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Everyone is assuming he wants to live in manhattan or Brooklyn or other trendy areas. I live in Staten Island. You can definitely live on 110k here. Our schools may not be the best in the country but definitely some of the best in NYC. For people who say there is nothing to do here are probably just spoiled by living in manhattan. Guess what we have access to all the same stuff we just have to travel a bit and trust me it's not as far as everyone makes it out to be. I commute to west 57th for work everyday. Takes me 35 minutes. A night out with friends to manhattan isn't too much trouble either. We also have close access I Hoboken, Brooklyn, New Jersey. Maybe an option for him and his family.
99 percent of Transplants want to be near or around the trendy areas.
99 percent of Transplants want to be near or around the trendy areas.
Most transplants are childless adults. He works from home, wants to live some place different and wants easy access to Manhattan on weekends. He doesn't really need the subway, commuter rail could give him what he wants. Bayside near the LIRR, parts of Nassau or Westchester could be a good idea. Or maybe some decent neighborhoods served by the subway, such as Forest Hills as mentioned or Bay Ridge.
Summers in NYC are nowhere as bad as Dallas except for maybe a few weeks here and there. And summers are much shorter.
Most transplants are childless adults. He works from home, wants to live some place different and wants easy access to Manhattan on weekends. He doesn't really need the subway, commuter rail could give him what he wants. Bayside near the LIRR, parts of Nassau or Westchester could be a good idea. Or maybe some decent neighborhoods served by the subway, such as Forest Hills as mentioned or Bay Ridge.
Summers in NYC are nowhere as bad as Dallas except for maybe a few weeks here and there. And summers are much shorter.
You would be surprised at how many posts on here about moving to nyc with family and wanting to live in or near or around trendy areas. But any how I suggest the op should check out suburbanish nyc neighborhoods at a price he cant beat. Don't forget op sometimes nyc has brutal winters.
Yes, you can live in NYC for family of three with 110k salary. But that isn't the point. Majority of you guys miss the fact that 110k life style in Dallas area is HUGELY differenct from living 110k life style in NYC region. To maintain the same lifestyle from Dallas of 110k salary, you basically need double (outer boroughs) or helluva lot more to maintain same life style in Manhattan or posh Brooklyn area. Let me put this into perspective, I think average rental in Dallas is somewhere between 900-1300 for 2bed. Yeah when was last time you saw 2bed for 900-1300 in our area and if you did. How was the neighborhood. Was it good for family of 3 with young child?
Op will experience a big drop on their life style just by moving from Dallas to NYC. That would be huge shock for anyone. Plus Op said he prioritized great public education and let's face the reality. There is no great public education in NYC compared to what you can get outside of NYC. That's why OP shouldn't consider NYC and waste time.
* Moving to NYC would raise my salary by at least 20k. I can probably expect a bump of 30k to bring me up to ~140k.
* I wasn't looking to live in the center of Manhattan. That area seems to be for single people or millionaires, of which I am neither!
* My desire would have been to be a walk away from either a subway or train station that could take me to Grand Central for weekends and the odd night out on the town
I realize maybe ~130k isn't high enough to maintain my style of living here in DFW (I take my family out to eat every day, ~$40/day in food) but we came from nothing so scaling back our lifestyle wouldn't be too hard.
mikfleye3, thanks I'll take a look at Staten Island!
* Moving to NYC would raise my salary by at least 20k. I can probably expect a bump of 30k to bring me up to ~140k.
* I wasn't looking to live in the center of Manhattan. That area seems to be for single people or millionaires, of which I am neither!
* My desire would have been to be a walk away from either a subway or train station that could take me to Grand Central for weekends and the odd night out on the town
I realize maybe ~130k isn't high enough to maintain my style of living here in DFW (I take my family out to eat every day, ~$40/day in food) but we came from nothing so scaling back our lifestyle wouldn't be too hard.
mikfleye3, thanks I'll take a look at Staten Island!
No problem bud, just a heads up though, grand central or anywhere else in NYC for that matter isn't a train ride away from Staten Island. We have a free ferry that goes to lower manhattan, it's located on staten islands north shore, which isn't really a desirable area. Most Staten Island residents who take public transportation into manhattan either drive their car to the ferry (for me it's a 15 min drive, I live on the west side of the island) or they take the 1 train we have, it only runs down the east side of the island from the southern area of tottenville to the north side at the ferry. then the ferry itself runs approx a 30 min travel time time. It leaves usually every 30 min (15 during rush hours, every hour late nights). Once in manhattan there are a few trains that run uptown right near the ferry terminal.
It sounds like a lot but all said my trip to midtown takes me about 1 hour. I will be honest staten islands biggest negative is out lack of the same public transportation systems the rest of the city has. But your money goes a lot further here. We have big beautiful homes, good schools (compared to the rest of the city). Pros and cons to every borough.
Maybe the only nice affordable family neighborhood remaining n Manhattan is Hudson Heights, which the OP should consider. With an income of $140,000 that works out to a max of $3500 a month, and you can still find a 2 bdrm in that area for under that amount. It is a strong family neighborhood with a very good locally zoned school (PS 187). I know parents who live there and have sent their children there and liked it. The neighborhood is clean, very quiet, has a few bars and restaurants, and is a short walk to the A line (transfer at 42nd St for Grand Central). It's a hell of a lot closer than Staten Island.
OP just has to make sure that his apartment is actually in the zone for the school--roughly north of the GW bridge, south of the Cloisters, and west of Broadway.
Staten Island has worse access to Manhattan than many closer in suburbs. I think the OP should check southern Westchester, western Nassau, parts of Queens and maybe select parts of the other boroughs. First view I found of Hudson Heights had a woman pushing a stroller:
* Moving to NYC would raise my salary by at least 20k. I can probably expect a bump of 30k to bring me up to ~140k.
* I wasn't looking to live in the center of Manhattan. That area seems to be for single people or millionaires, of which I am neither!
* My desire would have been to be a walk away from either a subway or train station that could take me to Grand Central for weekends and the odd night out on the town
I realize maybe ~130k isn't high enough to maintain my style of living here in DFW (I take my family out to eat every day, ~$40/day in food) but we came from nothing so scaling back our lifestyle wouldn't be too hard, he's only been in NYC for 5 years and already wants to move.
mikfleye3, thanks I'll take a look at Staten Island!
I live in Houston (have lived shortly in Plano just south of Allen) and have lived in both Manhattan and on Staten Island.
*didn't realize a person who works strictly from home gets a fat raise for simply moving to a more expensive city.
*didn't realize there were $125k jobs available for people who work at home
*there is no center to Manhattan unless you mean around Central Park.
*what's so interesting about Grand Central, just another subway terminal
Obviously anyone who wants to leave the suburbs would try the city first (Allen is 25 miles out of Downtown Dallas). Not to mention if the OP can't afford to live in the Museum Tower in Downtown Dallas, it's not like he's going to be living it up in NYC. My brother lives on the Upper East Side and has a household income over $320k/year he's married w/o kids and is hardly balling out of control.
FYI, SI isn't a nice suburban area or interesting like the city would be a major downgrade from Allen Texas.
Last edited by JaqueCosto; 11-21-2013 at 05:59 PM..
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, other suburbs like Frisco (just north of Allen) are much nicer than Allen. 
