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.
I came across this forum and I thought I'd give it a shot.
What happens is that my wife and I, are seriously thinking to whether we should buy a place we can call home or maybe we should continue renting and save for a lager downpayment.
Currently we're both working full-time and live in good neighborhood. Our current rent is $1,500 for a large 1br. We're on a month to month basis, so moving out is not a problem.
We like it here (Sunnyside) because the commute is short and convenient to our jobs. We both work in the midtown area. My job, eventually, is moving out to Brooklyn. So that's something to consider.
As for financials, we don't have any debt, we make a combined salary of 125k per year and have a
cash reserve of about 50k.
does it make sense to buy now? or should I wait and have more cash for a downpayment?
If it does, what neighborhoods would you recommend?
I guess I should also say that we're expecting our first child so that's also something to keep in mind.
I would say save more. 50k is nice, but it depends on what you want out of a place. If you want a house, then you will need a lot of cash. If a co-op is okay, you could probably find one for 250k which isnt terrible. That would put you at 20% down 50k.
My suggestion is to rent for longer and keep growing that bank account. The one bedroom if it's big can work for 2 years with the crib in there. We are a little over 1 year and moving into a 2 bedroom because we need the space. If this was outside NYC, 50k would be plenty and you could get a 3 bedroom or more for the price. But alas it's not, so you have to deal with renting for longer.
With the mortgage rates and home prices, i say it is worth to start investigating.
With the 50k, you want to put aside about $5k (if not a bit more) for all your closing clost.
It basically leaves you with $45k as down payment so you are talking about a $225k property.
I think you should be able to find a decent small 2bedroom co-op in Sunnyside/Woodside.
Wow that was quick!
Thanks for the replies guys.
We were thinking a 2br would be ideal since we plan on living in the property for at least another 5 years.
with such a high house prices in the NYC area, it looks like 50k won't go very far.
How about other areas in Westchester or LI ?
how about the FHA loans with 3.5% minimum down?
are those worth it ?
it would be nice to have an rainy day fund, but I guess you can't have it all. ;P
FHA is nice, but then technically you are already sunk from the get go. If you wanted to stay for many many years, then I would say yes. But if it's only 5 years, you are working just to get back to square one. You figure with 3.5% down, you have to make up a lot of ground to hit 80% which is considered not underwater. House prices could go down and you could stand to lose money.
Take a look and calculate based on your financial info whether or not this makes sense for you and yours. I don't like the idea of FHA loans because it doesn't pay down to 80% and you still have to pay mortgage insurance above 80%
I say just keep renting. While nice to own, you would just get yourself into more trouble should something happen. The plus like like C8N said was the rates are really low now. That is very true. My friend upstate got into a rural loan program and now has a 6 bedroom 3 bath house at 121k and not much down. It's out in the middle of nowhere but it's an amazing house.
Wow that was quick!
Thanks for the replies guys.
We were thinking a 2br would be ideal since we plan on living in the property for at least another 5 years.
with such a high house prices in the NYC area, it looks like 50k won't go very far.
How about other areas in Westchester or LI ?
how about the FHA loans with 3.5% minimum down?
are those worth it ?
it would be nice to have an rainy day fund, but I guess you can't have it all. ;P
If only for 5 years, i would re-think about buying.
Interest vs principle, you wont even out for at least 7-10 yrs.
Secondly, there are closing costs when you buy AND when you sell.
Third, you want your housing costs to make sense. You want your monthly mortgage payments including any other housing fees to be roughly around the same as if you were renting. If it is hundreds of dollars more than renting, you may want to rethink this.
Lastly, if you get into a co-op, comparitively, they are not a easy sell because the co-op boards need to approve the new buyers and usually, co-op boards are stricter than a mortgage lender.
If you are considering Westchester, you may want to consider some of the new affordable housing developments going up in and around the Southern Bronx, which have very low downpayments, brand new green housing, and immediate proximity to the city. Here is a good example:
If only for 5 years, i would re-think about buying.
Interest vs principle, you wont even out for at least 7-10 yrs.
Secondly, there are closing costs when you buy AND when you sell.
Third, you want your housing costs to make sense. You want your monthly mortgage payments including any other housing fees to be roughly around the same as if you were renting. If it is hundreds of dollars more than renting, you may want to rethink this.
Lastly, if you get into a co-op, comparitively, they are not a easy sell because the co-op boards need to approve the new buyers and usually, co-op boards are stricter than a mortgage lender.
This is true. The monthly payments should be around the same as our rent.
Our current rent is $1,500 but I guess we could go up to $2,000 if the place is nice.
And we're planning on staying at least 5 yrs, that could could also be 15 yrs. But at the very least 5.
If you are considering Westchester, you may want to consider some of the new affordable housing developments going up in and around the Southern Bronx, which have very low downpayments, brand new green housing, and immediate proximity to the city. Here is a good example:
We don't know much about the Bronx, and to be perfectly honest, along with Staten Island and NJ (NJ for work related reasons) are not in our list of places where we would consider living.
Thanks anyway.
I could understand staten island and NJ, but if you are willing to go to all the way up to Westchester, why would you not consider anywhere in the Bronx exactly?
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.
