A young agent who works for me at V&N recently got married and moved into the luxury building at 1500 on Teaneck Rd. She was telling me all about the amenities of the apartments, the people she was meeting, the interesting smells drifting through the halls every night and then she said, “My mom told me I’m crazy to be paying so much rent.” Her mom continued “For the amount of money you spend every month on this place you could go buy yourself a house!”
Suddenly I was 22 again and just moving into the Terrace Circle apartments in Teaneck. The rent was $193 per month and we all thought we were overpaying for a third floor walk-up. When I finished my first year on the lease and they raised our rent to over $200 my mother became very animated/agitated and exclaimed to me, “For that kind of money you could buy a house already!”
I didn’t listen to her right away. The timing just wasn’t right, but shortly after my second child was born we purchased our first home on Edgewood Ave for $65,000 in 1975. Ironically enough, my parents had been renting the same walk up attached house in Boro Park for over 30 years. When they heard we were moving it wasn’t long before they jumped on the bandwagon and bought their first house in Flatbush not far from Ave J on E22nd for $57,000. They were excited to finally own a home but buyer’s remorse was beginning to set in and my mother started complaining that Mrs. Greenberg took them for a ride with the high price they paid.
It was the money she made from selling that home (almost 16 times what she paid) that allowed my parents to move in and transform their new home in Teaneck to a one floor living situation in the early 2000s.
Why do I share this story now? We are hearing funny things about the real estate market these days and the stats are only adding to the confusion. We saw in last week’s article how average sale prices are up almost 20% from last year at this time and this week, stories of the coming inflation dot the pages of our favorite news sources. I wonder what the wise mothers would tell us, but it sure sounds like now may be a good time to stop paying rent and buy a home!
Nechama Polak is the Broker of Record and Owner of V and N Group LLC located at 1401 Palisade Avenue, Teaneck. [email protected]
201 826 8809.
