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.
3.13 pm;
I was the person who used the phrase “depressed rural area”, which I can see made you upset. It was not my intent to disparage rural areas, though I can see how it comes off that way. Nor do I believe that folks in the city are inherently brighter. Although I live in NYC, I enjoy rural areas and the folks there.
I was using an extreme example to make a response to “Mr McMansion’s” ridiculous point that the whole name of the game was the square footage of one’s house.
Benson
Well said 3:08. I was reading some of these post with a saddened heart. We moved to NJ for the very reasons you stated. Our children needed more space and better schools than NY could offer. We love NY but made a decision to make a change in our lifestyle. We have become so comfortable with the slower pace that we are thinking of retiring down to rural South Carolina…lol.
Oops, that’s “political” stance. Typo in my 3:17 post.
1:41 It is a fact – not reaching- that Wyandanch has the worst school district in the state and that as a previous poster already stated, NYC has several of the best in the state and 5 in the top 50 in the nation. Your Longiiiislan’ broods can not even compete with the likes of Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, Benjamin Banneker, Brooklyn College Prep, Laguardia, Midwood, etc… and those are just few of the schools doing exceptionally well against the odds. 2:34 as far as worrying about not having metal detectors in NJ, your child should worry. When was the last time that a student walked into an urban school with an assault rifle and killed his teachers and peers? This seems to happen most frequently in the suburbs where if you are labeled an outcast you do not have any alternatives as far as schooling goes. The city has numerous alternative schools for children who are gay/lesbian and transgender to schools for children who come from homeless families. In the burbs you’d just be assed out. Also drug use is falling among city kids but on the rise in the burbs. Boredom I guess.
See, 3:13 is exactly what I’m talking about.
Where are you from, 3:13? Because I used to live in the Midwest and I can tell you that I hear please and thank you from way more city kids than I did from rural Midwestern kids on my recent visit there. City kids are the best and the brightest. As for not wanting to set foot in the city – what, even to visit the best art museums in the world? Tell me how do the suburban and rural kids end up the best and the brightest when they reject culture as a politican stance?
They don’t.
Actually 3:08, the suburbanites are the ones who get most judgemental. They’re the ones always telling city people they are bad parents for living in the city. Even when stats prove otherwise.
For some of you uneducated folks who tend to believe that large cities are created to breed the best and the brightest,I beg you to rethink your position. There are millions of people who live in these so-called depressed rural areas and would not step a single toe in NY or it’s surrounding suburbs.They are happier, healthier, and use the words “Thank You and “Please” with little thought about how you may feel about them. God bless the simple things in life.
Whatev, 3:03. Our Brooklyn brownstone is 2700 square feet and being responsible people who don’t want to needlessly waste precious resources to heat some monstrosity just so we can brag about our square footage, we’re fine with the size of our house. We love it. But you go ahead and enjoy wasting gazillions of gallons of gas in your SUV’s and electricity heating your McMansion, and pouring tons of precious water on your green lawn.
As for drugs, huge huge problem in the suburbs. So is drinking and driving. Oh and even better, fewer young males in the suburbs and small towns are going to college. Nice lifestyle for your children.
why would I buy in new york when I can buy a huge apartment in Berlin for a 10th of the price and get a job paying in Euros.
the dollar is dead.