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.
There are problems — mostly due to infrastructure and funding — in NYC schools. But, rather than spend $23K/yr for private school tuition, there are lots of alternatives. So the local elementary school lacks music and art — you can PAY for that on weekends or afterschool. Help out at the school where you can. And your child has a year with a bad teacher (and yes, we have all had them and we survived), you get tutor. Your child can get a great education with just a little parental effort. I know; I did it. And there are lots of great alterantives for high school (and not just Stuy, Science, etc.) or Murrow, Midwood… There is Beacon, Museum, BHSEC, LaGuardia etc. What they do get is the knowledge that they are fortunate, that they have more than a lot of other people, that there are kids who work very hard to get ahead. That they are not born special. That is a NYC education that you do not get anywhere else.
All the ‘segregated’ communities you list…ie Rockville Center, Syosset, Rosyln.(devoid of diversity). Also, if you don’t live there , you’re kids can’t go there. My point is, to suck up those taxes just for the years your kid goes to school… I’d rather not. however, i’d more than willingly pay for private school, for the sake of my own kids getting the benefit of that expense.
I’ll stay in Brooklyn, thank you and Pay my $2,500 in prop. taxes
12:50, you don’t need to. The suburbs have moved to NYC.
We are closing on a place within a week, though not exactly the suburbs as it isn’t communiting distance.
12:34 you make good points about the infracstructure of NYC schools. Many of which are nearing 100, if not over 100 years old. You are wrong though when you say that even committed teachers can’t overcome those disadvantages. I overcome challenges everyday. For example, Art and Music programs have been cut because of underfunding due to NYC schools not getting its fair share from the state. The case has been won in Albany and we are still awaiting the check. But the issue is about more than funding. In my school we partner with musicians and artists of all types from the surrounding community to work with students. Field trips are routinely made to their studios as well as to numerous art galleries and museums. My students may not have a regularly scheduled arts & crafts class but they do have a knowledge and appreciation of the arts and art/music history that is well beyond their years. I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn’t prefer the comforts of a suburban school building but I love teaching in the city. Due to various DOE and mayoral initiatives the NYC schools are now attracting many of the best and brightest. I came back to teaching myself after an early retirement from a lucrative career in private industry. I do it because I love it. Teachers can and do make all the difference.
hopefully they’ll learn how to spell origami while there….
oh and btw, i know 4 people who moved to jersey from park slope actually…right around 2000 or so.
every single one of them wish they had never left, but now feel trapped.
I enrolled my child at the Long Island Oragami Institute, and he couldnt be happier.
when you live in brooklyn, at least you live in new york state.
there are many, MANY people out there who will never say they live in new jersey.
it’s just a fact.