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.
WAH!!! THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT CONTINUES!!!!
JUST LIKE A PUT MY FOOT DOWN WHEN SOMEONE WAS BASICALLY BUTTING IN LINE AT THE PARK SLOPE FOOD COOP YESTERDAY. I had made a resolution to be nice this year…but I wanted her to make a resolution not to butt in line and “follow the rules” in fairness to the 15 people waiting in line behind us.
For those who suggest green living, I’m in complete agreement. One less SUV should solve everything. Now we just have to convince a billion Indians and 1.4 billion Chinese to get onboard, otherwise you’d better get your SCUBA gear ready.
“and i’m the dolt…”
At least we can agree on that point.
i wouldn’t be replying to your post every 5 minutes if you didn’t make one every 5 minutes.
and i’m the dolt…
let’s see….8.25 million residents with another 750K on the way or an entire town with 7500 people.
and you think nyc is empty on the weekends?
all those folks in croton are in nyc on the freakin weekend!!!!
LOLOLOLOL.
i never said the costs were comparable. i was merely stating that the gas increasing in cost will have an affect on people’s desire to live in the suburbs even more than it does now, when it hits $4 a gallon.
that’s it.
nowhere did i say that the cost of gas was going to equal that of the extra cost of housing in nyc. NOWHERE.
but so far, we’ve got an extra 16K in taxes in the burbs and now this extra 2K for gas and see where i’m going with this….adds up fast. these articles don’t spell it out for you.
living in the burbs is wasteful unless you have 6 kids. it is also expensive…albeit in different regards.
some people have their eye on green living.
you do not seem to be one of them.
someone brought up sea level rise.
you know what…i’ll be pretty pissed off that all you suv driving suburbanites flood our city when that time comes.
i sure as heck am doing my part to make sure that doesn’t happen, or if it does, make it so that my impact is as little as can be.
what exactly are you doing to make sure sea levels don’t drown half the world?
Hey 5:29pm
I’m talking about people who live in the city leaving every chance they get, you dolt.
Why do you think the city is empty on weekends? Everyone who lives in the city leaves for greener pastures that the city can not provide.
Now get back to work and stop replying to my every post within 5 minutes!
4:56 – I might be in a bubble but at least I have my reading comprehension and math skills down –
– compared to $2 a gallon gas (which presumably is “suburb friendly”) driving 20,000 mi a yr (in as many or as few cars as you’d like) the “added cost” is $2,000 a year – not 120K a year .
Additionally if you are spending 10K+ a year for your cars then you are buying some VERY expensive cars that are depreciating very quickly and such a scenario is not really relevant to this exercise – try buying a Honda or a BMW – the depreciated expense shouldnt be much more then 3K a year.
I will certainly agree that if you are comparing the total cost of living in NYC without a car (and you use no car rentals, zipcars, taxi or car service) to living in the suburbs with 2 newish cars driving everywhere – the TOTAL “auto” related costs can be significant.
But if you are trying to say that the rise in gas by $2 a gallon makes housing in the suburbs comparable on price (which was the point I am refuting ) then you are way off.
People arent moving (or not) to the suburbs over $2000 a year extra costs in gas, they are moving (or not) due to comparative housing costs (although not comparable houses) of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, which even if fully financed equals $10K+ a year in added housing costs. $2 increases in gas are incidental costs at these prices.
we took the kids to all but a couple of those.
you know the best way to raise cultured, self aware children is to….well…take them to cultural things.
5:14…
the beach sounds like a nice place to retire part-time to, sure.
would probably like to keep a place in new york, though.
you live one life. i plan to live mine to the fullest. not sitting in traffic, not spending hours at walmart, not sitting in front of the tv wondering whether to watch deal or no deal or survivor and not baking in the sun till i shrivel up and die.