Post by Prosay on Apr 21, 2020 12:17:51 GMT -5
This article fails to report that NY was experiencing a MAJOR Exodus BEFORE the virus, even acknowledged by Cuomo at the time, due to high taxation and other Leftist policies.
And, of course, this article is written in such a way to low-ball the reasons why these particular taxpayers are moving out, as if it shouldn't be an issue.
And deBlasio wants to spend millions on a Ticker-Tape Parade? He'll have to take it out of his wife's "windfall profits" from the "mental health inititive.":
wsj.com
Escape from New York CityAnne Kadet
6-7 minutes
Like many families with young children, Stan and Julia Usherenko had long planned to move to the suburbs, where they could afford a larger home and a yard. This year, they finally started what they assumed would be a leisurely search. Then the pandemic hit.
In mid-March—the last weekend that real-estate agents could hold an open house—Mr. and Mrs. Usherenko rushed to make an offer on a three-bedroom house in Midland Park, N.J., with a pool and fenced-in yard.
“If we didn’t go with this house, who knows when we’d find the next house,” Mr. Usherenko said. “We might have been stuck until much later. We went $25,000 over asking.”
A closing is scheduled for the end of April, but the move can’t come fast enough for the Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, family.
Mr. Usherenko, a financial analyst, and Mrs. Usherenko, a psychotherapist, are both working full time in their two-bedroom apartment while caring for two toddlers. “We’re definitely not getting enough fresh air,” said Mr. Usherenko, whose grandfather recently died from coronavirus. “And it’s stressful. Every time we go outside, you don’t know who you’re passing by.”
They’re hardly the only family spurred by the pandemic to make a fast move, said Alison Bernstein, founder and president of Suburban Jungle, a company that specializes in matching city clients with their ideal suburban town, and helped the Usherenkos find their new home. “This whole thing is catastrophic and petrifying for families in urban areas,” she said. “People want out of the city and now.”
Ms. Bernstein said demand for her firm’s services is up 40% from the same period last year. Some are prompted by safety concerns. Others worry the shelter-in-place edict will drag on, confining them to small city apartments.
Carlo Siracusa, president of Residential Sales for N.J.-based Weichert Realtors said while inventory is low due to sellers pulling homes off the market, demand remains high because of a new wave of city dwellers shopping in the suburbs.
“They’ve been confined to a small space the last 45 days and want out,” he said. “There’s a sense of urgency.”
The real-estate market isn’t exactly lively these days, of course. In Manhattan, contract signings are down 77%, according to UrbanDigs. A National Association of Realtors survey, meanwhile, found that most buyers are delaying purchases.
But for some, the pandemic had the opposite effect.
By the end of March, Kristen Euretig was fed up with quarantine life in her Brooklyn rental apartment. She’s now enjoying a three-bedroom Airbnb rental outside Rochester, N.Y. with her husband, 18-month-old son and dog. And she’s surprised to discover how much her family enjoys country living.
When they want fresh air, there’s no need to don gloves, face masks and dodge neighbors crowding the apartment building lobby. They tumble out to the yard with its 16 acres of marshland that hosts ducks, geese and deer. “I’m not in a rush to head back,” said Ms. Euretig, who founded the financial advisory Brooklyn Plans, and is now working from home.
Indeed, the experience has the family rethinking its commitment to the city. Until the pandemic, the suburbs didn’t seem practical. But now that her husband, a lawyer, has proven his ability to work from home, they’re hoping his employer will be open to the idea. Last week, Ms. Euretig made her first call to a Hudson Valley real-estate agent.
The prospect of a
“New York is the epicenter for this pandemic,” he said. “Everybody knows that, and it’s understandable for people to think maybe a less dense place would be safer the next 12 to 18 months.”
But it is hardly a foregone conclusion, he said. Whether the flight from the city materializes depends largely on how authorities handle the situation during the coming weeks and months. “It’s all about whether people feel safe from another wave of the pandemic breaking out,” Mr. Bowles said.
After 9/11, some predicted the city would see a population decline spurred by fears of terrorism, he said. Instead, the population grew as the city demonstrated its ability to keep residents safe.
The catch: It may require long or repeated shutdowns to address the virus, which could itself spur suburban flight. What’s the point of paying crazy rent on a cramped apartment if you can’t enjoy the city?
Last month, after two weeks of quarantine living, Manhattan residents Eric and Heidi Matisoff packed their two toddlers and dog into an SUV and temporarily moved in with Mrs. Matisoff’s mother, who lives Northvale, N.J. On the drive over, the Suburban Jungle clients stopped to view an available four-bedroom house in Glen Ridge, N.J. They made an offer that day. The closing is scheduled for June 15.
The Matisoffs—he works at Adobe and she is a nurse practitioner who is on leave to care for the children—had been contemplating a move for a while. They are sad to be leaving the city behind, but the pandemic makes it easier.
This could go on for six months, 12 months. And who knows what the city could look like after,” Mrs. Matisoff said. “The lure of leaving the city has increased.”
