relative. I bought my first house without a pot to **** in.
Put the bare bones minimum down and was scared to death I wouldn't be able to carry the mortgage. Then, not long after moving in, Mr. Suozzi double my property taxes within 2 years. Somehow, I adapted and was able to keep things going, even on my crap wages back then. And I guess, according to this magic 100k plus number I'm still a pee-on, but I still own a house and I'm not in foreclosure and don't plan to be either. I made a lateral move on each home purchase, financially. I didn't go from bungelow to cape to McMansion. I've always stayed in the same boat.
So I say hogwash to the 100k thing. I got the same bills as everyone else, and a pretty big mortgage according the numbers I see flying around this forum.
You were smart enough not to make the mistake most people do, which can render their lifestyle unaffordable!
why would you dig up a thread that's over three years old and point out that someone's opinion is wrong?
Thread necromancers are an interesting breed.
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