Posted Jul 13, 2020, 2:56 PM
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The City
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Chicago region
Posts: 21,375
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
I live in NYC, I'm on the older end of millennial, I have several friends that just had babies during the pandemic, and I can't think of a single person that I know who is considering a move to the suburbs of NYC. If people are thinking of leaving at all, they are considering moving to another city for either weather, cost of living, jobs, or some combination of those reasons.
ETA: I just thought of two people I know who decamped for the suburbs this year, but they both left before the pandemic.
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Bruised by the pandemic, New Yorkers head for the suburbs
Thomas URBAIN
July 13, 2020
Quote:
New York (AFP) - The trauma of the coronavirus pandemic is pushing New Yorkers to move out of the city in ever greater numbers, sending real estate prices through the roof in surrounding areas while leaving behind vacant apartments and fire-sale prices for real estate.
"I wasn't ready to go yet," said Nick Barnhorst, recalling how he felt in February.
At 41, he had been a New York resident for 11 years, and loved the city. He had thought about moving to the suburbs to accommodate his growing family, but not for another year at least.
In just weeks, though, his wife became pregnant with their third child, and the coronavirus was ravaging New York.
That's when it hit Nick: "We got to get the hell out of here as soon as possible."
Next week, Nick expects to close on a house in Mamaroneck, a posh suburban town north of the city.
"I always imagined that I would leave kicking and screaming and I'd really been resistant to the idea of moving out, and now I couldn't be more excited," he said.
A friend of Nick's took even more decisive action. He left the city in early March with his wife, who was eight months pregnant, to spend a weekend with his in-laws in Massachusetts. They never returned.
Nick's friend sold his apartment in New York and bought in Bronxville, just north of the city in Westchester County.
"Being captive in a small apartment with two kids for four months while the city has been shut down, and none of the things that made the city the city has been going, it feels kind of easy to walk away at this point," said Nick.
"But I keep having this thought in the back of my head that a year or two from now I'm going to say: what were we doing? Why did we ever leave?"
With the suburban real estate market bubbling, finding a new home was not easy and there was no room for negotiation.
"We felt that we had to come in at the asking price or else we were going to lose it because there was so much interest," Nick said.
In the sought-after town of Montclair, New Jersey, it is not unusual these days to see houses going for 20 percent over the asking price, according to data tracked by Richard Stanton, a real estate agent there.
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https://news.yahoo.com/bruised-pande...143523819.html
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