Choosing the Suburbs Over Brooklyn
Are would-be Brooklynites flocking to the suburbs? The cover story in yesterday’s real estate section of the Times looks at how relatively cheap home prices in the suburbs are luring New Yorkers who find they can get way more bang for their buck in parts of Westchester, Connecticut and Jersey than in the city. While…
Are would-be Brooklynites flocking to the suburbs? The cover story in yesterday’s real estate section of the Times looks at how relatively cheap home prices in the suburbs are luring New Yorkers who find they can get way more bang for their buck in parts of Westchester, Connecticut and Jersey than in the city. While the article mostly focuses on the widening price gap between Manhattan and suburban properties, it notes that some people who would’ve bought in Brooklyn are also finding the suburbs cheaper:
Ludovic and Fabienne Ledein, who live and work as jewelry designers in Dumbo, visited nearly a dozen lofts in Dumbo, Red Hook and Williamsburg looking for something to buy for less than $600,000. They needed enough space to work at home and to put up friends and relatives from Europe. But what they wanted cost more than twice what they could afford…They found their answer in Westchester County, in New Rochelle. For about $600,000, they bought 1,350 square feet in the newly renovated Knickerbocker Lofts, a converted factory downtown that was built 117 years ago.
Any readers contemplating a similar move?
Cashing Out of New York City [NY Times]
Photo by uicukie.
“I don’t even like Weekhawken, but c’mon, you’d rather live in the middle of Staten Island??? Or East New York or Jackson Heights or some “section” of the Bronx (and I don’t mean Riverdale)”
yes.
i would rather live in any of the places you mention over weehawaken. without a doubt. jackson heights is one of the most incredible neighborhoods in the city, so your examples aren’t the greatest, but yes…i would take any area of the 5 boroughs over weehawken.
that’s just me, though.
i’ve done my time in the burbs. even going back for the holidays for a few days make me realize how happy i am here in brooklyn.
4:55, I’m dying to know where you live. You’re stacking the entirety of the “5 boroughs” ahead of Weehawken????
I don’t even like Weekhawken, but c’mon, you’d rather live in the middle of Staten Island??? Or East New York or Jackson Heights or some “section” of the Bronx (and I don’t mean Riverdale).
I think I’ve mentioned this here, oh, a couple of times already, but here goes again…I split my time between Bed Stuy and Beacon. I consider Beacon a suburb. I’m not lacking in culture up here. It’s diverse. The people are cool. There are plenty of galleries and museums. My house is fantastic. I can go into the city whenever I please. The reason I need my Brooklyn fix is not because of the vibe (certainly not the current one). It’s because Brooklyn is my home and always will be no matter where I am. I can never live in say, Dix Hills or Great Neck, but why is it so difficult for people to admit that there are some cool places outside of NYC? Oh, and 4:08/4:22, lemme nip this in the bud. I read this blog because, like I said, I have a place in Bed Stuy. Want proof? Do a little detective work from my profile before calling me a liar.
By the way Mr. Weehawken,
You can grill a steak in Brooklyn, in a 7 bedroom Victorian home with a spacious backyard, 20 minutes from the city, with a driveway deep enough for eight cars, property tax under 6000 and auto insurance under 1000. All for under 1 million. If that’s all you want out life.
doesn’t sub mean below?
so suburbs are below that of an urban area….?
hmmmm.
most people on here have lived in suburbs before.
i venture to guess that the majority were raised in them and have certainly experienced them for some length of time.
i’m really not sure what the appeal is other than the larger home.
to each his/her own, sure….but the fact of the matter is that it does become self serving to want bigger and bigger and not at some point focus a bit more on quality over quantity.
that is basically the crux of the difference between those that like the burbs or the city.
i prefer quality. this is not only from my own experience, but many city dwellers i have known who have left have regretted their decision within 2-3 years.
it does sometimes come down to financials, of course.
I have to laugh at the comments about text books. My Wife is a Nyc school teacher and she was a School Teacher in Marlboro New Jersey. In her school in Sunset Park she has so many books for the kids to read that she has no place to put them, when she taught in New jersey she had NO text books and would depend on Parents to donate them to the class otherwise she would have to make do with what she had. If you are not sure of what you are saying on this website you should not say anything. No way to good schooling in the suburbs it’s just not realtiy. Plus the reality is when you move to the suburbs you are only hoping that your kid will do well in school and move back to NYC and get into the Workforce, because i will tell you first hand there are no jobs out there in Suburbia.
4.35/4.55;
I agree that you have been unduly harsh on the guy from Weehawken. Let’s have some true diversity of opinion and thoughts.
Benson
thanks Emigre.
I am pretty reasonable.
Much more reasonable than posters like 4:35 who want to judge someone for living in a place they have never experienced themselves.
I was never trying to argue that living in Weehawken was BETTER than living in NYC if all other things were equal. Unfortunately, they are not.
As I live in the real world and do have real world financial constraints, I had to make trade-offs. I would love to own a million dollar Brownstone in Brooklyn, it just isn’t feasible.
My point was merely that there are places in NJ that can offer more than a super Walmart.