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So I've decided to live with my parents for a year or two until my fiance and I have enough money to buy a nice house of our own.
It turns out that due to my experience in Raleigh- my salary has jumped up from $50,000 in my old job to $75,000 in my new job in the city.
My fiance thinks she'll be making as much as $65,000.
We are planning to save money for a nice house.
Here were the areas we could agree on.
Great Neck, Jericho, Old Westbury, East Williston, Carle Place, Syosset, Woodbury, Cold Spring Harbor, Greenlawn
Which of these places would you get a house in and why? Pros and cons?
We are looking for a good area to raise a family- which I think all of these places qualify as.
We both plan to work in the city.
So I've decided to live with my parents for a year or two until my fiance and I have enough money to buy a nice house of our own.
It turns out that due to my experience in Raleigh- my salary has jumped up from $50,000 in my old job to $75,000 in my new job in the city.
My fiance thinks she'll be making as much as $65,000.
We are planning to save money for a nice house.
Here were the areas we could agree on.
Great Neck, Jericho, Old Westbury, East Williston, Carle Place, Syosset, Woodbury, Cold Spring Harbor, Greenlawn
Which of these places would you get a house in and why?
We are looking for a good area to raise a family- which I think all of these places qualify as.
Of your list, your income will only allow you to live in Carle Place or Greenlawn. Syosset would be a big stretch and the other 6 are way outside of your price range.
Dissappointing isn't it? I thought I was making big money when I first moved here too, now I know the truth.
You would get more for your money if you'd consider places in Jersey. If I worked in Manhattan living in Jersey would be a no brainer for me. Too much aggrevation getting on and off Long Island.
If you can get together a down-payment of 80k, you can try to shoot for a 500k house on a income of 135k. Remember that annual taxes are atleast 2% the price of your home. 450k would be a more conservative guide. For 450k, like the previous poster said, Carle place and Greenlawn are the only places on your list. There are some houses in Syosset that could come in below 500k, but these might need work.
You should definetly take out old westbury from your list, the cheapest house there is a million. Great Neck should also be out, since homes below 500k in GN would need a lot of work. You might make the lower end of Syosset if you can bump up the downpayment amount to atleast 100k. With 120k downpayment, you might even consider looking at the cheapest house in Jericho.
Make a conservative estimate of how much down payment you can come up with, and then run calculations. I think you should try including other areas in your search as well.
Wow, that does change plans a little bit.
There's some chance one of us could get a raise within a year or two- but I'm not counting on much in this economy.
I could find a couple affordable places in Syosset along with Carle Place/Greenlawn.. but some of the others (Great Neck, CSH, Old Westbury) are pretty much out of the picture..
I'll have to take a look at Northern New Jersey and Queens.
Wow, that does change plans a little bit.
There's some chance one of us could get a raise within a year or two- but I'm not counting on much in this economy.
I could find a couple affordable places in Syosset along with Carle Place/Greenlawn.. but some of the others (Great Neck, CSH, Old Westbury) are pretty much out of the picture..
I'll have to take a look at Northern New Jersey and Queens.
Look at Port Washington too, It's an easy commute to Manhattan and there are some good deals in the 350K-500K range to be had if you look carefully and avoid the lowest low priced sections (houses immediately adjacent to Section 8 housing).
Haven't even thought about Port Washington. That could work.
Another good place might be Herricks.
I could just stay in the Huntington area too.
What's good on the South Shore? I've heard houses are often cheaper over there.
I was born in Oceanside but my family didn't live there very long to even remember the area.
I've heard pretty good areas on the South Shore include Bellmore, Oceanside, Merrick, Wantagh, Valley Stream South, Massapequa..there's also Levittown (but I guess that isn't really South Shore)
EDIT: Plainview, East Setauket/South Setauket, and Hewlett look more promising than many of the other places I added.
The whole Three Village area would be perfect but that would be a very long commute..
Last edited by CoolaTroopa; 08-25-2009 at 12:16 PM..
You should take a closer look at Levittown. It is surprisingly affordable. I see 4 Bed 2bath homes listed in Levittown for below 300k. In Jericho, even a tear down of that size is 500K. I have driven by Levittown/Hicksville border and it seems like a nice middle class area. I don't know why home prices are so cheap there.
I live in Levittown and it is a great family friendly area. The schools are also very good and the area is very safe with a wonderful community feeling about it. It is also convenient to highways and great shopping.
You can find some original Levit style homes that are very very small capes. These are the cheapest and would need work. I have been in some of these homes and they are super tiny. These are 350 and below (for good reason)...think bungalow. however they are easy to make additions to.
Very expanded homes will run you in the 400's-500's which sounds affordable for your budget. You could find 4-6 bedrooms and 2+ bathrooms in that price range that don't need too much work. (Anything in the 300's that is 4 bed 2 bath usually needs quite a bit of rennovation)
I love my expanded home. One drawback is that there are no basements on these homes. I don't care personally because I hate basements with a passion (so many leak), but many people do see this as a drawback.
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