houses....

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Posted by pinkstar025

Ok, since we are all 'Long Island' Brides..... then we all know!
WHERE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO LIVE AFTER WE GET MARRIED. Me and FH don't make bad money, but come on...... you can NOT find a house ( in a good neighborhood at least ) for under $300, 000......

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tell me about. . .we can barely afford a co-op in Westchester!

ahhhh............we are trying so hard to get a house, but it is so hard. I would love to not have the wedding and buy a house, but FH will not hear of it. So, we'll just keep our fingers crossed. We most likely will rent for a bit and buy a house within our one year of marriage.

Apartment for us until we can figure out what to do and where to go. We live with his mom now (not a separate apt) and we both don't want to stay there after the wedding.

My DH and I moved out of state 3 years before we were married. We live in NC. We absolutely love it here. There is no way we could afford to live on LI. That's why we moved away when we did.

You can get beautiful property and homes here for great prices. As for the hurricanes, it depends on where you live. I live in the Raleigh area, where most New Yorkers come to live. These last few hurricanes have brought us rain. We do get hurricanes, but not often at all. We've been down here over 5 years and we have yet to experience a REAL hurricane.

And for those of you that are teachers, there are TONS of teaching jobs here. They are paying bonuses, and relocation for teachers. There are plenty of great school districts too.

We just closed on a house a week ago for $150,000, 1630sf, and half an acre. Also, 100% financing and most closing costs paid for by the seller.

We do miss the family and friends, but you know what... you do what you have to do. Would you rather struggle on LI, or live comfortably elsewhere. We visit LI 2 times a year. And believe me, once you move away and get used to another state, you won't miss NY... to live anyway! Shortly after we moved away, a lot of other family and now we have friends moving down because of the cost of living, and the beauty of this area.

Anyway, just wanted to mention what we did. Also, we were only 20 yrs old when we moved away. It's a very exciting experience. Depending on where in NC, but for us it's only an 8.5 hour drive to LI. Not too bad!

Good luck to everyone!!!

I would love to not have the wedding and buy a house, but FH will not hear of it.

Panapoli, FH is the same way!

I bought a 2br co-op on my own for a great price at a great interest rate (5.25%) in a nice area of Queens. So its pretty affordable for me, even though the value has gone up since I bought.

But to take the next step to a house is just ridicuously expensive. I would lose the easy commute I have... and be paying a lot more. Grrr.

FH and I are going through the same stress. Its so unfortunate that young professional couples are being priced out of Long Island.

We're back and forth every week about whether to try to afford a house (around $350K) or to play it safe with a co-op. This week we're all about the co-op. Just makes more sense for us right now, since if we bought a house it would most likely be a fixer-upper, and if we're barely able to afford the mtg payment how would we fix it up? We think we'd be under an incredible amount of stress and feel our marriage would be off to a better start if we put it off a couple of years. 1 bedroom co-ops in good developments start at about $195K, so we'd easily be able to make the mtg and maintenance payments and still put something in the bank.

Good luck to both of you!

We also kind of got lucky. The bank was going to take it from the owners in about 2 months or so when we bought it.

Anyone looking for an apartment I still have mine available.

Tell me about it! ugghh!! This is so stressful! My FH wants to move to Virginia (Richmond / Chesterfield area) after we are married b/c his best friend moved down there and him, his wife & new little baby live so comfortably! ...something my FH and I would never be able to do on LI!! BUT, I don't know if I can leave my family! I've never lived away from home. I don't know what we're going to do. I guess we're going to waste our money renting an apt for a while after we're married until we come to a decision.

I wish I would win the lottery already!

Try NJ. I work in Manhattan, takes me an hour to commute into the city, and we bought a 4 BR house in NJ for under $300k in a nice neighborhood.

I don't mean this in a bad way, but don't stay in LI just for family. Yes, it's always nice knowing that family is nearby, but don't forget that many of you will be starting your own families and if you could live more comfortable and less stressed, it will be better for you and your family in the long run.
Fh and I have a house in White Plains, but only because my dad owns it. We would never be able to buy a house around here withou really struggling. If our only option was to rent and keep looking for houses that we'll never afford, I would totally push FH to move somewhere else. I would love to try somewhere new. don't forget that you can always come back to LI if you're unhappy.

True, but in some families (like mine) when you want to (or have to) be there for every birthday, holiday, etc., and also actually want to spend time with your parents and siblings, etc., it makes it MORE stressful to always be traveling back and forth - especially with the LI traffic situation.

Check out the Home board - there's a link to a good article in Fortune mag about how home prices MAY be leveling off.

We rented for 4 yrs after we were married to save up. We finally did it 2 years ago and it was really scary signing the papers. I wish I would have done it sooner than that. It all worked out and we love our house. If we wanted to sell it and upgrade we would have to move out of the area because even though it appreciated in value, where can you go? Don't be afraid to make a move though, whether you buy here or somewhere else. Life is an adventure and you are young enough to give it a try. You can always come back to NY or sell the house if it becomes too much. Good luck, I know how hard it is. We almost had a divorce over it ! Try not to fight over money.

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Posted by chicagogal

We've given up on moving back to NY. Houses in Queens where I grew up are ridiculously expensive. My favorite line in an ad is 'need a little TLC' or 'handy Man's Special!' and it costs $500,000.
We're staying in Chicago and we bought a condo downtown. Things are a little better here but not by much which is kind of sad. I wouldn't make anymore in NY so we're staying put. Sometimes I think about the southwest...no humidity...

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The weather is great here in Southern California but the house prices are the worst. The neighborhood I live in by the beach the lowest price property sold recently was a 1 bedroom condo for 300,000!!! Luckily I bought two years ago so I am selling mine for about 150,000 more than I bought it! There is the downpayment but we are still looking at houses in the 650,000 to 750,000 range and they are tiny! Its crazy- luckily my FH and I are older and make some money but if one of us was to lose our job

thanks girls, at least i know we're not alone...