I’m not sure what the solution is, but maybe some readers know something I don’t know.
We desperately need to move between space issues and some problems where we are living. The problem is that we don’t make enough money for a mortgage especially at the current crazy prices that houses are selling for.
The other option is to find another rental but we have been searching for months between Masa Umatan and rental chats and there just seems to be nothing affordable to rent!
Prices are soaring through the roof, and an average Lakewood salary doesn’t make enough money to pay rent plus tuition when rent costs $3700 monthly and upwards!!!
Where can we live?
We don’t need fancy. We just need a frum community with nice kids and a functional house that isn’t smelly or falling apart.
Speaking to many people, it seems we are all having the same problem. There’s nowhere to move at a price that matches the local salaries.
There’s gotta be a solution. And if not, can we please put all the askanus brains and gemara kups together to create one ASAP???
We need a house to move to!
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Move out of town.
You could consider other, more affordable towns. Linden, Union Township, Elizabeth, Hillside… All are great frum neighborhoods with decently advanced frum infrastructure. Elizabeth and Hillside have established eruvin. Chassidish communities well established in Union, Linden, and even in some areas of Hillside. Multiple shuls of all stripes throughout all these areas. Easy commute to NYC. Multiple Jewish businesses and office parks available in all these areas. Kosher food. No, its not Lakewood, but homes are also sooooo much more affordable. Rents are also relatively affordable whether you’re in a a building or private house. Meshaneh makom, meshaneh mazal.
Daven.
Learn shaar habitachon.
That’s what I did.
I asked everyone to daven for me and I poured my heart out to Hashem for a long time till I bh bought my house…
Now I am davening to be able to pay my mortgage.
Just keep davening.
It will be good.
It always is.
There are plenty of builders willing to build new housing 20-30 min out of Lakewood, if you create a list 200 buyers that would agree to sign, we can make it happen
price per house approx $550K
No builder would do this and then try to sell, most people don’t want to move that far.
If you find the people first, it should be fairly straightforward
Find me a piece of land within 20-30 minutes and I’ll try to see if I can put something together.
FYI, it’s not that quick or easy.
Let’s run the numbers.
Suppose you find me a twenty acre plot in a town nearby for $300,000/acre, let’s go buy it and develop it. The bank won’t lend us any money to buy it until we have approvals, so we’re have to either get investors or a hard money loan. Either way you go about it, you need to factor at least 12% a year.
It will cost a million plus dollars to prepare site plans, architectural plans, and get approvals. This will take around two years in the best case scenario, and we are paying property taxes for the whole time.
Supposing we actually get approved to build, and supposing we get approved to build 4 duplexes per acre, we’re can not build 80-120 duplexes. The bank will now lend us 70% of the construction cost at around 8.5%, assuming we don’t have any other liens on the property, so we need to raise some more capital to cover the remainder.
It costs about $150-200/psf to build a finished home around here, so we are not building the lakewood standard 3500-4,000 SF duplexes. We are going to going with a more modest 2,500SF model and either no basement or an unfinished basement this will cost around $550k per complete duplex in the best case scenario.
We also need to build streets, pull water/sewer, run underground electric etc which will cost us around $15-30k per home.
We are now ready to start selling the first homes in December of 2028.
We’ve paid roughly $400-420k in plans, approvals, site work, & construction per home. We’ve paid in interest or owe dividends of about $25,000 per home. We’ve also paid property taxes.
We also must provide a Shul and a Mikva which will cost another $1.5 million. We will try and cover this cost out of the presale of the home by making everyone sign a waiver that allows us to access $15,000 of their deposit for this purpose.
We’ve now spent four and a half years building this neighborhood without getting paid, so we’d like to make a little money between us. If we sell at $550k like you suggest, then after brokerage fees, legal fees etc we are making around $35-50k (pretax) per home to share between us.
If anything goes wrong and your costs go up from what I’ve just outlined you lost money out of your own pocket, or you need to charge more. This is the risk you are taking. You need to be compensated for this risk which is why you need to earn at least $6,000,000 to make it worthwhile.
top 10 breakdown ever. not sure if its all accurate but loved it!
I like the idea. I think many people would be interested in such if it were possible.
It seems that the further out of lakewood you go, you can find cheaper property.
1 hour south of lakewood or south west in NJ seems to be cheaper, also near Trenton is cheaper, as well as across State Lines in PA, some areas are really cheap.
I’d be interested in a single family home with nice lots if something like that came on the market at around 500k or so.
IDK how but Tuxedo Ct in Jackson had BN beautiful homes, on 1 acre lots, selling at only 800k. Perhaps because it was a non-613 builder. IDK.
But it seems that there should be a way for everyone to benefit if a builder would start a project around 1 hour out of lakewood with homes around 500k.
move to bp your tuition will be paid thru vouchers
Move out of town
What ever happened to those new affordable Howell housing being built? Anyone knows if that fell through? Did anyone win those?
I believe that they’re still reviewing the applications
It is a terrible horrible situation. People need housing. It’s a most basic human need. It’s not something that people should be making money off of.
It needs to be controlled.
We need all hands on deck.
People are in desperate need.
This needs serious discussion. Who can we all reach out to , to spearhead something LEGIT?
I’m thinking of buying a huge lot of land and turning it into a trailer park for yidden , it will be much cheaper and less gashmius etc the oilam habah ppl will live it
Oilam Habbah ppl are also ppl
everyone deserves some peace, privacy and space.
everyone should have dignity.
everyone must have tznius. not only clothing but also and more so in family life. and children need to be able to grow under their parents supervsion, not their neighbors watchfulness.
Ive often thought about this. Could be done pretty decently. Large enough lots. Quality manufactured homes….. High quality utility services…. Could make a nice place for starter homes.
Everyone I’ve spoken to is down and would theoretically buy there for up to the same cost as renting a basement in Lakewood.
If the homes sell for abt/under 200K,
paying 1350$ a month to own can be a reality.
Cleveland
Westgate is at least a thousand dollars cheaper a month than what you posted.
Move to Eretz Yisroel. Mortgage rates there are better and you’ll have a place to live when Moshiach comes!
I’m still in a basement my oldest is in 9th grade, I definitely hear you. There’s no way out, this is what it is..
Honestly, I think what we need is a few real Gevirim to get together and decide to make a huge difference to the local community.
They should join and buy a huge plot of land within the local areas and use it as a unique chesed organization that will provide a home to all of us in need.
In other words, they can build houses without greed. None of us need fancy. I promise. All we need is space, bedrooms, and functionality in a sturdy home that lasts. They can build single or duplex homes with a yiddishe kup and privacy in mind too. Just basic mentchlich properties layout with a frum family in mind and sell the homes at cost price with a legality contract that homes cannot be flipped for a higher price so investors don’t come and mess it up.
Let them build 500 of these homes. They’ll be bought in minutes.
I think if enough of Gevirim do this it will force the greedy real estate investors and sellers to drop their prices!
Can be done as rentals also .
But something needs to be done.
I bet we can fill a 5000 line page up with names of people that need a home to move to but can’t afford any of the stock available.
But which Gevirim care enough to make this happen?
These types of homes already exist in Westgate. A Westgate townhouse is now going for upwards of 700k, and a single family home in Westgate recently went for a million.
your statement contradicts itself. The prices you say, 700k and over a million are not affordable to average family here.
There are plenty of houses in Howell for 650 Your mortgage will be around what your rent is
I actually thought at 650 that this would be the case so I called a mortgage broker to run the different number options.
After all fees were factored in, aside from coming up somehow with a down payment and closing costs, the mo they payments would be over $4000 a month. This is not affordable for the average Lakewood family paying tuition.
Unfortunately many rents are going at this price as well though there are some a bit lower (3500-3800) without having to also come up with a down payment.
Unfortunately most of us can’t afford that either.
And most of us wish we could buy instead of throwing money into a rental but we can’t take on ownership without having a way to pay for it.
There are hundreds if not thousands of us in need of homes that we can actually pay for.
Respectfully, you need to move to where you can afford to live. Lakewood might not be a good fit for you anymore.
Um… if it were a few families, maybe.
But this has been our town and infrastructure for many years. Our kids are settled in schools and our jobs and yeshiva and kollelim are here.
Houses have more than doubled at a not normal pace and homes that shouldn’t be worth more than 350k are selling for 800k.
We number in the thousands. We don’t all need to be forced to move out of town because New York and Co decided to come in and over run this city like an angry mob and outbid all the housing from us locals til it hit NY inflatable numbers that we can’t keep up with. I’m sorry NYers but you guys did this and destroyed Lakewood and beyond.
Until you came, families lived in affordable basements, and when they had a few kids they continued into local houses.
Now you’ve made that impossible and blame it on the world at large.
No. While house prices went up all over they didn’t go up by over 50% the way greedy people came in and drove the prices into the millions.
Until you came, a million dollar house was the minority. Now they’re listed at 1.2 and 1.5 wherever you sneeze.
So you basically driving thousands of families out of their hometown so you can have mansions built.
No sending us all out of town ain’t the solution. This is our town and it’s about time our Rabbanim and Askanom put their foot down and drove all the greedy ppl out of town and come up with solutions.
Not just nod their heads.
Which specific NYer did something wrong by moving to Lakewood and beyond (b/c they couldn’t afford NY)?
@H.G.
I used to live in Manhattan when I was growing up, but there’s no way I could ever live there now become a studio apartment is $3000 or more a month.
Things can go up in crazy ways because the place becomes exceedingly popular and overrun by outsiders with the money to spend.
It’s not fair there either but unfortunately houses skyrocket when they become an “in” place.
It’s a very big problem.
There’s plenty of large buildable lots or homes with potential in other towns at affordable prices but a frum yid can’t live there as for the past 2,000 years no one wants us. It’s very very difficult to establish Cheder’s and Schools besides they wouldn’t even allow us to build a shul or even make a minyan.
Where should we go to high crime dangerous little cities far far away! There’s now nowhere to go and nothing to buy!
This is nothing unexpected; I had seen this coming back in the 1980’s and 1990’s I bought houses for my kids here in Lakewood, but further out while my kids were still in diapers ; since they were further out they were difficult to rent even tough I fixed them up beautifully , so at 2 of them I fell into drug addict tenants of which I had major problems with them but I hung in and kept them for my kids.
After my kids got married “they did me a favor” and moved into them mortgage free etc. but do you think any of my kids thanked me or appreciated it! Nothing doing! One did well in business and bought another house in Jackson and they walk a mile to a basement shul, another says that they’re staying in the 2400 sq ft 4 bedroom beautiful Lakewood ranch because they have no choice, no money etc. another says the neighbors are older, so I tell him his kids should walk to the next block and they’ll have friends, but he has no money to move. It hurts me.
The entire frum world needs to unify and establish an organization to find nice crime free towns to live in and build schools and affordable housing, we are baruch hashem growing rapidly and we need help .
Jackson and Lakewood were lovely small towns with safe quiet roads. Many beautiful farms and open land. Now…not so much. Many non Jewish families in the area struggle to make ends meet while both parents work…sometimes more than one job. Homes are out priced for EVERYONE!!! You want to unify your world? You want to distance your world from America? Who will protect you? Who will keep you safe? It seems as if we all need to find a way to coexist.
Is it possible to raise your income? Are you and your spouse working full-time? Can you get a raise or look for a better paying job? Or open a side business?
Kids need parents more than they need a big house.
I live in Brooklyn where prices are sky high as well..I was living in a very small.apartment and did not see a way out. All apartments were simply not affordable and we are not eligible for section 8 which helps towards rent. During covid i was not working and decided to say the entire sefer tehillim for 40 days..few days later i got a random call from a rental broker who said she had me in her contacts (dont remember ever speaking to her) we went to look at the apartment which was expensive but a bit less than market value. We moved! Was a big neis..maybe try my segulah.
Wishing you and everyone lots of hatzlocha..
???????
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The unaffordable rents are an outgrown of the inflated housing prices. It is time people turn to our תלמידי חכמים and allow them to implement the Torah way- pricing regulations for the better of the community. A full 1/4 of the שלחן ערוך are the complicated and intricate Halchos of monetary laws. Those who cause much stress and hard ache will one day have to answer for it. People who are in financial distress should do what is right and reach out to the many financial assistance organization within our community for their support.
Kids need parents more than they need a big house.
4k vs 3k a month is not the main issue, it’s the tuition. If a town would open with subsidized tuition, all of Klal Yisroel would benefit, if not for themselves as they own houses, then for the next generation.
What is the cost involved?
Is it less than Adirei?
Would it benefit kollel(and non kollel)people more the Adirei in the long terms(12 k a year vs saving 30k on subsidies of schools)?
Can we make a city tax of 1$ a day per person(or around 44 million yearly)?
One reason tuition is so expensive – the outrageous cost of property. Whether the school buys the land or leases it, those costs are passed on to the parents .
Everybody already pays taxes for school.
Do you really expect that the “next generation” will still be in Golus? WOW, we’d better plan for decades to come living in the Goldene Medina rather than in יְרוּשָׁלַיִם שֶׁל זָהָב. Come on! Have some greater emunah that we’ll VERY SOON be outa’ here. Everyone just hang tight. You don’t need to get agitated looking for a move anywhere else in the failing USA. The g’eula is coming. Eretz Yisrael is the ONLY place we’ll be going to, IY”H.
I wish I had a silver bullet …
If its any consolation, this is happening throughout America now.
It’s supply / demand; macro-economics; NIMBY, and poor urban planning all mixed in one big chulent pot.
Expand horizons perhaps and look for a neighborhood / town that works with your budget and expectations – perhaps Minneapolis, Cleveland , South Fallsburg, etc
The Gemara in brochos 3b relates that the people asked דוד המלך the same question his answer was “לכו ופשטו ידיכם בגדוד”. Folks, it’s time to expand our borders.😂
Do some research on 3d printed houses. Can save a lot of time and money. It’s a realistic solution for low cost housing that’s already being implemented in some countries.