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.
We are thinking of buying a house on east Pine Street, but I just discovered that the apartments across the street are section 8.
Is this a safe area? we have small children, so we want to move for the schools, from Queens.
Out budget is pretty low, 180 max to buy, but we have a good amount of cash, so if the house is a total dump, we don't mind having to rehab it, so the area is the big thing.
My husband commutes to manhattan, and I commute to Queens, so we can't go too far out onto the island.
Any suggestions on other places to live are welcome!
I live in Long Beach, and I wouldn't choose that location. That's basically the one pocket of the area that's known for being pretty unsafe (lots of property crime/general misdemeanors/etc.) - you won't got physically harmed, but there's a pretty decent probability you'll deal with petty theft and similar stuff at some point, living over there. (Also, I think I know which house you're talking about, and it's been on the market for at least two years - for it to have not even been purchased by a slumlord/investor-type in that time period likely means there's something seriously wrong with it.)
Frankly, the LB public schools are bad, so I don't think that's a selling point for the area at all. Finally, that's the bay side of town, which floods during most major storms, so you'll be paying sky-high flood insurance on a property over there.
With a $180K max, you're going to have a hard time finding a decent place to live in Nassau if your goal is better schools than you'd have access to while renting in Queens. If you're willing to go townhouse/condo and can fit into two bedrooms, there are some co-ops in the Hewlett school district (an actually good district) in your price range; there are also a few 2 bedroom single-family homes in areas like Oceanside and Seaford that would fit your price range, and some 2 bedroom co-ops in Valley Stream & East Rockaway as well. Other than that, none of the areas with housing stock in your price range would be an improvement over renting in Queens, at least in my personal opinion.
To get three bedrooms in an okay part of Nassau, you probably need at least $250K for a total wreck, and $300K+ for something you could actually live in without major rehabbing.
Island Park is fine - not great, but fine/safe/okay schools - as long as you are prepared to move or pay for private high school. I don't think I'd want to send my kids to either LB or WH for HS, at least not as the schools currently are (depending on how young your kids are, admittedly plenty can change by the time they're ready for HS).
With your budget, you should try Northern Queens. Great schools in Douglaston, Bayside and Little Neck. Along with access to LIRR. A nice condo can be had in Douglaston that will hopefully appreciate in value...then you can look at better neighborhoods on LI.
Do you know anything about Island Park? We've found a few wreck short sales, just don't know a lot about the area.
Flooding in Island Park was pretty horrendous in Hurricane Sandy. The "wreck short sales" most likely were involved in that. Even before that, there have always been certain areas/streets that routinely flood in heavier than usual rain in Island Park.
Besides the potential for disaster and inconvenience in living in an area that has a history of flooding badly, flood insurance may end up being prohibitively expensive because the government is no longer supplementing it for people. Make sure the home is NOT on the FEMA flood map! If it is, try and get flood insurance estimates for the address. Also be aware that while the flood insurance may not look "too bad" in cost NOW it will rise A LOT during the oncoming years since the federal government is not cutting funding all at once, but phasing out coverage.
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.
