Corcoran: Try Brooklyn Heights!

By on March 21, 2008 7:38 am in Uncategorized

Here's a nugget from Barbara Corcoran's column in today's NY Daily News:

Q. I am looking to buy an apartment in New York within an hour's commute of Manhattan. I'm 25, make about $50,000 a year and want to be in a neighborhood with other young people. What can I afford and where should I look?

A. You should be able to buy a place for about $230,000 to $280,000. That depends on how much cash you have to put down.

Brooklyn Heights is most convenient, only a train stop away from Manhattan on the No. 2, 3, 4 and 5 trains, as well as the A, C, M, R and W trains. You can buy a studio co-op there without breaking your budget.

If you don't mind a longer commute, you'll get more space for your money further away — in Kensington or Clinton Hill, where studios cost $200K and 1BRs can be bought for $250K. But it's a one-hour train ride to midtown.

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  • fishermb

    If you want to live in true Brooklyn Heights, I only see 2 studios for under $275,000 according to NY Times property search. The studio at 100 Remsen looks like a college dorm from the 70’s and has a Murphy Bed to boot. The one at 60 Remsen looks to be in better shape, but absurdly small.

    Thinking financially here…if you put down 10%, a $250k apartment is going to leave you with a monthly payment of about $2,000 (mortgage + maintenance & taxes).

    If you’re pulling in $50k a year, that’s about $37,500 after taxes, less $2,000 a month leaves you with $13,000 (assuming you don’t have a 401k or similar) for the rest of your living expenses, which will not get you far if you’re spending all your time in BH and Manhattan.

    Is that the best advice Barbara can give?

  • Bart

    And what about saving the $25,000 for the down payment! With today’s interest rates for savings accounts going lower, I would say this person is at least a couple of years away from an actual purchase. Unless they can get an infusion of cash from their parents. Most of the people who buy places are in their 30’s and 40’s because by that time their careers are established and they can generate enough wealth to buy. New York, especially established parts of the city, is not a place for a person out of college to move to a buy a place.

    Also I don’t recommend the Heights for single people who are looking to spend most of their social time in Manhattan. Most people who live here are couples or families. The young single people are students. Williamsburg is better for young, single, professionals.

  • embee

    Lousy advice from Barbara all around! Agree with Bart that this is hardly the place for twentysomething singles. Besides Wmsbg/Green Point, there are so many other more fun neighborhoods that have at least a few more things going on, from Fort Green to Cobble Hill.

    Still, I do puzzle over the fact that Brooklyn Heights isn’t nearly as “desirable” to many as living in Manhattan, when it’s one subway stop to wall street, two to tribeca, etc.

  • No One of Consequence

    10% down? What co-op would let you do that?

  • travy

    broker scum

  • bococa

    Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill studios are more like $325k and up. 2 studios in our Heights co-op just sold for $330k and $3900k – both are under 500sf and we’re not a new development or a doorman building. We bought our 500sf studio for under $100k, 10 years ago. It would list for $335k today. Babs is quite off the mark with her advice.

  • billy

    50,000 a year does get you very far any more in brooklyn.
    try hooking up with a wealthy boyfriend. if that fails, get into a better paid line of work. do something cause you in trouble girl!

  • Sally

    Embee, Fort Greene (and even Clinton Hill) is still not safe enough for a single girl to live alone. I dated someone who lived in Taffee Lofts, and people routinely got robbed INSIDE the building at KNIFEPOINT.

  • Peck

    I love taking the W from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

  • statestreeter

    The walk through the tunnel to Whitehall is a drag, but look on the bright side – cheaper than a gym membership!

  • http://none Carroll Gardens Girl

    WTF kind of crack is this Babs b*tch smoking?
    If apartments were that cheap in the nabe, I’d have a few by now!

    $50K salary? sounds like she’ll be renting for life…unless she moves out of NYC.

    I agree with Billy, hook up with a wealthy BF or get a more lucrative career!

    And BK Heights for singles? Yeah, more like single mothers.
    Def not prime hook up spot, unless you’re walking distance to Floyd’s.