Yi Hai lived (and bought a house) there for years. He felt most Chinese professional families would prefer RegoPark to Flushing
Top school district with a rather short rail commute. About 35 minutes to Grand Central, comparable to JC. Connectivity?
#1 wealthiest school district in U.S.
Rental demand?
Tiny condo as rental property, too small for family.
There are high rise condos.
http://www.amny.com/real-estate/city-living/brooklyn/sunset-park-brooklyn-what-to-do-in-the-waterfront-neighborhood-1.12389136
(https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/realestate/sunset-park-brooklyn-not-quite-trendy.html?_r=0)
The low psf LOCATIONS are associated with average school districts, mixed races, lower income, less clean streets and possibly crime (not necessarily violent crimes). For my 1st home, I care about street cleanliness, RD and appreciation, so reputation matters.
Bargain — i might look for a low psf unit in a higher psf location, perhaps homes with small size and no lift.
Bayonne – street relatively clean.
JSQ – few parks.
Shiva Tunk gave me this tip. Only $680 psf in a top location. A few years old building.
XR,
No need to read. Just my reflections on the various addresses I stayed in the US. Here I address 2 factors among many #1) commute
#2) exercise facilities
One of the first homes I was given is Hou Li’s home in East Orange. About 15 minutes walk to the train station. About half an hour of wait (even during peak hours) if you miss your train, therefore you must reach train station 10 minutes in advance to play safe. Therefore the commute is absolutely unacceptable to me. I have since avoided any place with such a bad commute. I think many commuters who lived in such locations
*either had very few job choices so they put up with such painful commute and very low salary. They were also too poor to own a car. I heard it from locals.
*or drive to a bigger train station where train frequency is like once every 3 minutes *or can work from home a few times a month.
Most places I stayed have no exercise facilities, except gyms. One place is in a nice neighbourhood in downtown Boston. The street is clean and safe so I would sometimes go out for a jog. Newport is better — near the waterfront so I often went there for a jog. Not as good as the Singapore neighbourhood stadiums.
Hou Li’s place is mostly low-income black but I actually felt fairly comfortable taking a jog there vis-a-vis another part of Brooklyn i.e. Myrtle Avenue, a very outdated, run-down neighbourhood, with mostly low income families. I doubt there’s any Chinese or Indian middle class families though unmarried professionals may like the short commute from there.
I talked to xxxx. She still lives in the same house with her daughter, right opposite the unit I saw on Sunday.
I asked how good/bad her area is. She admitted her area (Myrtle) is not as good as our current location (Flushing Ave). She said there are some government housing (high-rise) near Hart St. I said many poor family live in such government housing. She said many youngsters from those families do not get good parental control. Some teenagers attacked her (before she became pregnant). They hit her from behind with a stick and she lost consciousness for a brief second.
I asked her why she still lives there. I think she knows her area is no good. She shrugged off — “i have no fear”. I challenger her “A young mother with a young daughter, the most vulnerable people in such an unsafe area”. She agreed. But she added she got to know everyone in her neighbourhood (black, hispanic, …), and she often says hello to them. She said “他们不会为难我”.
Myrtle is probably the dirtiest place we ever live in our life. People (perhaps youngsters?) throw newspapers, bottles, food, plastic bags on the street, and there seems to be no control on them. In Singapore, these litterbugs would be fined, and there are more paid cleaners even in old run-down areas like Toa Payoh Central.
When we were a young couple we could live in Myrtle or Flushing ave area. With dabao I now realize this area is simply too dirty for a baby to grow up in. I think people who raise their kids here are all low-income families, mostly Black and Hispanic.
Remember Aunty Gennifer also said this (Flushing Ave) is a bad neighborhood. Most people here are probably fine and even polite, but you can say the same about any bad neighborhood. Visit Newark and read the Broken Window theory. The general public’s sense of safety is due to those /menacing/ 1% or 0.1% of the population inhabiting (rather than moving through) the neighborhood.
This is definitely not a good area for our family. I feel so poor living here.