Housing frustrations!!

Where does your husband work?
I just bought a house in Yorktown Hgts last year. I also work in Manhatten and I drive 20 min to the train and then it is a 50 min train ride. My husband works in Northern NJ so it work s good for us. The school are really good and we got a great price on a house with .5 acre of land.
If you have any questions you can e-mail me
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Jenn

I feel your pain Nina, because at one time I was in your position. I am a teacher, and my husband is a cop, so we have steady, decent salaries, but nothing to get excited about. We found our house on a fluke, and bought it without hesitation because we knew that affordable houses in the area we live in are hard to come by. If you give yourself time and look around carefully and ask friends and family to be on the look out for you, it IS possible to get a house you will like in an area you want to live in. It is time consuming and frustrating, but in the end it will all be worth it. I hear some buzzing that house prices are going to drop in the fall, but who knows if that is true?? I certainly don't.
Best of luck to you, and feel free to vent any time!

Nina,

I totally feel your pain! We got married a day after you and are looking, but know we won't buy for another year or so! In the meantime, when you look at the cost of houses, you start to tremble, because it is so unaffordable - tack on taxes and you have a home that needs tons of work, no property and you have no money to start fixing it up! Plus, we are looking in Nassau and it's a bit more expensive than Suffolk. We both do pretty well too! Ugh!
But just like Jennifer said, keep looking and you should eventually find something. We hate it because you are going to be faced with lots of disappointments (ie... bidding on a house and losing, etc) - but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and you will get there - keep that hope!

On a note - we are hoping that prices will drop or stabilize. In either event, it doesn't hurt to wait a bit and save some more money. The market is tanking - so, we can look at that two ways! 1) people are losing money and therefore can't afford a new home or 2) people are taking their money out of the market and buying real estate. So, who knows where the RE market will be, but I really hope it stabilizes or even goes down (I'd love that one!)

Good Luck and remember, there are tons of us in your shoes!

I hear you sister!!

Three bedroom apartments in queens, in areas w/ good schools are steep. Have you thought about getting something smaller, and moving in a few years to a house or a bigger apt? That's what we opted for. We're thinking we'll be in our apartment for five years before we need to upgrade. The poeple who will be looking to buy from us in a few years won't be looking at the schools necessarily since the apartment really isn't big enough for a family with school age kids. In the meantime, we'll have a space that's ours, get tax breaks and be able to start our family in the next few years. Getting into a house right now was too expensive for us. We didn't want to have to eat rice every day to be able to pay our bills ! We feel like we're getting the best of both worlds, our lifestyle won't change that much, since financially it's not much different than renting, we get the tax breaks, and we're investing in property.

I think we've all gotten a taste of the outrageous RE market. We purchased 2 years ago, and who would have thought it would get worse than that ? It was at an all time HIGH when we bought, and it just got worse. Don't stress, your home is out there, you'll find it. Be patient, i know its hard.

Keep in mind 'location, location' dont settle for something in a 'not-so-great' location just because you can afford it. It will be hard to re-sell, especially to families with kids in school. ITs better to have the smallest house in a good area, than to have the largest house in a 'not so great' area. (these are the words of a RE agent to my brother, lol).

Good Luck and dont lose hope !

My co-worker just locked in at 6-3/8 - that's half a point less than we got when we closed in April and we thought they would not go any lower then!

So if you can find something and close soon, the mortgage rates are sure favorable.

Keep in mind too, that if you are at all handy, a fixer-up has the benefits of helping you build your equity faster as you improve the value. Our home needs lots of TLC and cosmetic work (plus reclaiming the jungle of a yard caused by 18 years of neglect - we just uncovered some great Hydrangea bushes!) Just by doing the painting, patching, renovating and yard work you can turn it around at a profit in a good market and move into something else down the road. Look for a good location and a yard with enough room to expand your house in case you decide you want to stay in the area and add on to create a larger home.