With good school ditricts, where we can keep our mortgage under $3000…any ideas? What are your thoughts on Valley Stream, Franklin Square and Oceanside?
Finding a home on Long Island with a mortgage under $3K used to be difficult…but now it’s a buyers market. There are so many houses on the market now that costs a lot less than it did last summer.
Here are a few school districts that are great (I’m not familiar with the South Shore..so my list only consists of North):
Herricks, Great Neck, Port Washington, Manhasset, Garden City, Wheatley, Jericho, Syosset.
Like the previous post mentioned its the taxes that make mortgage payments hard. My propery tax is a little over 12K per year…so on top of my mortgage I pay $1000 month in taxes. Most neighborhoods with great schools will have higher taxes. On the plus side, if you work in the city…you won’t get city taxes taken out of your paycheck.
So if you puchase a house for about $480,000 then your mortgage will run about $2300 per month…this doesnt include taxes ( $700/month based on $8500 per year). That would make your monthly payments About $3000.
Don;t forget that you’ll need house insurance, downpayment, closing costs and if its a fixer upper…$$$.
Out of the 3 areas you mentioned I would not consider Valley Stream..its does not have the greatest schools.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Forget those and look at Port Washington.
Great School District
Easy commute to NYC (Port Washington Branch of LIRR doesn’t go through Jamaica)
Some area’s are even affordable – Check out Manorhaven.
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July 29th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
You should get a house.
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July 29th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Franklin Square is right on. I dated someone from FS and used to love going there. It’s close to Hempstead Turnpike which gives you access to shopping, gas stations, restaraunts, etc. The next town over is Garden City, a prostegious rich town which a lot of enormous houses, though I liked FS better than any surrounding area because it feels more "home-y" and warm than snobsville usa. The houses are adorable and you should be able to keep your mortgage under 3K if you play your cards right. There’s a lot of Italians in this area as well (which for me was always a plus being as I am one!) As for school districts I can’t speak for my own experiences, but the ex boy and all my friends from the town loved their school, Carey High. They went back to visit their old teachers many times. I really liked the area, it had that residential feel but you’re literally two minutes away from anything you need.
Oceanside is crazy expensive, but it’s pretty. Pretty is really all I can say for it. I wasn’t really a fan of the people from Oceanside. I don’t know much about Valley Stream, but I hope I helped a little.
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July 29th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Valley Stream has good areas and bad areas, Franklin Square is probably a better choice. You really need to investigate the local school and check out your neighbors, as you’ll get a mix of people in these towns.
A better choice might be the Salisbury section of Westbury, where you get Westbury prices, but East Meadow schools.
West Hempstead is another community with reasonable housing prices, or what passes for reasonable these days.
Oceanside can be a good value if you can get a home with an Oceanside address but Rockville Center schools. I wouldn’t want to be in the southern part of Oceanside near the landfill.
Merrick, Wantagh, Massapequa come to mind as having nice neighborhoods, too. The Island Trees section used to be a good value, but I understand that their school district is having some financial difficulties which could cause their taxes to increase. They dropped varsity sport funding a few years ago.
Port Washington is terrific if you can afford it. As far as Manorhaven, check out your potential neighborhood carefully before buying, especially in the mornings. I seem to recall something about a day worker mustering problem there, but I could be mistaken.
All of these Nassau communities have very high taxes. You might be better off in Bellerose or Bellerose Manor in Queens, especially near St. Gregory’s RC church. Of course, although the real estate taxes are lower, you get stuck with the City income tax, so that might be a wash.
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July 29th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
It’s not so much the mortgage that will kill you but the taxes. Property taxes in Long Island are double and sometimes even triple what you would pay in the boros. You may want to check Queens towns that border Long Island…Rosedale, for example, which is right across the Belt Parkway from Valley Stream (and also where I grew up) is very convenient to the areas you mentioned, though I can’t speak for the school districts anymore.
I have a two family house in Queens (near Flushing) and my property taxes are usually under $5,000 a year so expect to pay a minimum of 8 to 10,000 per annum at the lowest in Long Island on top of your mortgage
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July 29th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Finding a home on Long Island with a mortgage under $3K used to be difficult…but now it’s a buyers market. There are so many houses on the market now that costs a lot less than it did last summer.
Here are a few school districts that are great (I’m not familiar with the South Shore..so my list only consists of North):
Herricks, Great Neck, Port Washington, Manhasset, Garden City, Wheatley, Jericho, Syosset.
Like the previous post mentioned its the taxes that make mortgage payments hard. My propery tax is a little over 12K per year…so on top of my mortgage I pay $1000 month in taxes. Most neighborhoods with great schools will have higher taxes. On the plus side, if you work in the city…you won’t get city taxes taken out of your paycheck.
So if you puchase a house for about $480,000 then your mortgage will run about $2300 per month…this doesnt include taxes ( $700/month based on $8500 per year). That would make your monthly payments About $3000.
Don;t forget that you’ll need house insurance, downpayment, closing costs and if its a fixer upper…$$$.
Out of the 3 areas you mentioned I would not consider Valley Stream..its does not have the greatest schools.
References :