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i own in queens
did you have a neighborhood in mind? getting a mortgage is no big deal. part of the process is the underwriter checks the building financials.
one thing to watch out for is ask for past maintenance increases and how much they were. a good building will have current maintenace of around 20% to 30% over 2001 levels. a poorly managed building will be close to twice 2001 levels.
my wife likes to go to open houses just to look and in some poorly managed building the mortgage + maintenace is close to what it costs to buy an attached SFH in the area.
i live in rego park in a 1br i bought in 2003. back then my maintence was $495 with gas/electric and one AC included. Now it's $564. In 2001 it was around $400 and you have to account for the insurance increases and higher utility costs
i also suggest keeping the downpayment to 20% and using the rest of the money for renovations since a lot of places will still be in 1960's to 1970's condition.
for values, i think they are a little frothy but i don't expect huge declines in values like in the early 1990's because the same conditions aren't there
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