Brownstone communities

the term "up and coming" in this economy should not be used. if it did not up and came during the bubble, it won't in the near future. if you are willing to live in a bad neighborhood that can up and come in 10-15-20 yrs, then look at Bed Sty, East Harlem, etc. East NY will never be good no matter what happens.

there are parts of weehawken that might work for you, a lot of transient yuppies who can't afford hoboken there and some nice big old houses. if you break up inot studios/1br you'll always be able to rent it because there are always young people who work in manhattan but can't afford it or manhattan like hoboken prices.

union city is a traditionally cuban town (lots of good cheap food!), lots of families who live there and plan to stay there. so you wouldprobaly want to keep 2 br? or big 1br that can be partitioned off somehow. if you're looking in union city though, look in harrison, too. it's another established hispanic town, (i believe predominantly colombian?), i know this because i eat there, too. there is the soccer arena there, lots of restaurants and cafes and a very established dedicated community. but there is also the path station and some new developments catering to the yuppie commuter, so you can have a choice of what sort of landlord you want to be.

just north of harrison is kearny, very portuguese town with lots of restarants and cafes (yes, i like food) and catholic schools, it's a very solid middle class immigrant town. that whole area is, really. you'd be able to rent apartments from studios to family apartments there easily. but you should probably learn at least conversational spanish. the portuguese will probably give you a pass if you don't speak portuguese though. hope this was helpful!

Agreed with ab_11218 ! During an economic crisis, crime rise!
Before making a move to a fringe neighborhood, you should inform yourself about it and try to rent there before buying:
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/26374-bed-stuy

good point. i have been to bed-stuy and the area looks like it could come along with a "little" push..i remember when fort greene was not so hot in the late 80's. what about union city or the bronx. i'm trying to get a multitude of opinions

what is your price range? With a 3 or 4 fam, wouldn't the income from the units balance the cost?

i am thinking up to $1.5 million for a 4-family. obviously, less is better. interestingly, weehawken never occured to me. since people are talking about harrison, how about newark prime although i think i should not ask because a friend purchased a multi-family in newark non-prime and he has nothing but regrets - the tenant base is hell.

i guess newark prime is the ironbound? i think in newark you have to be within a block of ferry street, and ideally in that square between ferry and wilson avenue. but you should go there around dinner time or later and see who lives there, they'll be out partying if they're home from work. it used to be very portuguess, but then the richer portugues moved to the suburbs and poorer portuguese moved to kearny. now it's very brazilian around wilson ave and differents spanish speaking micro communities everywhere else. but you'll be renting to the locals and their cousins just off the boat from the old country, not yuppies. so you should be comfortable with that.

tommy, take a look at Prospect Lefferts Gardens. It's the area just to the east of Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Some nice brownstones in your price range. The commute to Manhattan isn't too bad, especially compared to some of the areas you're already considering.

did you want to live there? i thought just own building.

You can get a nice 16-17 footer in Harlem. Probably the best investment.

I intend to live there for at least a year or two but I want to make sure that I own something that I would want to live in, someplace that I would enjoy going to visit whether to pick up the rent or fix stuff longer term. When I say $1.5 million that is truly the max...I guess I feel much more comfortable around $1 million and even more comfortable at lower prices...I am quite handy so I don't mind light fixer uppers/TLCs but no gut jobs requiring permits, etc.

lucille, thanks for the tips on Union and Kearney. I really reallly want to go out to eat with you someday.

ali r.

thank you for saying that ali! maybe when it's time to kill off lucille. but i'm not really like this in person, i'm all polite and sh*t.