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.
JERSEY CITY BABY. Gave up on Brooklyn 3 years ago. Bought a 900 sqt ft loft with deeded underground parking in a historic pencil factory for 365k. Just closed. 7 mins to the WTC from the path. same place would have costed me 750k in prime brooklyn or 1.2 in downtown manhattan. No NYC income tax and no NYC mtg tax. Beautiful brownstone neighborhood. Best decision I ever made. Friends come over and flip out, Most people never think about it and are shocked at what you get for the money.
It the same argument people made 5-10 years ago when you told them you bought in broooklyn. They gave you the snobbish manhattan repsonse, but it’s in Brooklyn. Now they are complaining that they cant afford Brooklyn.
Think about it.
i would never move to the suburbs.
ever.
it’s devolved, in my opinion.
the world is moving towards urbanism. that’s why it’s now more expensive to live in cities. because the quality of life is higher.
moving to the suburbs is settling.
12:25, I like Forest Hills too. But when I was shopping for housing around the time you were, it was no cheaper than, say, South Slope. And the LI automobile mentality on top of narrow city streets makes the 71st/Continental/Austin downtown FH district more clogged and immobilized than anyplace I’ve seen in Brooklyn.
You might also want to consider that the “best” school in the country may not suit your child let only both (or more) of your children. You may not know this until they are 10, 13, 16. The city provides choice to those lucky enough to be able to fund. Think about paying 15K-20K in property taxes and private school tuition either to enhance a skill / gift or because the school is completely sports centered and your Johnny likes origami.
roslyn, oceanside, merrick, bellmore, wantagh
south shore has great schools as well.
doesn’t stand a chance compared to brooklyn as far as culture is concerned, unless you like driving to the local strip mall for some fine dining – and having a drink with 500 guidos at mulcahy’s.
I posted at 11:47. Anyone who’s given NYC schools even a cursory glance knows that your kids will have a better chance at a good eduction in almost any suburb.
There are execeptions both ways, of course.
But don’t forget, most NYC schools don’t have decent music and art, there’s few organized sports, etc. The facilities are in bad shape, libraries are pretty paltry, supplies are bare bones. Even the most committed teachers can’t overcome that.
You can argue all day about the causes and the cures, but if you have children and care about them, you’re really rolling the dice if you choose city schools.
The city’s low property taxes have certainly helped the RE market, but at the cost of a decent school system. How is it that taxes on a 2 mil. brownstone are $3,500 a year? WTF?
I did some poking around, and in Alpine, NJ, taxes on a 1.5 mil house are $23,000! That’ll buy a lot of textbooks.
We’ve got about 3 years to figure it out before our soon is of kindergarten age; if we can’t, hello Montclair!
12:07 – you forgot Lynbrook, Merrick, Great Neck, Herricks and a whole bunch of others. In Westchester, there are a ton of great and good school districts. And 11:43, to say that LI schools suck really demonstrates your ignorance.
The higher suburban property taxes are more than offset by the cost of private schools (especially with two kids) and the city income tax, which is a killer for high-income Brooklynites.
New York City may have some “bad” public schools but Long Island has the worst in the state in Wyandanch. Sucessful schools in LI are very much linked to the affluence of the surrounding community. If you don’t live in a certain community you can’t go to those schools. The good thing about NYC though is that any kid who works hard and gets good grades can get into any number of specialized well performing middle and high schools. Schools like Hudde, Mark Twain, Bay Academy, the middle and high school on Kingsborough colleg campus,Banneker, Medgar Evers Prep, Hunter and many others are outperforming LI schools despite the socioeconomic background of their students. Lets not forget Bronx Science, Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech. I know of two people whose kids come in from Jersey to go to Stuyvesant but I am certain that their are others. Of course NYC public schools have produced more Westinghouse scholars (now called Gateway scholars)than anywhere else in the country. City kids also have access to wall street, the fashion district, advertising, etc… for internships. When the city schools get it right, they really get it right.
Best of both worlds: Forest Hills Queens. Moved there 2 years ago from Clinton Hill. Still NYC, low property taxes, and cheap real estate relative to Brooklyn/Manhattan. Sure, it’s Queens, I understand. But we live in a beautiful historic old townhouse with good public schools and very safe neighborhood.