So, we pandas are picky about where we live. For the entire "living together" portion of our relationship, M and I have lived in high rises with door people, maintenance people, in building gyms, etc. We've grown a bit accustomed to the lifestyle and the general lack of things to worry about. Something's broken? Put in a service ticket and someone comes to fix it. Need a workout? Walk downstairs and use our gym. Getting packages delivered? No problem, our door people sign for them and store them for our return. Not only that, but the areas that we have lived in have been spectacular. Walking distance to work, walking distance to entertainment, walking distance to great food, walking distance to pretty much everything!
Now, however, M and I are in a bit of a conundrum. At some point in our lives we're going to want little panda cubs to raise and mold into our own images. However, the tiny dwelling we currently reside in would not suit that. Thus, we are on the hunt for bigger, better dwellings within to call our home. Our biggest question right now is whether to rent longer or buy.
The case for buying is quite simple. Interest rates are lower than they've ever been in our lifetimes, and there's really nowhere for them to go but up. However, we're running into so many dilemmas and questions that the process itself has become quite frustrating.
Do we go for a condo? That would allow us to keep our accustomed luxuries like a door person, gym, etc, but it would also mean that, on top of the mortgage, we'd be paying common charges for building upkeep that in many cases are equal to rent. Not only that, but we can't afford those glitzy condos in the super swank areas that would allow us to continue being able to walk to work, entertainment, or tons of awesome restaurants. Plus, if we want to have multiple children, and they're not the same gender, we'd need a 3 bedroom unit at a minimum, and we REALLY don't have the kind of money that any nice area would require for one of those.
If we don't get a condo, do we go for a house? A house would most likely cost less than a condo to buy, and it would offer us a lot more space and rooms with which to spread our junk. But houses are really only common in the outer boroughs, and even then they tend to be older. Most things I've looked at on the market within NYC were built some time before the Great Depression. Sure, people have remodeled and fixed things up, but come on, those houses are older than any of our relatives...
So then the question of where to buy comes up. Aside from cost and size, we need to make sure our new home is in a safe area and one with good schools. We really don't want to move with children so finding an area with excellent schools is very important to us. After all, what good are kids if they end up dumber than rocks? Of course, some of that will fall on us, but we can only do so much. Anyway, where are all of the good schools? Well, Battery Park City, but that's really expensive. Parts of Brooklyn and Queens are good too, but they're also expensive and also don't have too many places up for sale. So then we started looking at places just outside the city. Lower Westchester has very good schools, and the houses there are enormous compared to what we could get here in the city. However, are we really ready to move to the suburbs? We both grew up in suburban locales so it's not like we've never been through that before, but neither of us really feels ready to "settle in" to that type of lifestyle just yet. But with all things considered, that might end up being the best option.
So in the end, we're faced with some major questions. I would think that, based upon how little time we have to really look, do research, and pool resources, we may just rent for another year. With the way the economy is going, the interest rates don't look to be going up any time soon, and that would also allow us to save up a little more so we can maybe buy a nicer place than we'd be able to afford now. But no matter what we decide, I can almost guarantee that none of these headaches will be anywhere near as bad as when we actually have to move. That's something I'm definitely not looking forward to...
