To Move or Not To Move
Nov. 8th, 2008 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unforthTo Move or Not to Move? This is the question that has been eating my brain since some time in September.
Let me preface this by saying, I LOVE my current apartment. In the neighborhood where I grew up, close enough to home that I can get there easily but far enough to not feel watched over, close to two of my favorite museums ever (the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and within walking distance of everything down to lower Manhattan, up to upper Manhattan, and in to the close parts of Brooklyn and Queens (assuming that, like me, walking 6 - 7 miles to get some place is vaguely acceptable). Less than a block from a major train line. Fair sized place, with a bedroom, close to all the services I need - a drug store across the street, groceries three blocks, bank a block, pet store about three doors down, and of course Crumbs Bakeshop four blocks away.
The problem is what living here is doing to my finances. I make $70,000 a year gross - a tidy sum. But my rent is $2,150. In NYC, they use a simple formula - you should make 40x your rent gross. With that in mind, I make $16,000 less than the recommended minimum to live in my current apartment - or, in other terms, 37% of my monthly earnings go to rent. When you toss in my other monthly expenses, more than 50% of what I earn goes to bills right off the top, and most of the rest goes into an account to pay my taxes. I destroyed my fiscal security just to get this apartment - my entire savings account in December last year went to paying the 15% brokers fee and the two months security deposit. This year has been a story of my going into credit card debt and then clawing my way out, going into debt and then clawing my way out, going into debt and then clawing my way out...and it's tiring, and stressful. Though I've had a few individual big ticket "gifts to self" over all my discretionary income for "fun stuff" is very small - I don't think I've bought more than 20 books all year not counting one small Book Off fest. All in all, I feel like I'm always one disaster from being in serious trouble financial. If that disaster was health related, I'd be seriously screwed - I can't currently afford health insurance. I had banked on a raise I was supposed to get in January, but with the current state of the economy, that raise has been put off (in all likelihood) until next summer, and maybe longer. Bad. Very bad.
But I've put SO MUCH in to this apartment. And I love it. So I wonder, should I move?
First I started thinking about the outer boroughs. But Brooklyn is either expensive or too far away, and Queens sucks (sorry![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bakanekotoo...) (okay, actually the problem with Queens is the same as that in Brooklyn...plus the fact that I don't want to live there...); Staten Island is isolated, and the cheap parts of the Bronx are dangerous. No part of Manhattan is cheap. So I spoke to a couple of folks (ultimabaka, mistress_sin) about maybe doing a roommate thing. But neither of those really works - G would want something super nice for very cheap (basically impossible) and J doesn't want to live in someplace heavily urban - which is exactly what I DO want. For me, it's VERY important to be able to walk to everything I want to do. So then I thought about buying a place, out in Hudson County in New Jersey - Jersey City, perhaps, or Hoboken. Neither of these are all that safe, but there's good transportation in to the city, and both are getting steadily better. I'd be part of the yuppification process - that's fine with me. But to get a nice place would be between $200,000 and $300,000. I don't currently have enough in my "save in case of house buying" savings accounts to cover a down payment on that much, and no way to raise the additional money because there's no leeway in my finances right now. Meanwhile, even if I could borrow money from grandfather (the only way to make this work, and the only member of my family with any pools of money available at the moment) I went to the bank to see what amount I might get in a mortgage, and got told that because my 2006 income was so low, my average income looks low, and as a result I'd basically have no shot at the mortgage I'd need to get a house that expensive. I could look for something cheaper, but then I'd sacrifice the one thing I'd want: a HOUSE. I don't want to buy an apartment - cheap apartments SUCK, seriously. If I'm gonna buy, I'm gonna be my own downstairs and upstairs neighbor, and that's that.
Segue into my dream: Based on discussions held with my mother in April, I've come to realize that what I REALLY want is a brownstone, a lovely perfect gut reno brownstone. The problem there is, even in really bad neighborhoods (read: Harlem) gut reno brownstones'll run you a pretty penny, and that's before you renovate them. In April, the gut renos ran for a cool $1 mill to $1.25 mil. Now, with the state of the economy, last I checked they are still about $600,000 to $800,000 - a precipitous drop, but still well out of my range. In order to afford it, I'll need to save 20% for a down payment (say $200,000, after closing costs and such) plus another $100,000 minimum to renovate it. At my current rate of pay and in my current apartment, if nothing at all goes wrong, I can save (drum roll please) approximately $6,000 a year. It'll take me 50 years at that rate to start my dream! Unacceptable. With a pay raise, I'd be able to put aside more, of course, but that's in the unknown distance.
So where to move? I thought seriously about Roosevelt Island, which isn't too far, is easy to get to, and where a shiny luxury apartment'll run you about $2000 - a deal. But while I'd get a really spiffy place out of it, it doesn't solve my fundamental problem - the saving money part. And if I'm gonna rent, I don't want to move to far, in part because moving is a huge bother, and I hate doing it. I've moved like 6 times in the last 3 to 4 years. (lemme think....Mill St. in Binghamton NY to Jackson Heights in Bloomington Indiana in June of 2005, Jackson Heights to Knightridge in September of 2005, Knightridge tobuzzermccain's floor to d_c_m's mother's basement on Longview in May and June of 2006, Longview to Fenbrook Lane in August of 2006, Fenbrook Lane to Japan in August of 2007, and Japan/storage closet to 72nd St of Manhattan in December of 2007...how many is that?). It's tiring, and it's hard to keep leaving places that I like/love. And expensive!
But oh, to save the money!
I've been flip-flopping on this almost daily - two days ago, I woke convinced I wouldn't move; yesterday, I woke up convinced I should. And it's starting to seem more likely, because I've finally found a location that might actually make me happy.
Inwood and Washington Heights are the neighborhoods on the far northern tip of Manhattan Island. They're "up-and-coming" and have been slowly gentrifying. They're surrounded by parks, and there are at least two museums up there - including the Cloisters, which is the medieval wing of the Met and home to Manhattan's only Renn Faire (That I know of). Furthermore, cursory investigation indicates that from Dyckman St, one of the main East/West roads there, to the Bronx Botanical Gardens and the Zoo (another of my two favorite places in the world) is less than a three mile walk - to me, this equals super exciting, because that's a length of walk I'm willing and prepared to do frequently. (whereas a 6 to 7 mile walk each way starts to be something I don't want to do often, if only because of how long it takes). On the other hand, the Met is more than 7 miles from there - though it would be a quick train ride. But the best part? Rents in that area are commonly $1100 - $1300 for a one bedroom. Simply put, that would be FANTASTIC. Without a raise, I could double my disposable income each month. Just thinking about it makes me excited, thinking what'd be like to be able to, you know, buy things I want again.
And yet I'm still torn.
Today, I've got an appointment to see some house in Inwood and Washington Heights. I've never been up there, and I'm procrastinating going by writing this post. But now I'm gonna stop, and go take a look, and if I like it, well, then currently the pendulum is swinging in the "To Move!" direction. But who knows - maybe tomorrow it'll be back to the "Not To Move!" I just wish the rollercoaster was over...
Let me preface this by saying, I LOVE my current apartment. In the neighborhood where I grew up, close enough to home that I can get there easily but far enough to not feel watched over, close to two of my favorite museums ever (the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and within walking distance of everything down to lower Manhattan, up to upper Manhattan, and in to the close parts of Brooklyn and Queens (assuming that, like me, walking 6 - 7 miles to get some place is vaguely acceptable). Less than a block from a major train line. Fair sized place, with a bedroom, close to all the services I need - a drug store across the street, groceries three blocks, bank a block, pet store about three doors down, and of course Crumbs Bakeshop four blocks away.
The problem is what living here is doing to my finances. I make $70,000 a year gross - a tidy sum. But my rent is $2,150. In NYC, they use a simple formula - you should make 40x your rent gross. With that in mind, I make $16,000 less than the recommended minimum to live in my current apartment - or, in other terms, 37% of my monthly earnings go to rent. When you toss in my other monthly expenses, more than 50% of what I earn goes to bills right off the top, and most of the rest goes into an account to pay my taxes. I destroyed my fiscal security just to get this apartment - my entire savings account in December last year went to paying the 15% brokers fee and the two months security deposit. This year has been a story of my going into credit card debt and then clawing my way out, going into debt and then clawing my way out, going into debt and then clawing my way out...and it's tiring, and stressful. Though I've had a few individual big ticket "gifts to self" over all my discretionary income for "fun stuff" is very small - I don't think I've bought more than 20 books all year not counting one small Book Off fest. All in all, I feel like I'm always one disaster from being in serious trouble financial. If that disaster was health related, I'd be seriously screwed - I can't currently afford health insurance. I had banked on a raise I was supposed to get in January, but with the current state of the economy, that raise has been put off (in all likelihood) until next summer, and maybe longer. Bad. Very bad.
But I've put SO MUCH in to this apartment. And I love it. So I wonder, should I move?
First I started thinking about the outer boroughs. But Brooklyn is either expensive or too far away, and Queens sucks (sorry
bakanekotoo...) (okay, actually the problem with Queens is the same as that in Brooklyn...plus the fact that I don't want to live there...); Staten Island is isolated, and the cheap parts of the Bronx are dangerous. No part of Manhattan is cheap. So I spoke to a couple of folks (ultimabaka, mistress_sin) about maybe doing a roommate thing. But neither of those really works - G would want something super nice for very cheap (basically impossible) and J doesn't want to live in someplace heavily urban - which is exactly what I DO want. For me, it's VERY important to be able to walk to everything I want to do. So then I thought about buying a place, out in Hudson County in New Jersey - Jersey City, perhaps, or Hoboken. Neither of these are all that safe, but there's good transportation in to the city, and both are getting steadily better. I'd be part of the yuppification process - that's fine with me. But to get a nice place would be between $200,000 and $300,000. I don't currently have enough in my "save in case of house buying" savings accounts to cover a down payment on that much, and no way to raise the additional money because there's no leeway in my finances right now. Meanwhile, even if I could borrow money from grandfather (the only way to make this work, and the only member of my family with any pools of money available at the moment) I went to the bank to see what amount I might get in a mortgage, and got told that because my 2006 income was so low, my average income looks low, and as a result I'd basically have no shot at the mortgage I'd need to get a house that expensive. I could look for something cheaper, but then I'd sacrifice the one thing I'd want: a HOUSE. I don't want to buy an apartment - cheap apartments SUCK, seriously. If I'm gonna buy, I'm gonna be my own downstairs and upstairs neighbor, and that's that.Segue into my dream: Based on discussions held with my mother in April, I've come to realize that what I REALLY want is a brownstone, a lovely perfect gut reno brownstone. The problem there is, even in really bad neighborhoods (read: Harlem) gut reno brownstones'll run you a pretty penny, and that's before you renovate them. In April, the gut renos ran for a cool $1 mill to $1.25 mil. Now, with the state of the economy, last I checked they are still about $600,000 to $800,000 - a precipitous drop, but still well out of my range. In order to afford it, I'll need to save 20% for a down payment (say $200,000, after closing costs and such) plus another $100,000 minimum to renovate it. At my current rate of pay and in my current apartment, if nothing at all goes wrong, I can save (drum roll please) approximately $6,000 a year. It'll take me 50 years at that rate to start my dream! Unacceptable. With a pay raise, I'd be able to put aside more, of course, but that's in the unknown distance.
So where to move? I thought seriously about Roosevelt Island, which isn't too far, is easy to get to, and where a shiny luxury apartment'll run you about $2000 - a deal. But while I'd get a really spiffy place out of it, it doesn't solve my fundamental problem - the saving money part. And if I'm gonna rent, I don't want to move to far, in part because moving is a huge bother, and I hate doing it. I've moved like 6 times in the last 3 to 4 years. (lemme think....Mill St. in Binghamton NY to Jackson Heights in Bloomington Indiana in June of 2005, Jackson Heights to Knightridge in September of 2005, Knightridge to
buzzermccain's floor to d_c_m's mother's basement on Longview in May and June of 2006, Longview to Fenbrook Lane in August of 2006, Fenbrook Lane to Japan in August of 2007, and Japan/storage closet to 72nd St of Manhattan in December of 2007...how many is that?). It's tiring, and it's hard to keep leaving places that I like/love. And expensive!But oh, to save the money!
I've been flip-flopping on this almost daily - two days ago, I woke convinced I wouldn't move; yesterday, I woke up convinced I should. And it's starting to seem more likely, because I've finally found a location that might actually make me happy.
Inwood and Washington Heights are the neighborhoods on the far northern tip of Manhattan Island. They're "up-and-coming" and have been slowly gentrifying. They're surrounded by parks, and there are at least two museums up there - including the Cloisters, which is the medieval wing of the Met and home to Manhattan's only Renn Faire (That I know of). Furthermore, cursory investigation indicates that from Dyckman St, one of the main East/West roads there, to the Bronx Botanical Gardens and the Zoo (another of my two favorite places in the world) is less than a three mile walk - to me, this equals super exciting, because that's a length of walk I'm willing and prepared to do frequently. (whereas a 6 to 7 mile walk each way starts to be something I don't want to do often, if only because of how long it takes). On the other hand, the Met is more than 7 miles from there - though it would be a quick train ride. But the best part? Rents in that area are commonly $1100 - $1300 for a one bedroom. Simply put, that would be FANTASTIC. Without a raise, I could double my disposable income each month. Just thinking about it makes me excited, thinking what'd be like to be able to, you know, buy things I want again.
And yet I'm still torn.
Today, I've got an appointment to see some house in Inwood and Washington Heights. I've never been up there, and I'm procrastinating going by writing this post. But now I'm gonna stop, and go take a look, and if I like it, well, then currently the pendulum is swinging in the "To Move!" direction. But who knows - maybe tomorrow it'll be back to the "Not To Move!" I just wish the rollercoaster was over...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-11-08 03:45 pm (UTC)My best friend lived up in Inwood while she was in New York. I think she liked it.
Your current place is pretty good, except for the price. I hope you find stuff you like in Inwood - saving the money would be great.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-09 02:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 12:26 am (UTC)That said, I don't think anyone in NYC is actually making 40x rent. :p
haha you must not have actually applied to very many places...I was told not even to apply by 10 places because I didn't make 40, and then another 6 because I didn't make 80, where
(a) 80 had been quickly becoming the new 40, and
(b) I didn't have a guarantor, the idea of which still kinda repulses me to this day.
My bonus (which combined with my salary put me at almost 100x some of the places I was lookin at during my search) was totally ignored, just to put things into perspective :P
You know what my opinions of Brooklyn Heights are (and, if you don't, <3 :) ), but there are tons of other nice neighborhoods (Park Slope possibly?) where 1600 could get you a normal sized one-bedroom...to be fair though, your space requirements border on the exorbitant, so either way, I wish you good luck :) *huggle*
-- Gerardo
no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 02:42 pm (UTC)As for the insurance, I have been lucky so far - nothing much has gone wrong in the past year. But luck and hope are not an insurance plan, and if I got hit by a car tomorrow, or diagnosed with any semi-serious illness, or needed surgery, well...bad. Very bad. Pretty much, health insurance is number one item on my "buy now!" list once I move...which I think I will be doing imminently...
no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 05:00 am (UTC)As a non-New Yorker, the crazy cost of living there makes it feel like an uninhabitable city. I feel that way about lots of other places too, like Princeton. I'll wait to live there I create self-aware AI and the university hires me and pays for my mansion next to John Nash's place. I know why you want to live in Manhattan, but it certainly requires a financial trade-off! So your compromise solution makes a lot of sense to me. Good luck!!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 02:44 pm (UTC)The thing about the cost of living is that, to some extent, wages here are commensurate with the increase in prices. The problem is when they're not - especially in rent, because housing prices (both rent and purchase prices) are geared towards a world where two people (and some number of littler people) live together - housing prices are geared towards a two income family, and so those with only one income get shafted...