New Yorkers May Hay While The Sun Shines

January 8th, 2008

People in New York have been taking advantage of the recent foreclosure crisis and shifting to the suburbs because of the current disparity of real estate prices between the city and the suburbs. For example, Stu woods and Carole Gass chose Norwalk to move to after selling their Upper West Side co-op for around $900,000. You can see them in the picture above packing their things at their co-op.

More and more people are finding that the high real estate prices in Manhattan are a good opportunity to cash out and get to the suburbs, making a killing in the process on the difference of the homes. The inventory in the suburbs is growing, causing prices to fall. People are using this to their advantage, buying homes which are either bigger in size, or pocketing the difference. Even people who didn’t think that suburban life would suit them are finding similar city dwelling people already living in the neighbourhood they have chosen, making the transition for them even easier.

Stu and Carole didn’t think they were the type to leave Manhattan in a hurry, having lived in their two bedroom apartment in upper West side for over two decades. They sold their house in just two hours at the first open house held by Jill Sloane, a broker from Halstead Property. They have just bought themselves a three bedroom ranch in Norwalk for around $700,000, and are planning to spend their holidays unpacking their stuff, revelling in the fact that they didn’t even need a mortgage to buy their new home – they bought it outright, and made a tidy little profit as well!

Carole says “A couple of years ago, I think it wouldn’t have been an even swap,” she added. “We would have had to pay much more.” They feel that even after train fare and taxes, they are going to save an easy $1,000 every month. Despite rising foreclosures and delinquent owners, property prices in the city don’t stay down for too long, feels Dottie Herman, whi is the President of Prudential Douglas Elliman. She adds that “You can negotiate better in the suburbs because their market is — at best — flat, and there’s a lot of inventory,”

However, the situation is different in the suburbs, where foreclosures and auctions have caused many communities to have large empty houses within. Prices just don’t seem to be picking up here at all.