I (still) live in New York City - Ask Me Anything

[allfurcoatnoknickers]

I did an AMA four years ago and thought it might be fun to do another one since I'm seeing more and NYC advice threads popping up on the Holiday board.
Anyone got any questions for a current Manhattanite? I love to play tour guide 😊.

I'm also married to a born and raised New Yorker, and we have a four year old in elementary school and a 5 month old baby, so feel free to ask away and pregnancy, birth, maternity leave and schools in the US. I see a lot of misconceptions on here I'd be happy to chat about.

@DanceMumTaxi I mean some of them are really rough, but people with normal jobs like cleaner and admin assistant still live there.

what Is the expected tipping percentage at the moment and is there sales tax on restaurant prices?

Are good portions huge?

Food

how popular are various food trucks / or street food sellers ? @allfurcoatnoknickers

@DuchyCazalet Food portions are pretty similar to in the UK I think? I'm always surprised by the size of portions outside of NYC.

The general rule of thumb for tipping is 20% or double the tax

@ACGTHelix Reasonably popular, but not a phenomenon like they were 10 years ago.

@lavender2023
Yes, there are first-time buyer incentives, certainly in my state anyhow. The Illinois Housing Development Authority provides various programmes to help with down payments, closing costs, etc. for qualified clients.

Property taxes can be huge. There are home owners in my municipality who pay tens of thousands in property taxes levied by county and local taxing bodies every year, based on the rateable valuation of their properties. Your property tax bill arrives quarterly, but homeowners with a mortgage usually pay 1/12 of the annual tax with their monthly mortgage payment, and the tax portion goes into an escrow account. It then gets disbursed to the taxing bodies and pays for local schools, libraries, police, parks and rec, and county services like the county hospitals and sheriff's department, prison, etc.

Yup my uncle in San Jose who owns a 2 bed town house (approximate value £1 million) pays £10k in property tax per year.

In contrast, the owner of a 2 bed flat in Westminster (also £1 million) actually pays as much council tax (which is also used to fund local services)as my friend who owns a £50k flat in Yorkshire - approximately £1100 per year. I pay £1400 per year in council tax for a £400k 2 bed flat, my mother in law (3 bed house in same borough as me) pays £1800. The reason for this seemingly crazy situation of an expensive property in London paying as much council tax as a property worth 5% of its value is because central London can charge lower council tax due to having more businesses/hotels who pay business taxes and also higher population density. Also the council tax bands were set in 1989 and lots has changed since then !

It's interesting that America has a home ownership cult similar to the UK. There seems to be fewer advantages in favour of home ownership in the usa.In the UK, owning means being subject to fluctuating mortgage interest rates (the fact that renters and owners both pay council tax means that property tax isn't a consideration & stamp duty is a one off) but as we have found in the last year so are renters. While the cost of a rental is usually based on the income in that area as well as local demand, the circumstances of the UK are such that many landlords have successfully managed to pass on at least a portion of their increased mortgage costs to their tenants (main reason why my neighbours rent increased from £1400 to £1800 was due to landlord's mortgage increasing, she told me). So in a sense you can't win so many people choose to buy their own as they feel that owning gives them more control as you can fix your payment for up to 5 or even 10 years (though interest rate for the latter may mean you pay more than you necessarily need to even if there is stability).

In America I suppose you can fix your mortgage for up to 30 years but have to pay high property taxes. Is mortgage+ property taxes+ ownership costs lower than renting? Usually in the UK it is in most areas and for most properties.

Am loving this thread, its come at just the right time for us as we're in planning phase!

Can i ask please, is subway the quickest and easiest way to get from W48st to Battery Park for the ferry to the statue of liberty?

We have crown tickets booked for 9am... will 8am subway be realistic or do we need to leave more time?

If subway is the best bet which station do we get on/off. Assume we can go directly and not have to change lines? Thanks

@lavender2023
San Jose taxes are pretty low compared to taxes in my municipality. I paid just about 10k annually on a house valued at far less than 1m and with a valuation far lower too.

Wrt home ownership costs vs. renting cost - that's the proverbial length of a piece of string question. The assumption that a home will rise in value is the basis of the scale tipping in favour of buying your own home. Most of the time that assumption is the correct one, but a lot depends on location.

In some areas, renting makes a lot more sense than buying, and in some places (middle class suburbs of prosperous cities, for instance) people buy, do a certain amount of renovation or improvement to the house, painting, landscaping, etc, send their kids to the excellent public schools and avail of excellent public facilities, and put the house on the market as soon as the youngest graduates high school. I have friends who have moved to all sorts of places where they pay lower property taxes once done with high school - everywhere from rural Kansas to condos overlooking the lake in Chicago. A good many people don't see home ownership in a specific spot as setting down roots.

By the same token, I became aware when I moved here of families with huge extended family networks; several generations who had gone to certain RC elementary schools and high schools and similar legacies of going through the public schools. A good many people leave here for university and return later to buy houses they perhaps once played in as children.

I lopped off a paragraph by accident there -

Basically, renting makes sense for families for the same reason as buying does for those seeking primarily to avail of good local public schools.

I love NY but haven't been for years.

I am a bit mafia obsessed- do you see any real life mobsters in little Italy? This might be a very niche question 😂

At the bottom of your flat what is immediately available? I'm not asking for business names, but what things can you buy within a couple buildings.

I find it fascinating to think you might be able to ride down the elevator of your home and buy food/coffee/gifts etc without a long walk/drive.

@Onevelvetmorning my block is residential - like this one (it's not this one) so there's just more housing immediately around me. If I walk round the block though there are 6 restaurants, a cafe, a corner shop, 2 dry cleaners, an interiors shop and a martial arts studio.

Def won't see them in Little Italy. It's a total tourist trap now - there hasn't been an "authentic" there in years. Sorry...

Thanks Op! That would be amazing. I'd probably rarely stray from my block if I had so many places to go to just steps from my door (and rarely cook😁)

Subway is the quickest and easiest way, but impossible to say how long it'll take without knowing where on 48th street. Plug both addresses into Google Maps and it'll tell you which train to take and how long.

My best guess is the R/W from Times Square and it should take about 30 minutes.

@allfurcoatnoknickers - oh that's disappointing in a weird way.

The food in little Italy was always great back then. Though I wasn't on the lookout for mobsters ...

This thread has definitely made me want to visit again.

@Onevelvetmorning I forgot! We also have a vet on the block! Very convenient for the dogs.

We used to have the most amazing Chinese restaurant we ordered from all the time, but it closed and I'm devastated.

@headhurtstoomuch Apparently all the monsters live in Staten Island now. A boss was murdered a few years back and he lived in Todt Hill, so Italian Restaurants there are probably your best bet: amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/15/franky-boy-cali-new-york-mob-mafia-shooting-staten-island

@Roadtonowe download the MYmta app. You can enter where you are leaving from, when and destination and it will give you options for best route. We used it lots - it was really useful.

Do people struggle with keeping their homes warm there?

It just feels like here in the UK everyone's always complaining about the cost or difficulty of staying warm, or sharing advice/tips on using boilers efficiently etc. whereas the NYC based blogs I read just... never mention it? How does central heating in a shared building work, in regards to bills or usage?

Loved reading the tips so far, OP - been years since I've visited but am absorbing it all as if I'm about to jet over next week 🤣

@evtheria Heat and water are included in my monthly maintenance fee. I pay the same whether we've got the heat on or not.

Obviously this doesn't apply if you live in a house in Minnesota.