to buy a home

Wow, It took me awhile to find this post. Do you need to make $80,000 to buy a home? No.

First of all, if you think every one on these boards and outside of these boards who owns a home made that much money when they first bought a home you are quite mistaken (people like to exaggerate). Not everyone makes that much money not even in NY.

Of course you can't buy the million dollar dream home, but that doesn't mean you can't own something of your own. There are homes out there that are affordable and not in neighborhoods that are deemed 'lower class'. You just need to open minded when looking.

There are expenses, so be very careful like the girls above said.

But remember a home is an investment. All the money you put into your home you will get back in return and then some. An apartment just eats your money and you never see the return.

So you can't afford the 400 house now, look at the 300 houses, some of them are beautiful and in great neighborhoods!

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Posted by jenheartsrob

Where are there 300,000 homes on Long Island? Seriously.... I am SO discouraged!!! :(

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Way out east. You are talking exit 62 and beyond most likely.

studies show that to survive on long island, you need at least an $80k-$100k household income. and that's just to be 'comfortable'. my advice ladies...save as much as you can to put as a down payment. 20% would be nice to avoid PMI but alot of people can't do that. but the more the better. let me know if anyone needs any help with their home search...



PS - dont give up and don't get discouraged

My FI and I make over $100k together, and when crunching the numbers, it is going to be very tight for us to own a $420k home. It is not kind of depressing, it is like major breakdown depressing...

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Posted by DjPiLL

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Posted by jenheartsrob

Where are there 300,000 homes on Long Island? Seriously.... I am SO discouraged!!! :(

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Way out east. You are talking exit 62 and beyond most likely.

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I wish! Im looking 62 and beyond and am having trouble finding anything worthy $400k and under.

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Posted by kaklesmay

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Posted by DjPiLL

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Posted by jenheartsrob

Where are there 300,000 homes on Long Island? Seriously.... I am SO discouraged!!! :(

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Way out east. You are talking exit 62 and beyond most likely.

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I wish! Im looking 62 and beyond and am having trouble finding anything worthy $400k and under.

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SAME HERE! IMO, anything under $300K is in a not so desireable area or a co-op.

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Posted by dleeny

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Posted by kaklesmay

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Posted by DjPiLL

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Posted by jenheartsrob

Where are there 300,000 homes on Long Island? Seriously.... I am SO discouraged!!! :(

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Way out east. You are talking exit 62 and beyond most likely.

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I wish! Im looking 62 and beyond and am having trouble finding anything worthy $400k and under.

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SAME HERE! IMO, anything under $300K is in a not so desireable area or a co-op.

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Not only that, but both DH & I work in Western Nassau County and think it's incredibly rediculous to own a home past exit 62 just to own a home...why in God's name would be travel hours to get to work...there's no time to enjoy the house when you're spending HOURS commuting. So not worth it in our opinions.
Average homes in the area we live in now are $450k and up. The homes that are $450k are CRAP!

I was originally looking for a house in the 400k area in parts of Ronk, Farmingville, Holtsville, etc. But I work in Manhattan and man the commute would have been real tough.

I then decided to look in Levittown and we were able to buy a smaller house for the same price as the houses we saw out east. I am now 20 miles closer to work than I would have been if I moved out east.

I dont know. If you look hard enough you can find something. We just closed on a house in Jan and it cost us 349,000 it has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, EIK, livingroom, full basement and 1 1/2 car garage. Totally move in condition. The kitchen and bathroom need updating (but still functioning) and we need a new fence.

Its in Deer Park. Not the best area, but definitely not the worst.

We put down 10%. We had enough for more of a down payment but we didnt want to use all the savings.

So just keep looking.