Ok, so we got married 6 months ago and are living with the in-laws in a one room basement. We were going to stay a year to save money and start looking next May (around our 1 year anniversary) for a home. Well, we started looking earlier than we thought we would. Its very hard living in one room, let me tell ya!
The problem is, we are walking into small, tiny capes for $325K??? The market is crazy. Well my DH and I have different views on the future market. He believes we should wait and follow our original plan (till next year), that something is bound to happen because prices can't keep going up. I see it as prices will keep rising or interest rates will rise, which will leave in the same boat we are in today. P.S. We are looking in Western Suffolk, South Shore -- Lindenhurst, Babylon, W. Islip, Islip. Don't think we will go that far East, maybe to Holbrook.
What do you girls think? Should we wait? Do you believe the market will turn. I would love to hear everyone's opinions, views on this topic. Thanks.
MarcellaBella
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
I'm a P/T realtor and in the same boat as you.. it totally ****s! these prices are outrageous! I'm almost embarrassed to bring some buyers into some of these small, nasty, unkept homes.. I don't think that the prices will go down any time soon unless something big happens... ie, like war..
We're toughing it out until after we get married (08/03).. but we won't pass up on a great deal if we come across one... which is hughly unlikley..
DeniseMang
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
Thanks, Marcellabella. We feel the same way, we won't pass something up if something comes along. Its just so depressing. I feel like crying. I actually asked myself why are we (young people) staying here??? Why are they making it so hard for us to start out? My cousins are younger than me and live in Arizona, they did this: got married, got a house, had a child. Boom, boom, boom. I know the whole 'cost of living' thing, but come on. It can't be that less the cost of living, yet the housing market is at least reasonable. Well thanks for allowing me to vent! I know I am not the only Newlywed bride going through this so I know this would be the place to express my discontent!
MichelleW
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
We had a really hard time trying to find something in our price range. The house is nice has alot of updates (windows, kitchen, etc) but I had to compromise. I got a great school district on a good block and will have to do without a dining room and a fireplace for now. However there is alot of potential with the house and we can add these things if we want to someday
Betty
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
I don't know if the market will turn but I sure hope so!!!!! There is no way we can afford a house any time soon!! I would love to stay on Long Island (especially Nassau) but I can't see how that is possible. My brother moved to Rochester when he got married. He is 7 yrs younger than me, and owns a nice house that he got for around $80,000. We are just hoping for the best
cw0904
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
What neighborhoods and school districts are good in Suffolk? I have done basic research on homes in Nassau and its horrible! A friend moved to Islip-not sure if its West, East... but she got an amazing deal. Brand spanking new house-6 yrs old with at least 1/2 acre for a backyard. We have been thinking of heading to Suffolk but I don't know what towns are better than others.
DeniseMang
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
Well West Islip and East Islip are suppose to have very good schools. Also Lindenhurst. Its hard. There is a website called www.greatschools.net that should give you more information on schools, but you will need to know the town you are looking at.
cecil
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
Let me tell you, I think that real estate is the safest investment and that is why the cost of a house is so expensive. My sister bought in Commack last December for 362,000 for a ranch! It is so expensive. I live in Bellmore and the price for a house across the street is 409,000! That is after they reduced it twice! It is outrageous!
NIHA
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
What about taxes in Nassau, aren't they supposed to go up soon? I heard of one town (I have no idea where) from a friend-of-a-friend and the taxes are going to be $10,000 per year Maybe it was one of the more expensive areas, but still....I guess you have to take into consideration what the taxes come out to be in your monthly expenses. It's frustrating b/c it feels like unless a couple's income is very high, or unless we get help from family, saving 10-20% would takes years. I know you can only put down 5%, but that would increase our monthly payments.
JENHOS
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
Forget it!!!! The prices are ridiculous!!!! Even if we could afford to pay what they are asking and make the updates we want we will never get back our investment when we sell!
I am hoping things come down but who knows!
Fran M
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
Its tough out there and we just dont know where the market is going. But then if one of us had a crystal ball things would be different. It took us forever to find a house. We are not in yet but will hopefully be in by the end of the year.
Here are a few things you might want to think over/ consider: - Do you view this purchase as a starter home or as a longer term investment. If its a starter you may want to consider a co-op or condo. I dont think there are many true starter homes on LI.
- How much is your life going to change in the time you live in this home? Will you have children in school? Will you loose one income to have a SAHP? Will your income increase dramaticaly after finishing Grad school etc. How does all this fit with your housing plans.
- What kind of house works for you? I dont mean dream house just think it out in real day to day living and how you need things to fit your lifestyle. It took us about 3 months of looking to figure out what we would be happy with. It wasnt until after we got real with our must have list that we were finally able to see some good houses.
- Find a realtor that pays attention to what you want. Dont be afraid to tell them when you dont like something. Ask the realtor if you are being realistic about price range for the area and size of house that you want.
- A year or two goes by very quickly. If you can stick it out someplace and save a substantial amount of $$ while doing so you will be better off in the long run.
- As to why do we live in NY on LI in particular. I have asked myself that about one million times and I keep coming back to - its home.
DaniRN
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Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
Add me to the frustrated list. Right now we are living on the 1st floor of a hi-ranch w/ my grandparents upstairs. It is fine for us now-we have privacy and our own driveway, entrance, etc... but we would love to get a bigger house of our OWN. We looked this year and found it ridiculous---crappy homes in bad neighborhoods was what our budget could afford! Isn't it horrible how i'm a nurse, FH is in networking and we STILL can't afford a home on LI So for now, the house hunting if off until after the wedding because it's close to impossible to do both Wow-this turned into a long vent-lol
By the way, isn't it sad that my friend from college just bought a brand new, 4 bedroom home in GA for 140,000. Her home is amazing---worth at least 1/2 mill, here!
Jenn P
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our recent experience
We just bought a house in Centereach. Originally we were going to wait but DeniseMang, we then started to think as you are: we can afford something small and why wait for either prices or rates to go up. Yes, it will be tight by us for a while, but we're living tight now anyway to save and meanwhile we're paying rent to inconsiderate noisy landlords for the pleasure of living in their basement. It's a big decision; we are not putting down 20% so we will have to deal with pmi for a while. We weighed the pros and cons of waiting and decided this was the best for us. Like I said, the deciding factor was the issue of prices. Claud2001 is correct and I'll go even further to say that prices might stabilize but they will not decrease.
We were also looking in Western Suffolk and there are some houses there that are under the Suffolk average, which is about 270k, but they are either in need of a ton of work, are on a main road, or are very, very small. If you are willing to look in the Coram/Selden area you will find more 'reasonable' homes with more land in what I hear are excellent school districts.
Someone asked about how to save, sorry, don't remember who. Here's my 2 cents on that:
1-Have an account that is strictly for the house, preferably a Money Market Savings Account because they are FDIC insured and earn slightly higher interest than a savings account. Put as much money from whoever's paycheck is devoted to savings into this account. It is helpful if your employer lets you split up your direct deposit between accounts. This is what we do; we can't completely live on DH's salary but we do save most of mine.
2-Easy things to limit: dining out, alcoholic drinks when you do dine out, new clothes, new shoes (I know that one's hard for a lot of us ), cds, anything extra. I paper clipped a piece of paper to one of my credit cards that said 'This or the house?' and knowing that reminder was there helped to curb any impulse buys.
3-Tell your family and friends what you are saving for and that holiday gifts will be more modest this year. They will understand. We've all already started joking that everyone's getting cookies this year.
Good luck to all and hang in there, your house is out there.
Jenny5150
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Re: our recent experience
Definitely don't stop looking. Prices may level out, but I don't see them dropping in the future. I kept hoping they would drop when I was looking. Well, they didn't. It took us over a year before we found our home and we definitely had to sacrifice certain things.
If ya' can, keep checking the listings online or have a realtor email you new listings. It's hard, b/c a soon as a good home for a reasonable price goes on the market, it's in contract the next day. That's how we got ours! We made an offer in the driveway the same day it hit the market...and we were the 2nd offer! We just happen to give them their asking price unlike the other couple.
Keep your chin up! I used to hate it when everybody told me 'Things happen for a reason,' but looking back at things...they were right! I'm so glad we lost certain bids or that we decided not to bid on a particular house.
Good luck and Keep us posted!
Cira
Posted:
Member since
Re: our recent experience
Just wanted to add that this poll is posted in the newlywed section as well with additional comments.
Also, Jenn P -- there is a way to avoid PMI. Not sure if you are interested, but forum me and I'll fill you in!
katebug
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schools in suffolk
Someone had asked about the schools in suffolk- there are many good ones- Connetquot (Bohemia, Oakdale, Ronkonkoma), Sachem (Lake Ronkonkoma, Lake Grove), Three Village(Stony Brook, Setauket), Half Hollow Hills(Dix Hills, Wheatley Heights, parts of Huntington and Farmingdale), Sayville, Bayport-Bluepoint, Harborfields (Huntington, Centerport, Greenlawn) for a few. If you go to MLSLI.com, you can get school info, you can also get it from newsday.com.
Hope you all find this helpful!
ddunne23
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Member since
Re: schools in suffolk
The prices on LI sicken me! That is why I don't want to move back there right now. Here in Texas, brand new 4 bedroom homes with awesome bathrooms, kithcens, fireplace, etc are like $150-$185. You pay three times that on LI for something that needs major work or still has paneling on the walls! YUCK! So, TExas is definately not where I want to live, but after living here it drives me nuts to think of what it costs in NY.
daisy122
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Re: schools in suffolk
I cannot believe the prices. I took a break from wedding pages and went onto the 'for sale by owner' website..at this rate i will be living in a 1 bedroom condo..
as far as schools go..I went to Sachem, i lived in Holstville which is in Suffolk. The school district is huge, I graduated with over 1,000 people. I do not know if anyone has looked out east, a friend of fh got a great house 5 years ago for $109,000 in Calverton...
It would not be good for us since both fh and I work in Hauppauge.
I keep telling myself the market has to recover!!
verdila
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Re: schools in suffolk
I dont see prices dropping dramatically any time soon......maybe if the interest rates rise, home prices will level off because there will be less buyers opting for a high-interest mortgage. The problem with LI/NY/NJ metro area is the supply/demand issue. Way more demand than homes....esp, on LI as it is a very desirable market. You just gotta keep the faith and maybe you will find a deal. Otherwise, keep saving your pennies for that huge downpayment! it Sucks!
karen32
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Member since
Re: L.I. Housing Costs - Poll
Verdila hit the nail on the head - it's all about supply & demand!!! We're living within 50 miles of one of the greatest, most expensive cities in the world!!!! I bought my condo in Feb. of 2000 - I'm right by a RR station. I can't even tell you the offers I get from people for this thing. If you have a married couple, both who work in the city, LI is the place to be. That's what is driving the price up - convenience. Where else can you have a major city, beaches, wineries, musuems, etc all within a hour of each other?? It's absolutely crazy!!!
