[jpelg]

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Originally Posted by VicAjax these days, $329k will hardly get you a 550sf studio. seriously.

Yeah, and probably here in Queens rather than Manhattan

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Originally Posted by VicAjax actually, after our son was born my wife left an incredibly promising (and demanding) career to be a mom...she's probably the only middle-class woman in nyc to do that.

Kudos to her & you.
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Originally Posted by Oski Or my unfortunate situation of living in Manhattan and commuting 1:45 minutes to Connecticut

Where in CT are you working? Sounds like New Haven area?

 

[VicAjax]

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Originally Posted by jpelg Yeah, and probably here in Queens rather than Manhattan

queens don't get a fair shake... you need to muscle in on bklyn's action. i loved MoMa QNS when it was humming, and we take our son to the queens farm for apple picking and hayrides all the time.

there are some really nice parts of qns... not to mention it's home to the ramones and simon & garfunkel (to name but two).

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Kudos to her & you.

thanks much... no one really understands how or why we do it. until they hear my 3yo start yammering about the met.

 

[Oski]

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Originally Posted by jpelg Where in CT are you working? Sounds like New Haven area?

Stamford, actually. The hour forty-five is the door to door time, otherwise the train itself is about 50 min or 110 min depending on express or local. Funny thing is I just came out of an office where a few co-workers and I were having a bitch session about being here instead of the city.

Where in Queens are you? I think Queens overall is probably a good real estate play, especially Queens West/LIC/Astoria areas.

 

[fureshi]

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Originally Posted by Alexhifi I live in the DC area, so this all is very relevant to me. I sold my townhouse in June as I predicted something bad was coming. I sold for OVER twice what I bought it for in less then a week. I am now on a 12 month lease in Old Town Alexandria (south of DC) and love it! I'm 100% sure I would have gotten $50K or more less if I sold later and had the headache of showing the place. All I have to do now is wait for prices to drop about 20-50% and buy back in. I'm watching home prices fall $20-$100K and hope the trend continues (and is not just a seasonal thing). The condo market...ouch...brutal competition between investors now trying to get out. Some dude had the nerve to try and sell a TOTALLY run down (historic) "2" BR for $515,000 in Old Town. GF went to see it, said she wasn't even sure it was safe to live in it - was maybe 800-900 sq ft. LOL... I say wait it out...don't over extend yourself with some silly ARM or IO loan! Or, as others have mentioned, buy a little further out and commute. The tax savings will WAY outdo any fuel costs... -Alex

you're lucky that the market is turning around in DC. i just read in the local paper that although home sales in silicon valley have slowed down by 5% last month, the median home price still climbed $75k to something like $720k. at this rate, i'll never be able to afford a house unless i get married to someone who also makes a decent income.

 

[Oski]

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Originally Posted by fureshi you're lucky that the market is turning around in DC. i just read in the local paper that although home sales in silicon valley have slowed down by 5% last month, the median home price still climbed $75k to something like $720k. at this rate, i'll never be able to afford a house unless i get married to someone who also makes a decent income.

You'lll have to be careful with the data based on the "median". The average price per square foot could have gone down in response to the slow down, thus allowing people to buy larger houses, thereby driving up the median price. Besides, a one month data tends to be somewhat lumpy.

The opposite is true here in NYC. Median prices have fallen 16% between the 2nd quarter vs. 3rd quarter of 2005, but the average price per square foot still gained something like 1.5%. But I just interpret this as (1) the big buyers were away at their summer homes and not shopping for a new place and (2) prices per square foot is so high now, people are really only buying smaller apartments.

 

[VicAjax]

hey Oski, is there anywhere online that has a general breakdown of prices per sf according to neighborhood?

 

[Oski]

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Originally Posted by VicAjax hey Oski, is there anywhere online that has a general breakdown of prices per sf according to neighborhood?

Hey VicAjax, you should check out these reports in Adobe PDF format (the two leading residential brokerage houses in NYC):

http://www.corcoran.com/guides/index...CorcoranReport

http://www.elliman.com/MainSite/MarketReports/

 

[warubozu]

Median prices for a home on any of the Hawaiian islands keep rising to ungodly highs. A median home price on the island of Kauai in October hit $750k, on Maui median home price in October hit $695k, on Big Island the median home price in October hit $363k, on Oahu the median home price in October hit $615k. Those prices have since gone up again and none of those prices are for homes with beach front property. Homes with beach front property on any of the above mentioned islands sell for no less than $1.5 mil. Affordable homes here is almost non existent for the average income family, even condos here are expensive. Despite the prices, home sales in the Hawaiian has been hot with more buyers than sellers.

 

[VicAjax]

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Originally Posted by Oski Hey VicAjax, you should check out these reports in Adobe PDF format (the two leading residential brokerage houses in NYC): http://www.corcoran.com/guides/index...CorcoranReport http://www.elliman.com/MainSite/MarketReports/

thanks for the links. i used a corcoran broker finding my place, so i get their market reports. the most recent is probably dated since it's a midyear report, and the market has markedly changed since july.

an interesting thing i noticed on it: in manhattan, the difference between median 2br vs. 3br is more than a million dollars; but in park slope, bklyn, the difference is only about 15-20k. when i was hunting, i thought the slope was overpriced, but maybe not for 3br's.

 

[Illah]

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Originally Posted by gshan I've been disturbed by the thought that most of my friends will probably be forced to live outside hometown sf because the market is getting ridiculous with no end in sight. Even if there is some sort of bust or recession as some say, it still won't make a damn difference cause the pricetag will only soar with continued demand. Same thing with gas. It might get $0.20 cheaper all of a sudden, but people forget it might have been a whole dollar cheaper just a few months ago.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. I'm still pretty young (24) but I'm lucky that I got an early start in my career and have been really diciplined with my credit so I can think about buying. Some of my friends my age even have a hard time justifying *rent* in SF and thus live in the East Bay. I've looked at some listings for condos and it just seems to almost not be worth it. It's so odd that to buy a place I'd have to spend much more money each month for a crappier place in a crappier neighborhood when compared to the place I rent! Even though rent is essentially money down the drain the quality of life is so much higher in SF when you rent a nice place vs. buying a dump.

--Illah

 

[Elec]

I live between DC and Baltimore and I'm paying about $1150 a month to rent a 2BR apartment. In Las Cruces, NM where I went to college, I rented a 2BR house of roughly equivalent size for $625. A similar job to my current one would pay about 1/3 less in Las Cruces, but that's still not bad when you realize the rent is about half. I have yet to see (m)any decent houses in this area for less than $250k and a lot of 2-3BR condos go for that much with good-sized and/or recently built homes going for significantly more. At this rate, I either need a few good raises or the housing bubble to burst before I'll be able to afford to buy. Which sucks because renting makes me sad.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

coming from someone who moved from CA to TX for the home prices alone, I can tell you that it is quite easy to afford a home here in San Antonio! It is amazing how cheap they are compared to CA, and there are a lot of good jobs here. Check out a couple of sites like Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com to see what's available in your job field, then look at how much your mortgage will be for a home here. I tend to think you'd be able to easily afford a super-nice home.

 

[wakeride74]

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Originally Posted by ServinginEcuador coming from someone who moved from CA to TX for the home prices alone, I can tell you that it is quite easy to afford a home here in San Antonio! It is amazing how cheap they are compared to CA, and there are a lot of good jobs here. Check out a couple of sites like Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com to see what's available in your job field, then look at how much your mortgage will be for a home here. I tend to think you'd be able to easily afford a super-nice home.

Ok, you represent the people I wanted to hear from... I have a few questions for ya

How long ago did you move? Did you have a spouse and/or family that you brought with you? What kind of average salary difference did you notice vs. pay here in CA... 10%, 20%, 30% less?? Do you get much rain in the winter?

 

[eyevancsu]

I havent posted in a while but i found this thread interesting. I live in houston, tx and got a house around 6 months ago with 3400sqft, 3 car garage, built 1994 with decent everything for $198000 in a nice are, which is like pocket money for you guys with those expensive homes. Houston's one of the best bang for buck markets imo as even the nicest areas here go for +-$90/sqft and +-$140s for the elite (million dollar homes or more).

Ive had most of my clients here come from california just in awe at the price differential. The only negative here is the high property tax, which might go away within the next half year.

-Ivan C.

 

[1911]

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Originally Posted by eyevancsu I havent posted in a while but i found this thread interesting. I live in houston, tx and got a house around 6 months ago with 3400sqft, 3 car garage, built 1994 with decent everything for $198000 in a nice are, which is like pocket money for you guys with those expensive homes. Houston's one of the best bang for buck markets imo as even the nicest areas here go for +-$90/sqft and +-$140s for the elite (million dollar homes or more). Ive had most of my clients here come from california just in awe at the price differential. The only negative here is the high property tax, which might go away within the next half year. -Ivan C.

that is awesome and i am glad for your quality of life there....but for the ny and cali people let me say this before they turn green with envy....if you are able to buy in ny or cali that is a great investment over time that will far eclipse the savings you initially had by buying a cheaper house in a less expensive state...so it really is your decision...i know that my cali home will be worth millions when i retire 30 years from now..that is a pretty good return..probably not matched in houston