Category: loc

purely about location

street cleanliness #waterfront=luxury #BayonneParks

Posted on by tiger40490

See also my Chinese writing on Edison street cleanliness in https://tanbintpy.wordpress.com/2017/07/24/edison-scorecard/

Abandoned homes, broken windows are a major part of street cleanliness. Dilaepidated buildings and damaged sidewalk is also an aspect.

Clean street means a lot to me, psychologically. It gives me a sense of

  • law and order — dirty streets feel like lawless
  • ownership — not abandoned by the local authority
  • commitment — by community
  • education level — this usually correlates with income level
  • street safety
  • wealth and decency of the owners
  • local government effectiveness

Waterfront locations have the highest cleanliness, Presumably because it’s a park, not a street, so there is more funding, commitment to keep it presentable. But do I want to pay a premium, when the water front park is factored into the psf, like a premium for the NY skyline view from my window?

Except Scarsdale, I feel most inland streets will never be that clean, but clean enough for me. I think this applies to

  • Bayonne
  • white plains
  • Sunset Park
  • grove st station
  • Becky’s place near Boston Chinatown
  • Cambridge

In these neighborhoods, street cleanliness depends more on house owners, less on local government

 

Chinese grocery !! available ] every location

Posted on by tiger40490

In Singapore, I’m so used to walking to shops.

Zhu Xuyu pointed out that this is a non-issue and should not be a factor at all, because everywhere in the country you can find anything you need if you drive for a few minutes.

However, East Asian supermarket isn’t so widely available. Xuyu said he used to drive for 40 minutes to Queens for grocery shopping.

Posted in loc

consider cheaper states,more family-oriented

Posted on by tiger40490

Consider parts of NJ close to JC. I could focus on jobs in JC and exclude NYC, to cut down my commute. I could then buy in a nice NJ suburb.

Consider Boston.

Other states may offer shorter commute, more space, less congestion, possibly better schools.

Shiva recommends Charlotte, NC

Consider Jack’s suggestion on work-from-home tech jobs

This is another advantage of U.S. job market.

10% Chinese concentration is good enough @@

Posted on by tiger40490

Junli shared his experience — if the town has 10% Chinese population, you will feel better. No need to live in a place with 60% Chinese population — probably a traditional shopping district (dirty) not great place to live.

I still prefer higher concentration of Chinese like Edison, Sunset Park and Flushing

My experiences:

· Boston Chinatown is #1 choice for my dear wife– clean, higher concentration

· Brooklyn Flushing Ave area has no Chinese on the street, only in my house and in Chinese restaurants. I felt isolated. But I actually feel this is not the #1 factor we didn’t feel good. Consider the dirty streets, the rundown buildings.

· Newport was very nice though Chinese concentration was perhaps 10%, but wife may feel all the Chinese there are white collar, and not her peers.

· White plains has even lower Chinese concentration, perhaps 1-3%, but clean and safe.

Posted in loc

[17] loc preferences #BIG list#CC1 CC2

Posted on by tiger40490

In my post on land-oriented investment, Mrs. Huang (Lisa’s aunt) pointed out that you can improve the wood “superstructure” but not the location. So what define a good location to me? school district –vs– connectivity are the 2 main factors, but RD and CC2 can be important. I’m willing to pay more if it’s worthwhile.

  1. SD i.e. school district?
    1. usually correlates with appreciation but not RD
  2. CC1 i.e. connectivity/commute — my soft spot
    1. usually correlates with rent and appreciation
    2. https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/2017/05/08/clusters-of-contract-jobs/
    3. https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/2017/05/25/subwayrailway/
  3. street cleanliness. My pet peeve.
  4. RD i.e. rent demand, as insurance
    1. I feel connectivity is key. Deep outskirts have demand too, but lower. However, the locations away from waterfront (like in JCity) may not be so easy to rent out, if house is old and streets dirty.
    2. risk management — what if we want2move after buying: RentOut!
  5. CC2 i.e. Chinatown i.e. Chinese community
    • there would be good demand for Chinese preschools, __but__ I think she might be willing to commute for 30 minutes
    • Chinese language for my kids
    • grandparents visiting
    • 🙁 overpriced, due to Chinese investors!
    • 🙁 usually not good connectivity
    • 🙁 not necessarily good school district
    • 🙁 Phillip Huang pointed out that the Chinese population living right in a Chinatown is usually not a professional population
  6. —- Below are LG2
  7. car-free. See walkable neighborhood and https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/2016/03/18/any-place-that-needs-no-car/
  8. liquidity when I need to sell
    1. some remote school districts may not have enough demand
  9. appreciation — automatically
    • would be reasonable if good school district
    • would be reasonable if good connectivity
    • would be reasonable if good rent demand
    • If I decide to hold long-term, then appreciation become a bigger factor than rent income
    • risk management — in a decline, good locations declines less.
    • depends on land size unless in a high urban location
    • I already have appreciating properties in Asia
  10. safe, worry-free? automatically

Let’s look at Edison/Bayonne

  • — At Edison/Bayonne, what criterion are important to ….family?
    1. SD – it’s already a given that we won’t pick a bad district
    2. price tag and reasonable size/condition
    3. street cleanliness, dilapidation, parks — i feel sunset park area is tolerable to wife but not to me
    4. commute
    5. CC2
    6. Chinese grocery
    7. RD — depends heavily on connectivity
    8. car-free
    9. psf
    10. appreciation — we already have many. Also, could be hard to predict.
  • — At Edison/Bayonne, what criterion are important to ….myself?
    1. price tag and reasonable size — agility
    2. street cleanliness, dilapidation, parks — emotional level
      1. compare to water-front? I feel it’s irrational and harmful comparison
    3. commute
    4. car-free convenience
    5. RD — positive cash flow
    6. appreciation
    7. psf — i’m willing to pay a fair price for what I want
  • — on my Edison/Bayonne visits, what I spend most time discussing
    1. SD
    2. monthly cost vs rental income
    3. street cleanliness and parks
    4. RD
    5. car-free
    6. appreciation

##what homes/locations feel impoverished #family

Posted on by tiger40490

See spreadsheet q(U.S.8Past_Home.xlsx).

Opening Example: Newport unit interior is OLD but clean, very much acceptable. The street cleanliness and location really made me feel “luxury”.

Example: Wayne St (Jersey City) house internal looks too old and feels poor for a family.

Example: Fort Hamilton Parkway house felt clean, old, and working class. Acceptable for my family. Not impoverished.

Example: 45 Juliette house felt too old, though inside my unit fairly clean.

  • School is the most important factor. Let’s put it aside
  • commute is important to my feeling of rich/poor, but Many high-end homes require long commute.
  • The rest roughly ranked for myself:
    1. interior (not exterior) renovation is often the biggest factor affecting “feeling poor/rich”. However,  interior can be improved, while the location and size can’t improve.
    2. street cleanliness including old, rundown buildings. See https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/2017/07/16/street-cleanliness-water-front-unnecessary/
    3. parks — within walking distance… exercise, evening stroll. Cf Bushwick and EastOrange.
    4. playground
    5. small windows
  • ? size? To some extent only. Some of the tiny coops can feel luxury. Consider Newport
  • ? privacy, isolation, far from downtown? Not at all. Some of the most expensive homes offer that
  • ? exterior appearance? Not at all. Some of the most luxury homes in 老天津 were “dressed up” like dilapidated.

psf heat map(JC^Queens…)

Posted on by tiger40490

https://www.trulia.com/local/jersey-city-nj/type:home_prices_sales_sqft_affordability looks rather useful as a comparison. If the data underestimates reality, then presumably it underestimates all areas, so the comparison is less affected.

It also shows crime statistics. I guess it doesn’t capture the unreported “sense of street safety” and cleanliness.

The other heat maps are probably less consistent with local observations.

psf size price
NYC co-op 1500 ignore
JC waterfront condo 1000 900+
10 Regent condo 680 1175 800k
Bayonne SFH 100+ 2000+ 300k
West Windsor house 280 2000 600k
Great Neck house 500k+
Edison 200-250 2000

389 Washington 2008 building was selling for $700k/756 sqf

Posted in loc

personal Location filter#1:train stn close2 cluster@contract jobs

Posted on by tiger40490

For family members, clean street and school districts are important. For myself, RD and CC are less important than this one.

Q: For every 100 contract jobs in NYC, how many are there in JC?
A: JC 20-30; Alan Shi felt 30. He felt there are more in JC than downtown Manhattan.

Q: other parts of NJ?
A: below 2.

Q: I’m more suitable for contract jobs, but still .. For every 100 financial tech jobs in NYC, how many are there in JC?
A: JC 15-25, since perm jobs are slightly less popular in JC than big bank contract jobs.

If there are 100 financial IT positions in city AA and BB, but AA has just one employer while BB has 3, then I prefer BB. Reason is subtle — As a contractor, I need choices. If I end my contract with one client I usually need to change client, rather than change department. Therefore, I need to identify the “clusters of financial IT contract employers”. NYC and JC are the 2 biggest clusters. In contrast, I guess Greenwich has mostly buy-side companies, who aren’t keen about contractors!  This is an example of a unique preference.

A typical unique buyer preference — low floor. Most buyers dislike low floor but I prefer it. So it’s plain stupid to follow herd instinct and pay a premium for a high floor I don’t like.

Let me restate our unique preference — closer to contract job clusters by rail.

Most buyers don’t mind 5 minutes additional commute by rail, so Bishan/AMK sells more than some parts of Toa Payoh, but I do care about those 5 minutes. See my post on commute eating into leisure time.

I don’t enjoy driving to work (jams, parking, road rage, stress, unable to read …), so train stations to NYC/JC are my targets. I have an impression that Queens/Brooklyn (including 8th Ave) are run-down and dirty.

 

Most places not rundown like NYC C-town/8thAve

Posted on by tiger40490

Hard to feel comfortable staying in Chinatown with kids. I think only old folks live here because they don’t want to move. I feel 8th ave Brooklyn and Flushing is (cf NYC Chinatown) also rather old and rundown.

NYC-Chinatown is just as rundown and dirty as Murtle Ave and Journal Square (“dumpy”), but I feel safer because of the Chinese population and tourists.

Will take a lot of adjustments on wife’s part to feel at home in this kinda surroundings.

I saw the suburb at Liu Shuo’s and Kansas City. Very clean, middle-class, spacious…but

* Sacrifice – commute

* Sacrifice – wood house DIY repairs

Posted in loc