Houston cost of living more than NYC?

[52-80 19374]

18 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Vanilla Villa

Domaine du Douche'

[Iceman 2956]

22 minutes ago, Spankytoes said:

Five Guys beats the shit out of BK too. Only tourists and the poors go to Gray’s. Now Crif Dogs, on the other hand, would put JCI at the kid’s table.

Next you're gonna make the case that it's cheaper too...

( shot at thread, not you)

[Johnny Sack 8397]

NY is great if you have serious, serious wealth.  But still inferior to the top left coast cities.  If you have kids, I just couldn’t imagine New York City being feasible without serious wealth.  
 

you live in a dog kennel and everything you do is expensive 

[RDCanecutter 26856]

21 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

Poetry readings and shit like that

Stealing this as next band name.

[next2naus 439]

21 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

Sounds like you’re set with your hour from Manhattan life. 

We live a mile from school.  My kids spend no time in the car.  My wife and I both work 4 miles from home.  

Before you comment on my intelligence, a couple things with your response   

I said “have” 8 figures, not make a salary of 8 figures.  And 8 figures ranges from $10,000,000 to $99,999,999.99.   So learn to count dumbfuck.  

Five minutes from the kids school, no car time. I work from home and wife doesn't work. Grow sack and stop acting out.

[next2naus 439]

4 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

NY is great if you have serious, serious wealth.  But still inferior to the top left coast cities.  If you have kids, I just couldn’t imagine New York City being feasible without serious wealth.  
 

you live in a dog kennel and everything you do is expensive 

Like Filthadelphia? or that little college town to the north? I don't disagree that Manhattan today takes money but I know many people that live well and do it opn far less than the min $10m you suggest. 

[RPM 26567]

Just saw a story on Dallas being more expensive than NYC. I think this is a very clever scheme to keep people from moving here.

[We’reTexas 1477]

1 hour ago, RPM said:

Just saw a story on Dallas being more expensive than NYC. I think this is a very clever scheme to keep people from moving here.

I don’t think it takes a lot of ingenuity to deter people from moving to Dallas. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19279]

19 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

NY is great if you have serious, serious wealth.  But still inferior to the top left coast cities.  If you have kids, I just couldn’t imagine New York City being feasible without serious wealth.  
 

you live in a dog kennel and everything you do is expensive 

This is full on stupid.  

Signed someone that has lived on all three coasts.

Edited January 26, 2020 by PenelopeWitherspoon

[Bevo 13831]

18 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

This is full on stupid.  

Signed someone that has lived on all three coasts.

Your mistake is thinking LA is a top west coast city. Try San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Seattle.

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

Ok, I’ll play along. Let’s take a look at this place on the upper east side that rents for $2,175 and is 1,000 sqft. Link at bottom. I picked this place because it is comparable to the cost it would be to rent my current house in the Austin burbs. It’s actually about 200 more but would take less maintenance such as lawn care. Close enough to call it even.

The wife and I probably spend an average of 1,000 a month on normal cars when you factor payment, gas, oil changes, maintenance, repairs, and insurance. It could actually be more than that. Transportation costs in nyc I’ll estimate at 500 a month for two people. I’m coming out 500 ahead now.

I work in public education and would get about a 1,000 a month raise after taxes as best as I can figure but that’s a guess. My wife would make the same salary but pay more in taxes. She doesn’t make enough for it to be a significant hit though. Let’s say 500 a month to be on the safe side.

Now I’m 1000 at month ahead in NYC. Subtract 500 a month for shit being more expensive there and I’m 500 a month ahead. What am I missing other than the cost of a divorce because we are living in less space?

https://www.apartments.com/312-e-62nd-st-new-york-ny-unit-2/zw6w34x/

[ChickenSandwich 9922]

The transportation cost seem suspect in your analysis. 
 

my friends who lived in hell kitchen would routinely have to rent a car and drive to the burbs for “Walmart” Runs. Things you just can’t carry on the subway. Add In kids and their transportation for school, friends and activities.  
 

then take travel, can’t just hop in your car and drive somewhere. Have to rent or fly. 
 

Taxis + Uber etc. $500 for two with kids/month seems highly unlikely. 
 

1000sq feet and family in town?  Get a hotel (I’m sure they are cheap!).....wait, this should go in the pro column I assume. 

Edited January 26, 2020 by ChickenSandwich

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

A lot of your “extras” have to do with kids. I don’t have any and that will stay the same in the future. I could see child related expenses being much more in NYC but that doesn’t apply to me.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8964]

Ok, I’ll play along. Let’s take a look at this place on the upper east side that rents for $2,175 and is 1,000 sqft. Link at bottom. I picked this place because it is comparable to the cost it would be to rent my current house in the Austin burbs. It’s actually about 200 more but would take less maintenance such as lawn care. Close enough to call it even.
The wife and I probably spend an average of 1,000 a month on normal cars when you factor payment, gas, oil changes, maintenance, repairs, and insurance. It could actually be more than that. Transportation costs in nyc I’ll estimate at 500 a month for two people. I’m coming out 500 ahead now.
I work in public education and would get about a 1,000 a month raise after taxes as best as I can figure but that’s a guess. My wife would make the same salary but pay more in taxes. She doesn’t make enough for it to be a significant hit though. Let’s say 500 a month to be on the safe side.
Now I’m 1000 at month ahead in NYC. Subtract 500 a month for shit being more expensive there and I’m 500 a month ahead. What am I missing other than the cost of a divorce because we are living in less space?
https://www.apartments.com/312-e-62nd-st-new-york-ny-unit-2/zw6w34x/

Insurance for 2 cars is 100-150 max. You use 850 on gas, oil changes and repairs?

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

27 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Insurance for 2 cars is 100-150 max. You use 850 on gas, oil changes and repairs?

Car payment for 2 cars: 600

Insurance: 100

Gas: 150

Oil changes/maintenance average: 50

Other: news tires, car washes, registration average 50

Total 950

I pay cash for cars but estimate that’s about what I would pay per month for the cost of the car over the lifetime.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Larry T. Spider

[RDCanecutter 26856]

On 1/25/2020 at 7:13 AM, 52-80 said:

Domaine du Douche'

Cracker Castle

[next2naus 439]

5 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

Ok, I’ll play along. Let’s take a look at this place on the upper east side that rents for $2,175 and is 1,000 sqft. Link at bottom. I picked this place because it is comparable to the cost it would be to rent my current house in the Austin burbs. It’s actually about 200 more but would take less maintenance such as lawn care. Close enough to call it even.

The wife and I probably spend an average of 1,000 a month on normal cars when you factor payment, gas, oil changes, maintenance, repairs, and insurance. It could actually be more than that. Transportation costs in nyc I’ll estimate at 500 a month for two people. I’m coming out 500 ahead now.

I work in public education and would get about a 1,000 a month raise after taxes as best as I can figure but that’s a guess. My wife would make the same salary but pay more in taxes. She doesn’t make enough for it to be a significant hit though. Let’s say 500 a month to be on the safe side.

Now I’m 1000 at month ahead in NYC. Subtract 500 a month for shit being more expensive there and I’m 500 a month ahead. What am I missing other than the cost of a divorce because we are living in less space?

https://www.apartments.com/312-e-62nd-st-new-york-ny-unit-2/zw6w34x/

that kitchen is tiny as is that bathroom, I mean small. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19279]

52 minutes ago, next2naus said:

that kitchen is tiny as is that bathroom, I mean small. 

That is a fake listing.  That is a listing to get people to call that broker.  He will say, oh, that is gone, but I have this 300 sq ft studio on the 6th floor of a walkup for the same price.  Suckers.

[Bevo 13831]

5 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

That is a fake listing.  That is a listing to get people to call that broker.  He will say, oh, that is gone, but I have this 300 sq ft studio on the 6th floor of a walkup for the same price.  Suckers.

Exactly. I lived in Palo Alto and my first apartment there was 800sq ft and I paid $1000/month. San Francisco for something comparable was about 50% more. I called last week and my 1 bedroom now goes for $2100. My brother had a 1 bedroom in Manhattan at the time and was paying 5X what I was paying in Palo Alto. I had a deck and a pool. He had a doorman in a high rise. Bottom line is that you aren't getting a 1000 sq ft apartment on the upper east side for $2175. It will be double that. And if you have a car in Manhattan, you will also be paying for parking.

[TwiceHorn 31996]

21 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

That is a fake listing.  That is a listing to get people to call that broker.  He will say, oh, that is gone, but I have this 300 sq ft studio on the 6th floor of a walkup for the same price.  Suckers.

The use of fisheye lenses and tricky photography is rampant in real estate everywhere.

But they got some super special wide angle funk going on in the NYC photos.  Lord have mercy.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19279]

2 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

The use of fisheye lenses and tricky photography is rampant in real estate everywhere.

But they got some super special wide angle funk going on in the NYC photos.  Lord have mercy.

This as well.  There is a reason they do not put dimensions on floorplans in NYC.  

When I got the keys to my apartment, I had the floorplan, but not the dimensions (I had seen it), but memory without measurements is hard to buy furniture for.  Once I got hte keys, I brought a tapemeasure and found it from a Square Footage perspective, it was actually bigger than I had thought, which was good.  It is a big 1 bdrm, with a massive kitchen, but still just under 1000 sq ft.  Bedroom is actually bigger than in my house in Houston.

[DaysOff 8157]

Exactly. I lived in Palo Alto and my first apartment there was 800sq ft and I paid $1000/month. San Francisco for something comparable was about 50% more. I called last week and my 1 bedroom now goes for $2100. My brother had a 1 bedroom in Manhattan at the time and was paying 5X what I was paying in Palo Alto. I had a deck and a pool. He had a doorman in a high rise. Bottom line is that you aren't getting a 1000 sq ft apartment on the upper east side for $2175. It will be double that. And if you have a car in Manhattan, you will also be paying for parking.

Guess we can close the books on that one.

[gmr548 16681]

7 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

my friends who lived in hell kitchen would routinely have to rent a car and drive to the burbs for “Walmart” Runs. Things you just can’t carry on the subway.

I don't know how long ago your friends lived there, but there is this really cool website called Amazon...

[FondrenRoad 4378]

57 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

I don't know how long ago your friends lived there, but there is this really cool website called Amazon...

I've been in NYC for 20 years and have been to Walmart exactly 0 times. 

There is Target now. There has always been Jack's and K-mart.  Also, Amazon is the same price everywhere. 

[FondrenRoad 4378]

On 1/24/2020 at 8:59 PM, Stunns38 said:

 

Iast guess....Ridgewood...though it may be getting too hip for you now with the Bushwick spillover.

Or

Maspeth , lol. Have co-workers that have lived there for 40 years.

There is a chili’s in middle village though.

PS, LIC is rather large and parts of it are misconstrued as Astoria.

 

Nope and nope. Technically all of Astoria is in LIC as well as any other neighborhoods with 111 zip codes. The post office allows both neighborhood and pre-merger city names.  The LIC neighborhood is 11101 alone though. Most of Queens is in greater Flushing or Jamaica. Ridgewood and Maspeth, for example, also both have Flushing, NY addresses. 

There are actually probably a bunch of Chili's in NYC. I've never looked for one though so I don't notice them. 

 

[Stunns38 3763]

I don't know how long ago your friends lived there, but there is this really cool website called Amazon...

And Walmart.com is good there too.

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

Let’s say the last listing I posted is fake, which I can believe. Use this one and keep all the numbers the same. It still seems like I personally would come out ahead. I can see how other people, especially those with kids, would come out behind.

https://www.trulia.com/p/ny/brooklyn/139-17th-st-2-brooklyn-ny-11215--2441129821

[Bevo 13831]

30 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

Let’s say the last listing I posted is fake, which I can believe. Use this one and keep all the numbers the same. It still seems like I personally would come out ahead. I can see how other people, especially those with kids, would come out behind.

https://www.trulia.com/p/ny/brooklyn/139-17th-st-2-brooklyn-ny-11215--2441129821

Thank god I own. That place looks like it sucks and is next to some extremely busy roads. It kind of reminds me of the place where Jake and Elwood lived in Chicago.

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

9 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Thank god I own. That place looks like it sucks and is next to some extremely busy roads. It kind of reminds me of the place where Jake and Elwood lived in Chicago.

Sure but I live in a nice house in a cul de sac in the burbs that many would scoff at compared to living in nyc. Different strokes....

[Thatguy 9295]

I've been calm. I have enjoyed the discussion with most here.
You have just been a shithead.  Every single post you have made has contained a personal attack. Only now are you trying to come up with any real discussion because you got your feelings hurt when someone attacked you back. 
Still though, personal attacks aside. You aren't adding real or new value.  The responses to your latest post are already present in this thread. Even the $79 difference has been brought up. Perhaps now, you'll go back and read about the fact that NYC's higher income is factored into the article's conclusion.
I don't really have a dog in the hunt. I'm just backing the article. It makes sense on those two costs.  And I find it funny that y'all have a desperate need for Houston to be cheaper. Wonder why that is?  I like where I live whether it's more expensive or not.  Do you not?  I also find it funny when people move to Manhattan and think everywhere around is Manhattan priced.  

You've lost your mind in this thread. You've said people dont move to Houston for a better life? Lol. Half of California moved here for a better life. Most of South Florida was NYers looking for something better. For every person who wants the hustle and bustle of a city that never sleeps, there is someone who wants the peace and tranquility that comes with life here. I hate the cold. I hate snow. I ABSOLUTELY love cars. I have 6 of them. I love to just hop in a car and cruise. Maybe test the HP every once in awhile late at night with a quick freeway blast. You can't do that anywhere in NY ever, and no amount of money is going to change that.

We haven't talked about the desire to feel safe. Wanting a community feel, better schools, or simply just to be away from it all. I mean, as I type this I am sitting in my house and it is dead silent. I can't hear a single thing, and its glorious!! There are a 1000 reasons why people move from cities like NY that have nothing to do with the coat of living.

And the cost of living argument? Really? I can't understand how that is even remotely a topic. If you wanted to rent an apt in central Houston, close to everything, without a car, it sure as hell is going to be cheaper than it would be in NY.





Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[FondrenRoad 4378]

6 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

This is fucking awesome.  Yes, the super rich in NYC don’t live in penthouses that take up a floor or two of massive high rises, or 10,000 square foot brownstones on the upper east side.  They’re all hunting for that 1,500 square foot apartment for $1,500,000 in fucking Queens.  Nobody wants space or nice things in their home!  New Yorkers are just wired differently that way.  Not a materialistic or luxurious bunch at all, those NYC folk!

And, btw, a quick realtor.com search says Forest Hills and Rego Park are literally twice as expensive or more than what you’ve been claiming;  even $1,000,000 gets you an old ass smallish house in those neighborhoods, and the $550,000 you quoted earlier gets a broom closet or a shithole.   

You are again operating under the false assumption that housing is a fungible good. The "broom closets" and "shitholes," both false assessments btw, are equivalent to middle class generic Houston single family housing because that is where middle class people live so that they can be in a place where density is high enough that mass transit and urban amenities exist. The million dollar houses that aren't historic are mostly upzoned for larger buildings. 

Funny that you don't make this mistake at the high end.  You understand that the super rich make the choice to live in high rise buildings with other tenants, and that they don't tear down those high rise buildings or historic wall to wall brownstones in favor of a single family home on an acre of land.

The real problem is that you fail to understand the components of housing value.  The "trade off" works in both directions. Size of housing is only one component, and it isn't even the most important within Houston itself. School zoning is more important there.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

5 hours ago, Thatguy said:

You've lost your mind in this thread. You've said people dont move to Houston for a better life? Lol. Half of California moved here for a better life. Most of South Florida was NYers looking for something better. For every person who wants the hustle and bustle of a city that never sleeps, there is someone who wants the peace and tranquility that comes with life here. I hate the cold. I hate snow. I ABSOLUTELY love cars. I have 6 of them. I love to just hop in a car and cruise. Maybe test the HP every once in awhile late at night with a quick freeway blast. You can't do that anywhere in NY ever, and no amount of money is going to change that.

We haven't talked about the desire to feel safe. Wanting a community feel, better schools, or simply just to be away from it all. I mean, as I type this I am sitting in my house and it is dead silent. I can't hear a single thing, and its glorious!! There are a 1000 reasons why people move from cities like NY that have nothing to do with the coat of living.

And the cost of living argument? Really? I can't understand how that is even remotely a topic. If you wanted to rent an apt in central Houston, close to everything, without a car, it sure as hell is going to be cheaper than it would be in NY.





Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

You love cars. NYC isn't for you.  

We can talk about the desire to feel safe. NYC is safer by every metric.  Houston has a murder rate almost three times as high, a violent crime rate twice as high, and a property crime rate three times as high.

Also, most NYC neighborhoods have more of a "community" feel than Houston neighborhoods.  That's what happens when you actually live in the same buildings and walk on the same streets.  There seems to be this view that everyone lives like a tourist or Wall Street transient in NYC.  Tourists pay tourist prices at tourist places. Transients don't stay long enough to find community. 

[Bolero88 286]

5 hours ago, Thatguy said:

You've lost your mind in this thread. You've said people dont move to Houston for a better life? Lol. Half of California moved here for a better life. Most of South Florida was NYers looking for something better. For every person who wants the hustle and bustle of a city that never sleeps, there is someone who wants the peace and tranquility that comes with life here. I hate the cold. I hate snow. I ABSOLUTELY love cars. I have 6 of them. I love to just hop in a car and cruise. Maybe test the HP every once in awhile late at night with a quick freeway blast. You can't do that anywhere in NY ever, and no amount of money is going to change that.

We haven't talked about the desire to feel safe. Wanting a community feel, better schools, or simply just to be away from it all. I mean, as I type this I am sitting in my house and it is dead silent. I can't hear a single thing, and its glorious!! There are a 1000 reasons why people move from cities like NY that have nothing to do with the coat of living.

And the cost of living argument? Really? I can't understand how that is even remotely a topic. If you wanted to rent an apt in central Houston, close to everything, without a car, it sure as hell is going to be cheaper than it would be in NY.





Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

NYC is way safer than Houston. Houston is pretty damn violent, and the property crime rate is pretty bad too. 

[FondrenRoad 4378]

7 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

I completely understand wanting to live in NYC and preferring that lifestyle to a less densely populated city.  But purely on the numbers having to buy a car in Texas doesn’t make up for having to rent instead of owning equity in your home in NYC and/or tacking an extra $800,000 onto your mortgage for a comparable property in NYC.  NYC is absolutely more expensive (as every metric except this one clickbait article agrees), and its appeal is holistic rather than being some kind of bargain for penny pinchers.

Neither place is being viewed as a bargain for penny pinchers by the article. The fact remains that people actually spend, on average, less for housing in NYC than many of you believe they pay.  It's still more than Houston, but it isn't nearly as much more than Houston as y'all want to believe.  Also, cost differences on groceries and other goods aren't that different either.  Instead, this is another place where Manhattan can be twice as expensive as the rest of NYC, and once again, most of you seem to have never been to NYC outside of Manhattan.  Child care is a mixed bag, and my own day care expenses are lower than Houston, but overall NYC is likely higher. This is offset by universal pre-K, after school care, and school lunch. Something Houston will likely never offer. Restaurants and entertainment are absolutely more expensive throughout NYC though. And the way some people eat out, this alone can be enough to set NYC apart. 

Middle class people don't have 800k mortgages. They buy co-ops. Or they buy 1 of 10 condo units after a developer buys that 800k house, tears it down and builds a multifamily building. 

 

[TwiceHorn 31996]

7 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

I completely understand wanting to live in NYC and preferring that lifestyle to a less densely populated city.  But purely on the numbers having to buy a car in Texas doesn’t make up for having to rent instead of owning equity in your home in NYC and/or tacking an extra $800,000 onto your mortgage for a comparable property in NYC.  NYC is absolutely more expensive (as every metric except this one clickbait article agrees), and its appeal is holistic rather than being some kind of bargain for penny pinchers.

This raises an interesting comparison for Larry.

Larry may be $500 ahead, but every mortgage payment in Texas includes a saving component, while he has to eek savings out of that plus 500 in NYC.  Depending on where Larry is in his mortgage, that could be fairly significant.

I am not completely sold that owning is superior to renting across the board, but there's a meaningful difference here.

Just for shits n giggles, I looked up Archie Bunker type places in Queens, Corona to be exact.  Looks like about 1.5M.

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19279]

30 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

This raises an interesting comparison for Larry.

Larry may be $500 ahead, but every mortgage payment in Texas includes a saving component, while he has to eek savings out of that plus 500 in NYC.  Depending on where Larry is in his mortgage, that could be fairly significant.

I am not completely sold that owning is superior to renting across the board, but there's a meaningful difference here.

Just for shits n giggles, I looked up Archie Bunker type places in Queens, Corona to be exact.  Looks like about 1.5M.

 

I wanted to buy a fixer upper in Astoria.  I was looking at 1.2M, plus about 250-300k in renos.  Fuck that.

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

In my comparison I was using a rent price for both. However, it does seem easier to buy here. I bought 10 years ago and am in a much better financial position because of it. It would have taken me significantly longer to buy in nyc even with the theoretical car savings.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

3 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

I wanted to buy a fixer upper in Astoria.  I was looking at 1.2M, plus about 250-300k in renos.  Fuck that.

Right, but again you are trying to buy a single family home in an area where they are being phased out.  Most of Astoria's single families, even though R4 (or R3) in character, are zoned R5B, or R5 infill, which allow for 3 story multifamily, or R6 which allows for even larger apartment buildings.  Only a 2 block portion of Astoria, next to the power plant past Ditmars is zoned R4.  Compare this to East Elmhurst which is zoned nearly entirely R4.  And even R4 allows 2 family, so if you are buying a true single family, you are still buying that potential for a 2 family even in East Elmhurst.

In short, the house you looked at wasn't priced to fix up.  It was priced to tear down and build bigger.  In NYC near the subway, if you underutilize land, you pay a premium for doing so.  And you can certainly do this, but what you are doing is the equivalent of buying a lot at the corner of Westheimer and Post Oak and putting a single house on it.  In Houston, the market says build bigger there.  In NYC, both the market and zoning say build bigger there.

[52-80 19374]

What's the New York equivalent of Greenspoint?

[FondrenRoad 4378]

55 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

In my comparison I was using a rent price for both. However, it does seem easier to buy here. I bought 10 years ago and am in a much better financial position because of it. It would have taken me significantly longer to buy in nyc even with the theoretical car savings.

I've never bought property in Houston, but it can be daunting in NYC.  Agent rates can be high and inflexible, and they are pressured to get you to spend the max amount you can afford.  At some point, you also have to decide what you really want to afford and steer them that way instead of letting them steer.  In Houston, with some exceptions, you are also mostly buying what you see rather than land potential.  Do you want to pay more for that single family on a block that had 3 single families replaced with multifamily buildings this year?  Or do you want to buy one of the condo/co-ops available?  Do you want to redevelop and scale up the property yourself which is even more daunting?   And if you do buy a condo or co-op, co-ops also have a burdensome intrusive interview and screening process for purchasing which I doubt exists anywhere in Houston.

[Stunns38 3763]

What's the New York equivalent of Greenspoint?

There isn’t a true equivalent in the city but I’d say the low income part of Yonkers.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

4 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

You can buy a million dollar home in San Angelo, or Tyler, or Jackson, Mississippi.  They would be giant mansions.  Your argument is basically, “Well, in NYC you can also buy a home for one million dollars.  Sure, it would be a one bedroom in a mediocre part of Queens.  But a million dollars is a million dollars, plus you don’t need a car, ergo NYC is really not more expensive than those places.”

No, what I'm saying is that you can buy a million dollar home zoned R5 in Queens, and you can tear it down and build a 3 story apartment building with 3 or 4 units in it.  And the market already exists to rent each of those units for between 1500 and 3000 dollars a month.  If you buy it in Astoria, you can rent the units for much more than that.  In San Angelo, Tyler, or Jackson, where you spend a million dollars, I imagine zoning or covenants restrict building an apartment building, and even if they didn't, you aren't going to be able to rent anything to anyone.

Also, none of the neighborhoods that have been mentioned are mediocre.  And only LIC has 1 bedrooms approaching a million dollars.  And not only is LIC not mediocre, that 1 million would get you a brand new apartment in a luxury tower with sweeping views of Manhattan.  

[FondrenRoad 4378]

15 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

You can buy a million dollar home in San Angelo, or Tyler, or Jackson, Mississippi.  They would be giant mansions.  Your argument is basically, “Well, in NYC you can also buy a home for one million dollars.  Sure, it would be a one bedroom in a mediocre part of Queens.  But a million dollars is a million dollars, plus you don’t need a car, ergo NYC is really not more expensive than those places.”

See, this is why remaining lower density housing in LIC is expensive.  It isn't because people are expected to buy them to move in.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/21/queens-homeowner-rejects-million-dollar-payout-for-his-house/

Astoria and other similar neighborhoods in Queens are priced for the same thing, albeit on a smaller scale.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

24 minutes ago, Stunns38 said:

 

There isn’t a true equivalent in the city but I’d say the low income part of Yonkers.

 

Crime is low everywhere in NYC.  There is nothing like Greenspoint.  Hunts Point can be bad, but you could walk around it at night and probably not catch anything but herpes.  Even large NYCHA projects are relatively safe compared to a Houston bad neighborhood.  The Irvington, NJ and Vailsburg, Newark area is worse than Yonkers' bad areas, IMO.  Still, violent crime and gun violence in bad parts of Houston are higher.

There are also places like The Hole in Brooklyn, but is more of a no-man's land than anything else.

For comparison, in 2017, NYC had 292 murders.  Houston had 269.  Not only is the murder rate much higher in Houston, it is also coming close to beating NYC in actual murders.

Edited January 27, 2020 by FondrenRoad

[workswithseed 2201]

On 1/24/2020 at 6:34 AM, TwiceHorn said:

Can someone figure out how I can live in Vancouver on the cheap?  While more or less duplicating my inner-Dallas-burb life?

TIA!

Well it depends if you live closer to Portland or not. 

[workswithseed 2201]

On 1/25/2020 at 5:44 PM, RPM said:

Just saw a story on Dallas being more expensive than NYC. I think this is a very clever scheme to keep people from moving here.

Haha, you live so fucking far from Dallas. How bad is traffic in Decatur?

[RPM 26567]

1 hour ago, workswithseed said:

Haha, you live so fucking far from Dallas. How bad is traffic in Decatur?

The rock trucks suck.

[workswithseed 2201]

6 minutes ago, RPM said:

The rock trucks suck.

You won't even see one and somehow your windshield gets hit by a pebble.

Edited January 27, 2020 by workswithseed
I'll buy a whole lot of'em

[next2naus 439]

18 hours ago, FondrenRoad said:

I've been in NYC for 20 years and have been to Walmart exactly 0 times. 

There is Target now. There has always been Jack's and K-mart.  Also, Amazon is the same price everywhere. 

jacks? how poor are you?

[FondrenRoad 4378]

31 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

You keep listing reasons why NYC is more expensive, and then denying that NYC is more expensive.

Yes, NYC has much higher demand for real estate that drives the price up.  Yes, you can build a high rise or multi family unit on the same property and find lots of renters, which makes it more expensive to acquire the property.  Yes, there are more people wanting to live in NYC, greater wealth, closer proximity to urban amenities, etc.  All of these things are true.  And they all make NYC more expensive.

Again, you're missing the point.  NYC housing is more expensive.  Even the OP article states that.  But what you are talking about when it comes to NYC is acquiring a lot zoned for redevelopment and then intentionally underutilizing it.  We have never been talking about what it costs to be a landlord, but what you guys have been doing is talking about buying a place zoned for a multifamily rental property and living in it by yourself. 

Generally, and in the article, we are talking about what the average person spends monthly to buy or rent a housing unit.  In Houston, this is a single family home.  In NYC, this is a 1 to 3 bdrm apartment/condo/coop.  If you want it to be a single family home, then NYC living simply isn't for you.  There's nothing wrong with that either.  In Houston, it would be much more expensive to buy 4 lots in a mature community and combine them.  In NYC, you guys seem to think you should be able to do the equivalent because a single family house on a lot close to mass transit is exactly that.  It is one housing unit occupying the typical space of several housing units.  In some of these places, undeveloped lots are even more expensive than developed lots because the teardown expense is unnecessary.

So yes, land is much more valuable and expensive in NYC than it is in Houston.  Housing is more expensive, but not by that much.  It isn't that hard of a concept to grasp once you realize housing doesn't directly equal land or even usable square feet.  It isn't that Archie Bunker's house is so expensive because only doctors, bankers lawyers are moving into them.  Its that Archie Bunker's house's days are numbered.