Planning to move to Elmont (Valley Stream: sales, apartment, renting)

[nicolasl46]

My wife an I have been renting an apartment in a two family house in Middle Village NY for the past 10 years. Landlord has been great and he loves my kids so much that has never complained about them being kids lol. But we decided that it was time to buy our first home and have something to leave my kids in the future. Queens is getting too expensive and overcrowded with multi family homes and buildings going up in places of single or two family homes. I love Middle Village, but I would never be able to afford anything here, so we started looking at houses near queens because we both work in Flushing and Elmont popped up. Its in the border between Queens and LI, seems pretty safe for what I hear and the school district is pretty good, and those are basically the things that we are looking for because we have two kids (5-8). My mother watches over the kids while we work so we need to also stay near queens for them to go to school there and for my m,other to pick them up from school. Unless Elmont schools have after free after school programs, it will have to stay like this until kids are older. How do families work around having kids and work lol. We are pre-approved for $500k and there are pretty nice houses in the area between $400k and $500k. Another question should be, are asking prices firm or there is wiggle room like when buying a car? Sorry about the lengthy post, I'm trying to gather as much info as I can. Thanks.

[Bwsteg]

For a $500k budget, I would look elsewhere. Yes you’ll be a bit farther but the town and school district will be much better. If you want to be very close to the queens border, I think valley stream is a better choice.

[hotkarl]

Elmont is pretty much Queens.
No real gain there.
You need a bit more east for real 'burbs.

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by nicolasl46

Another question should be, are asking prices firm or there is wiggle room like when buying a car? .

It really depends on the house, but in general, at the moment your price point is "hot", with plenty of competition, so there will most likely not be much wiggle room, if any. In many instances, sales prices end up being above asking.
But as I already mentioned, it depends on the individual property.

[nicolasl46]

Originally Posted by Bwsteg

For a $500k budget, I would look elsewhere. Yes you’ll be a bit farther but the town and school district will be much better. If you want to be very close to the queens border, I think valley stream is a better choice.

Is the budget too low? lol I really can't do any better at the moment. I'll see whats around Valley Stream, thanks.

Originally Posted by hotkarl

Elmont is pretty much Queens.
No real gain there.
You need a bit more east for real 'burbs.

How far east? My commute right now is under 30min with traffic, I don't really want to double that, specially when I have to drop my kids of to grandma so they can go to school in queens.

Originally Posted by Elke Mariotti

It really depends on the house, but in general, at the moment your price point is "hot", with plenty of competition, so there will most likely not be much wiggle room, if any. In many instances, sales prices end up being above asking.
But as I already mentioned, it depends on the individual property.

Gotcha, you're right, every house is a different story. How accurate do you think websites like redfin and zillow are at describing estimates? Should I only concentrate in recently sold home to get a ball park?

[nicolasl46]

BTW, which areas in LI nearby queens have the lowest taxes?

[nuts2uiam]

Originally Posted by nicolasl46

Is the budget too low? lol I really can't do any better at the moment. I'll see whats around Valley Stream, thanks.



How far east? My commute right now is under 30min with traffic, I don't really want to double that, specially when I have to drop my kids of to grandma so they can go to school in queens.



Gotcha, you're right, every house is a different story. How accurate do you think websites like redfin and zillow are at describing estimates? Should I only concentrate in recently sold home to get a ball park?

I can't speak for REDFIN but don't look at Zillow their numbers they are totally useless. They are pulled out of a barrel, at times they are so far off, one has to wonder where they get their data from.

You would be better off looking gat recently sold homes to get get a better feel.

[Bwsteg]

Originally Posted by nicolasl46

Is the budget too low? lol I really can't do any better at the moment. I'll see whats around Valley Stream, thanks.



How far east? My commute right now is under 30min with traffic, I don't really want to double that, specially when I have to drop my kids of to grandma so they can go to school in queens.



Gotcha, you're right, every house is a different story. How accurate do you think websites like redfin and zillow are at describing estimates? Should I only concentrate in recently sold home to get a ball park?

I meant as in $500k is a healthy budget. You can do much better than Elmont

[twingles]

Where is your job?

[nicolasl46]

Originally Posted by Bwsteg

I meant as in $500k is a healthy budget. You can do much better than Elmont

I didn't realize that, I've seen some crazy prices out there.

Originally Posted by twingles

Where is your job?

Flushing NY.