Is it realistic to buy vs. rent an apartment when moving to NYC?
The question is in the title. Is this a common practice? I would imagine, particularly bankers, would prefer to build equity as opposed to paying their landlord's mortgage. How difficult is the NYC housing market to navigate, and are junior bankers financially secure enough to obtain financing in the area?
Don't buy just as an analyst. There are better uses for the cash you have (unless you're absurdly wealthy already) than buying a condo in New York as an analyst. You don't know if you'll be in NYC long term, and you'd probably want something a little bit bigger/nicer after a few years from what you can likely afford as an analyst. Closing costs will eat up a lot of the equity. Finally, NYC HOA fees are absurd in any decently nice building.
You typically need a 2-year job history to get approved for a mortgage. Even if not, buying in the city isn't really worth it unless its going to be a very long term decision. A down payment will be a significant amount and first few years mostly goes towards interest and barely any principal anyways. Also the cheapest units that you could theoretically afford as an analyst would still have a bunch of amenities fees or "maintenance fees" that add up. I've seen 500k-1m units that seemed reasonable enough priced but will have several thousands of dollars of fees separate.
The issue is maintenance / common fees in many manhattan condos are sky high due to the age of the building. For a 1.5mm condo, they can be over $2k on their own. Property tax can also be very high. If you can live in LIC or Brooklyn, you can find new developments with property tax abatements which make it a lot more palatable but then you're not living in Manhattan.
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