Cuomo proposes to help new grads buy homes upstate

[Deleted]

Cuomo proposes
to help new grads
buy homes upstate
ALBANY — New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo has a plan to
help recent college graduates
buy homes upstate.
The proposal announced
Friday would offer subsidized
low-interest loans and
down payment assistance to
recent graduates who want
to settle upstate.
The Democratic governor
said the $5 million program
would help
young workers
invest in
their futures
and encoura
g e m o r e
highly skilled
graduates
t o s e t t l e
upstate. The
area has suffered from population
declines in recent years

uticaod e edition 1/16/17

[Clipper]

Sadly most of those graduates will most likely move on to greener pastures and leave NY State in their rear view mirrors. Would be a great program for those that WOULD have been employed in the nano park in Marcy, but as is the case with many of Cuomo's promises, that one was one more bubble burst for the CNY area.

[clarencebunsen]

A week or so ago we had an article about the Millennial generation not doing as well financially as their parents. It made me think about why. I concluded that at least one reason was the GI Bill.

In my parents generation, millions served during WWII or Korea. Many went in right after high school. Upon discharge they were treated better than the vets most previous wars. The GI Bill offered assistance with education and home purchase. My father came home, went to college to get an engineering degree and purchased his first home before he was 30. The relatively high level of education and percentage of home ownership made his generation considerably wealthier than those before it.

For my generation we didn't have as many who served but the number of Vietnam era vets reached more than 8 million. We also had a strong incentive to attend college. College was an almost automatic 4 year draft deferrment. After college I did my 2 years, came home and used my GI benefits to go to grad school. With my veteran's loan I was able to purchase a home with almost no down payment and a favorable interest rate.

Today's young adults are coming out of college with a huge debt load. Some help for them to purchase a home could be a big help.

[dave]

All true, CB. Plus ... we had the space program of the '60s to drive business and the economy. And too, we were the product of an educational system that more sensibly treated accomplishment as such without trying to make everyone feel good.

[dave]

Jan 16, 2017 10:36:52 GMT -5 @alanquigly said:

Cuomo proposes
to help new grads
buy homes upstate
ALBANY — New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo has a plan to
help recent college graduates
buy homes upstate.
The proposal announced
Friday would offer subsidized
low-interest loans and
down payment assistance to
recent graduates who want
to settle upstate.
T

The assistance may help some buy homes if they can find jobs, but most young families won't be able to handle the property taxes. I've done a little research using Zillow around NY state a few years ago and found some astounding examples of taxes that are higher than a kite. Sure you can get a good price on an older home in Ilion, but the taxes aren't going to be much different than if the house was instead in major population center upstate.
That makes sense when you think about it. The market prices of homes may drop through the floor, but the money needed to pay school teachers and local municipal employees never goes down. In fact, unions have all but guaranteed a steady increase in those costs to the taxpayers.

[clarencebunsen]

True, I've watched over decades of living in the same house and doing my taxes. The sum of interest paid on the loan and real estate taxes has remained about the same (including a re-fi during a time when interest rates dropped and times were tight for us) but the ratio has changed as taxes have gone up to take up whatever decline there was on the interest payment. As of the latest assessment (and my own back of the envelope estimates) the price of my home has gone up by about 250% since we moved here. If I adjust for inflation I think I'm about even. Looking at the length of time houses remain on the market, it seems like this is a desirable place to live.

[dave]

Feb 4, 2017 7:55:42 GMT -5 clarencebunsen said:

. Looking at the length of time houses remain on the market, it seems like this is a desirable place to live.

CB, I assume you mean "desirable" within the context of financials and that the comparison is to other locations in NY State. From many points of view Central New York is a desirable location. It's natural valley beauty, closeness to the mountains and great winter sports make it a great area to raise a family.
Financially, however, and compared to other states, jobs have become scarce, property taxes are very high and so are basic utilities. My property taxes are one twentieth (1/20) of what they were in NY.

[clarencebunsen]

"Desirable" in the sense of if you are going to live in the Greater Utica area and it is in your price range it has a lot of positives compared to other locations in this area. When I moved here, it was from a relatively good suburban neighborhood in the Minneapolis area. We had chosen that location because it was in a good school district and was a reasonable commute to my work. We had a three bedroom ranch with a one car garage.

Moving here we looked for school district, comfortable neighborhood and reasonable drive times. Turns out there are no long commutes here. Picked the New Hartford school district based on local recommendations. For about the same money we sold our house in the Twin Cities for we got a much larger 5 bedroom house here. Taxes were about the same.

When I moved here many of my neighbors worked at GE. Their French Road plant is only 5-6 minutes away. About 20 years ago after the GE operation was sold to Lockheed Martin it was moved to Syracuse. That caused a lot of turnover in the neighborhood. Prices didn't drop but houses took a lot longer to sell.

Sometime within the next 10 years we will have to decide what we want to do. Taxes are not as high as you paid closer to NYC but they are still more than $4k/year. Utilities run $2.5k/year. Probably most of what keeps us here are kids and grand kids. So far that is enough to keep us.

[dave]

OK, understand what you mean. When I left the Catskills my taxes were almost 10K per year and just my oil bill was approaching $5,000, plus electricity. If my taxes had remained at $4K as they were in the 90's, I might have stayed.

Since you're both now retired and finding jobs is not a consideration, I'd say your situation sounds ideal. And when closeness to family is brought in to the equation, it kind of seals up the argument to stay. That's what we struggled with the most when we left.

[dave]

CB, you might be interested in this project in Woodstock, NY. Carolyn and I went to a few of their meetings.

stayinginplace.org/

[clarencebunsen]

Looks interesting.