Park Slope Versus The Burbs
New York has a reputation for being an expensive town, which of course it is. But the high housing prices and rents don’t tell the whole story. You see, New Yorkers don’t necessarily need cars. And our property taxes are pretty low. Which is why a Times story this weekend comparing the cost of living…
New York has a reputation for being an expensive town, which of course it is. But the high housing prices and rents don’t tell the whole story. You see, New Yorkers don’t necessarily need cars. And our property taxes are pretty low. Which is why a Times story this weekend comparing the cost of living in Park Slope versus Orange, NJ found that a family of four with a household income of $170,000 could actually live more inexpensively in Brooklyn than Jersey. In fact, monthly expenses were $1,285 cheaper in the County of Kings. “Specifically, each month, the suburban family needs to lay out about $5,668 to run their home and commute to work in Manhattan, compared with $3,852 for the urban family,” said The Times. “That includes most relatively static expenses — from the mortgage, property taxes and homeowner’s insurance, to transportation, utility bills and, for the house, landscaping. ” The major caveat: If you want to send your kids to private school, fuhgettaboutit. You’re better off moving to the burbs.
High-Rise, or House With Yard? [NY Times]
Photo by Betty Blade
Having lived in BOTH Montclair and Park Slope (and also Huntington, Long Island), I think all three compare favorably on many counts and I would be hard-pressed to say which is the “best,” although I really love city living and not having to own a car.
This is obviously as a person/couple with no children.
Suburbandude…
I do not see daily incidents of gay-bashing reported in the papers or police blotter. The last time I recall having “f—-t!” yelled at me was in Huntington–and I was not even walking hand-in-hand with my partner at the time. I do that in PS and NYC all the time and have not experienced a similar incident.
Yikes, I started to skim this conversation and you all lost me with the car being necessary for families thing. Uh, accessibility to car SERVICES is certainly useful, but you only need a car if you’re one of those annoying people who has to drive to Fairway and the coop and your child’s school because your neighborhood one frightens you.
Going back to the Times article, I was struck by the $175K income vs $675K condo thing. Am I the only one who finds that income a little LOW to afford the $675k condo? And why wouldn’t a couple in that situation rent, which they could do for about $1K less a month?
Hi Kensingtonbound — well, good luck to you & hope you find a good situation however it turns out.
I wasn’t alone in the pool, btw, but I wasn’t lying on a concrete slab ala Red Hook, either. Also, grabbed a great lunch at the Bedford Post with my comrades. Granted, it takes more effort to socialize, but as they said at the womrn’s college I attended, “the social life is what you make of it.”
11217 – not a humorous bone in your body, I’m afraid. FYI – most of our property is forest and we rarely water even though we have two wells. I’ve lived (with kids) in two Brooklyn nabes as well as semi-rural Westchester. I can see the positives and negatives of both lifestyles. Too bad you and so many others on this can’t. BTW, I played the public school game with four kids in Brooklyn and they attended some of the best the city had to offer – including the much vaunted 321, which was great. We all cherish the years we spent in Brooklyn, but you couldn’t pay me to take my middle schooler out of Bedford Central Schools for any public or private in Brooklyn (Manhattan would be another story…)
11217, yeah, but BA is cold now and the days are short. My first time in Buenos Aires, I stayed in Cesar Park hotel across from Bullrich, right after the “crisis” in 2002. Not to sound cold but it was some pretty exciting shopping.
11217 great posts. I wouldn’t live in the suburbs if it was free. And I wouldn’t raise my kid there either. The education she got here was priceless, and it can’t be measured solely by SAT scores.
“Priced out” is usually relative. People decide that what their budget can afford in Brooklyn is unsatisfactory in terms of size, safety, schools, aesthetics, or whatever. And plenty of people end up in Brooklyn because of that exact same calculus vis-a-vis Manhattan.
If I had an unlimited budget, I might like a four bedroom apartment overlooking Riverside Drive. But at my price point, what I could afford in that neighborhood looks laughable compared to my Brooklyn house.
I’ve never lived in a suburb, but to assert that anyone who does is either there involuntarily or is just an anti-social misanthrope is ludicrous.
There’s a saying about travel, that wherever you go, there YOU are. If you’re gregarious by nature, you’ll have a wide social circle pretty much anywhere. If you’re a loner, you will keep to yourself even in the densest neighborhood in the city.
Terrible weed in the burbs, but I hear the meth is first-rate.