Open House Picks: Six Months Later
Comment: Big discounts to original asking prices! Open House Picks 9/10/10 [Brownstoner]
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Comment: Big discounts to original asking prices! Open House Picks 9/10/10 [Brownstoner]
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I have no idea how people making $200K can afford those houses, because we couldn’t have afforded any of those houses.
And even if we could have… I am with more4, those prices are too high for what they are. Prospect Heights is the only one in a prime neighborhood. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like all of the neighborhoods shown here, but I wouldn’t pay that much to live in them. No need — those neighborhoods (with the exception of Williamsburg, where one just goes half a mile into Bushwick and gets that exact house for $350K), have much, much cheaper properties.
slick, it’s not the 800k but rather it’s where and what that 800k got you. I wouldnt call 800k in prime brownstone BK hoods expensive – ie those would be bargains. So the point is the price of those 3 above is expensive cause it’s so so stuff with a big price tag.
I can afford to eat $20 hamburgers every day but that doesn’t preclude me from having some base to say yeah $20 for a hamburger is expensive (even if there some fancy cheese stuffed inside the pattie and is sitting on some fancy bun).
I think you guys are overestimating the amount of income it takes to support a purchase price of $800k.
Obviously, the biggest impediment is $160k in cash plus more for costs and cushion. However, the mortgage on $640k at 5% in a thirty year fixed is about $3,000 (plus another $500 for taxes and insurance). Normal affordability is that housing should be approximately 1/3 of gross income. The ratio fits for any family that makes $108,000 per year or more.
For any family that received an inheritance from Aunt Franny or ate Ramen noodles since 2001 to save up, it’s not unrealistic for families with middle class incomes to manage to make a purchase happen.
basementalist, my point is the prices on the 3 ppties are expensive on an absolute basis. what you said doesn’t preclude the prices from being labelled expensive but rather certifies that it’s expensive – that NYC as a whole is expensive.
more4less:
I agree that $200-250K is doing better than most people in the city. But owning a whole house in a desirable neighborhood is also doing better than most people in the city. Only 1/3 of New Yorkers own their home. Of those, only a fraction own houses, not apartments. And of those, only a fraction are in the neighborhoods that usually get in Open House picks. So it makes sense that only a sliver of the city can afford them: they’re only a sliver of the city’s housing stock, and more people want them than can buy them.
I don’t know where this idea comes from that the average middle-class New York family ought to be able to own a brownstone or townhouse if they want one.
more4less: You hit the nail on the head why something just doesn’t seem right in the current market.
>you have your definition and I have mine.
Okelydokely. Just don’t touch my Swingline pineapple, and it’s all good.
Maly, guess 200-250k is peanuts. cause to reach that level of income and that only positions someone to buy an OK house in bed stuy and an ok location in billyburg, I highly doubt that’s what a middle or upper middle (whatever is the label for this income range) income family aspires too. the fact folks with this income is SETTLING for these houses and locations speaks to the prices are expensive.
We will see if this continues as interest rates trend back towards the historical norm.
I know my budget shrank by about 100k.