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Hello. I am looking to buy my first home on Long Island and am looking for any input you could give. Here is some background:
I currently live with my parents in Bellmore and have lived here my whole life so I am pretty familiar with the Long Island area. I would like to stay west of Farmingdale as going further east is too out of the way for my job. I would like to keep taxes reasonable. Obviously the cheaper the better but under $8000 is best. Income is ~$85k a year. To save costs I can have my brother as a roommate (hopefully in a separate area like a finished basement) to help with payments.
As far as the home...
Sacrifices I am willing to make:
- School district - I have no children so school district is not important right now.
- Condition: I am willing to buy a "fixer upper". Nothing that requires massive exterior things like roofs, siding, etc but interior things like drywall, paint, carpet, counters, etc... are all good.
- Size: Does not need to be a huge house at all. 2 bedroom 2 bath is big enough.
Preferences:
- I prefer a finished basement to possibly have brother/roomate.
Must Have:
- Good neighborhood. My whole area where I live is good (merrick, bellmore, wantagh, seaford, etc... but I may not be able to afford here.) Somewhere similar would be nice.
- Garage
As far as mortgages I want to do a fixed 30 year. My credit score is great being 750's. Since the housing market has crashed I can't seem to find info on what the banks are looking for anymore. What are appropriate down payments? I have seen people say you need nothing down, 3% down all the way to 20% or higher as a down payment. What is really required?
Given my income and situation what areas should I be looking at? I am assuming my budget is ~$250k? If I left out any information please let me know. Thank you.
Don't under-estimate the importance of school districts on long island. They have a huge impact on resale value, in the event that you wanted to sell.
Try Levittown and Hicksville which are more affordable. If you prefer a more diverse setting than you may also want to look into East Massapequa which is very similar to the rest of the Riviera in terms of housing stock and notably more affordable. Some parts of Freeport (like Stearns Park for example) have lower crime and a nice quality of life, just be aware that the central part of Freeport is dense and kinda feels like NYC- I wouldn't recommend that part of Freeport.
Last edited by LongIslandPerson; 11-27-2011 at 12:18 PM..
Agree with pp - it's foolish to buy a house on LI without considering the school district. It would be important to most peope buying your house in the future and may be important to you one day....can't always count on "trading up" especially with property taxes going up every year. The good news is most school districts are good enough for most people.
I got nothing to say here except that if you money for a downpayment of a house...reevaluate and spend that money on something that can in turn generate you more...
Hello. I am looking to buy my first home on Long Island and am looking for any input you could give. Here is some background:
I currently live with my parents in Bellmore and have lived here my whole life so I am pretty familiar with the Long Island area. I would like to stay west of Farmingdale as going further east is too out of the way for my job. I would like to keep taxes reasonable. Obviously the cheaper the better but under $8000 is best. Income is ~$85k a year. To save costs I can have my brother as a roommate (hopefully in a separate area like a finished basement) to help with payments.
As far as the home...
Sacrifices I am willing to make:
- School district - I have no children so school district is not important right now.
- Condition: I am willing to buy a "fixer upper". Nothing that requires massive exterior things like roofs, siding, etc but interior things like drywall, paint, carpet, counters, etc... are all good.
- Size: Does not need to be a huge house at all. 2 bedroom 2 bath is big enough.
Preferences:
- I prefer a finished basement to possibly have brother/roomate.
Must Have:
- Good neighborhood. My whole area where I live is good (merrick, bellmore, wantagh, seaford, etc... but I may not be able to afford here.) Somewhere similar would be nice.
- Garage
As far as mortgages I want to do a fixed 30 year. My credit score is great being 750's. Since the housing market has crashed I can't seem to find info on what the banks are looking for anymore. What are appropriate down payments? I have seen people say you need nothing down, 3% down all the way to 20% or higher as a down payment. What is really required?
Given my income and situation what areas should I be looking at? I am assuming my budget is ~$250k? If I left out any information please let me know. Thank you.
The big questions are how much you have saved for a down payment, and what do you expect to spend every month. 250K may not fly in a "good neighborhood". You can go FHA on a house with only 3.5% down but you will get hammered for MIP (mortgage insurance premiums) both up front and monthly. Taxes under 8K in a good neighborhood might be a stretch as well. You should generally add approximately $1000/month to whatever principal plus interest you've calculated, for taxes and insurance.
If you have a nice piece of change for a down-payment, you might consider a co-op or condo.
Don't under-estimate the importance of school districts on long island. They have a huge impact on resale value, in the event that you wanted to sell.
Try Levittown and Hicksville which are more affordable. If you prefer a more diverse setting than you may also want to look into East Massapequa which is very similar to the rest of the Riviera in terms of housing stock and notably more affordable. Some parts of Freeport (like Stearns Park for example) have lower crime and a nice quality of life, just be aware that the central part of Freeport is dense and kinda feels like NYC- I wouldn't recommend that part of Freeport.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twingles
Agree with pp - it's foolish to buy a house on LI without considering the school district. It would be important to most peope buying your house in the future and may be important to you one day....can't always count on "trading up" especially with property taxes going up every year. The good news is most school districts are good enough for most people.
I understand the importance of school district for resale and such but property taxes and general cost of living on long island is so high I don't think I can afford it. Like I said my parents live in Bellmore on the water. Property taxes are about $14k for them and go up every year. That is insane.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NoPoliticsNoGamesJustMath
I got nothing to say here except that if you money for a downpayment of a house...reevaluate and spend that money on something that can in turn generate you more...
No clue what you are saying.
Quote:
Originally Posted by inception937
Get a waterfront home on Legion or Shore rd.
I already live right there and can't afford that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gordon_Byrne
The big questions are how much you have saved for a down payment, and what do you expect to spend every month. 250K may not fly in a "good neighborhood". You can go FHA on a house with only 3.5% down but you will get hammered for MIP (mortgage insurance premiums) both up front and monthly. Taxes under 8K in a good neighborhood might be a stretch as well. You should generally add approximately $1000/month to whatever principal plus interest you've calculated, for taxes and insurance.
If you have a nice piece of change for a down-payment, you might consider a co-op or condo.
I have $30k for a down payment. I would like to keep taxes down only for the fact that it seems to be throwing money away. Money that could go into a mortgage. I would have no problem spending $2k a month on mortgage/insurance/taxes/utilities. Whatever that breakdown works out to for mortgage or taxes. Does that seem sufficient? I honestly may not even be able to afford a house on Long Island which is crazy.
I prefer not to do a co-op or condo because I have a lot of needs that can not be met there. I have 2 cars and need a garage.
While looking at houses I noticed once you get in the 300k range the location as well as size and condition are much nicer. So $60k is what I should be shooting for on a down payment? Unfortunately that will take some time to do.
That's 20%.. you won't have to pay PMI. The market isn't getting better any time soon. Waiting another year won't make that much of a difference and odds are the housing prices will drop some more.
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I already live right there and can't afford that.
