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OP should take a hard look at Ft. Lee NJ, just on the other side of the George Washington. Many apartments there for sale in the 100 to 150 range, and many are in full-service high rises. Monthly costs vary -- higher in coops and lower in condos -- but that's true everyplace. And Ft. Lee is a decent close-in suburb with amenities, a small but active downtown, and an easy commute to Manhattan.
OP should take a hard look at Ft. Lee NJ, just on the other side of the George Washington. Many apartments there for sale in the 100 to 150 range, and many are in full-service high rises. Monthly costs vary -- higher in coops and lower in condos -- but that's true everyplace. And Ft. Lee is a decent close-in suburb with amenities, a small but active downtown, and an easy commute to Manhattan.
Is it an easy commute? I read commuters are reduced to hitchhiking across the GW over waiting for the bus. Drivers are picking up people to get the carpool price. Its gotten so bad, government has gotten involved. I like Ft. Lee but it can be very hilly there.
I would think anything is southern Westchester would be an order of magnitude easier commute than Fort Lee. Also, the areas farther south on the Jersey side seem a bit easier than Fort Lee.
Buses go either over the GW--to the remodeled station --where you can catch the A downtown, or south on the Palisades and through the Lincoln Tunnel to Port Authority. There are both NJTransit buses and small, cheaper operators that pick up at Bridge Plaza. Nobody I know hitchhikes over the bridge, and I've never heard of that. But it is a great walk or bicycle ride in good weather. Rush hour traffic is of course heavy and should be taken into consideration, but its never really that bad unless there's an accident or really bad weather. No worse than commuting in from far-out Queens or Brooklyn or Riverdale.
Further south on the Jersey Gold coast is an easier commute. But I think prices are generally going to be above your range, though I don't know for sure.
Also you say Ft. Lee is hilly. Don't know why that's a consideration. It's not pancake flat, but we're not talking Mt. Everest here by a long-shot. Or even San Francisco. It's walkable without misery in 99% of the town.
Last edited by citylove101; 07-29-2016 at 12:47 PM..
OP should take a hard look at Ft. Lee NJ, just on the other side of the George Washington. Many apartments there for sale in the 100 to 150 range, and many are in full-service high rises. Monthly costs vary -- higher in coops and lower in condos -- but that's true everyplace. And Ft. Lee is a decent close-in suburb with amenities, a small but active downtown, and an easy commute to Manhattan.
Ft Lee looks great so far as my untrained eye can see, thanks for the recommendation! How does one go about finding out the monthly fees to these properties? Do you *have* to call on them, or are there better sites/apps than trulia that actually list them? A less-than-perfect commute doesn't put a place out of the question for us, since we wouldn't actually be commuting in for work. We'd just be casually going into manhattan for fun or when we need something that we can't get locally. If it's actually reasonably safe outside locally then we'd probably go in a couple times a week. If I can get an apartment for $100k that makes that feasible for us, it certainly hits my radar over alternative options in the midwest, even if it does have a maintenance fee that a midwestern sfh wouldn't.
This is going to be a stupid question from someone who wants to live there but never has - why are fees lower in condos, and what exactly is the difference (other than, as I understand it, coops basically have a resident board and/or voting system to keep undesirables out and otherwise regulate activity? But don't condos basically do that too, the regulation at least?)
My sister lives in a coop in Yonkers. She paid around $25K for it. While she'd rather be in Manhattan, it seems to work for her.
We'll buy it from her for $50k If there's things anywhere near that cheap in yonkers then I'm missing it. The ones I posted in the OP are about the cheapest I can find. But I do agree that Yonkers seems about as ideal of a location as we're realistically going to find for our range. I love that metro north is there, and it seems like there's really a surprising number of things available locally too! If we could get closer to $100k I'd feel much better about fees.
There are some coops not far from the 111th St station on the 7 train in Corona, Queens that look like they are not in that bad of an area. I have passed by many times and never have seen anything sketchy (although have to say I usually pass it during the day). The area is mostly Hispanic. I suppose it could get loud since it is near Northern Blvd and the Grand Central Parkway on one side and a very active park on the other, which would be loud in nice weather.
The building is called Dorrie Miller and has coops in the $100k to $150K range. Walk to train would be about 10 minutes. Corona Condo/Coops For Sale
If I were in search of a very cheap coop with good access to Manhattan and other boroughs, I would choose Queens over Yonkers, due to very convenient 24 hour transportation. (The 7 train comes every 8 to 9 minutes even pretty late at night, then probably every 15 to 20 minutes in the middle of the night like 2am to 4am)
However, I did look at some coops online in Yonkers with a friend who was looking for his adult son, and I did see some that were cheap (cant remember the price) that had parking and an exercise room and seemed very well kept, so might be a more comfortable place to work from home than a potentially loud area of Corona.
Also you need to think of what kinds of amenities you want nearby. In a place like Corona, you have access to trains and malls like Skyview Mall in Queens. But in Yonkers, you could probably drive pretty easily to more upscale places like Whole Foods.
We'll buy it from her for $50k If there's things anywhere near that cheap in yonkers then I'm missing it. The ones I posted in the OP are about the cheapest I can find. But I do agree that Yonkers seems about as ideal of a location as we're realistically going to find for our range. I love that metro north is there, and it seems like there's really a surprising number of things available locally too! If we could get closer to $100k I'd feel much better about fees.
Remember, you have to do a lot of due diligence when buying a coop. It's a different animal entirely than a condo.
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If there's things anywhere near that cheap in yonkers then I'm missing it. The ones I posted in the OP are about the cheapest I can find. But I do agree that Yonkers seems about as ideal of a location as we're realistically going to find for our range. I love that metro north is there, and it seems like there's really a surprising number of things available locally too! If we could get closer to $100k I'd feel much better about fees.
