Great Neck vs North Shore Towers vs Roslyn Garden vs Birchwood Co-ops (Mineola: for sale)

[Handyman64]

Hello All,

I'm having a problem making a decision on where to move. With everyone's vast experience, I thought you all can help me in making my decision. Here's a little info about me: I'm a single (soon to be engaged, = ), professional male, 31 years of age, looking for a place to live for the next 5 - 7 years. I've been with my girlfriend for about 2 years, and plan on getting engaged in the next two years, and hopefully married a year or two after that. I was looking for a place, where her and I can live for a few years, possibly raise a kid until he/she is around 2 or 3, and then eventually sell the co-op, and use whatever money we put into the co-op as a down payment for the next house. My salary is also around 250 - 300 K a year, and I work in LIJ. I'm looking for the following:

1. Budget. I do not want spend more then 350 K on the co-op/condo.
1. Area. Long Island/Queens Border. Floral Park, NHP, Mineola, Herricks, Manhasset, Great Neck, Roslyn. Do not want to go to much into queens, because I work in LIJ. Since I will be moving after my kid is around 2 or 3, I am not so interested in the School District, but wouldn't want a horrible school district.
3. A place that will have nice resale value in 5 - 7 years.
4. A clean, well kept place, with decent security.
5. A place where you can entertain couples, without having issues with other tenants. My GF and I do have a social life, and if we invite 8 - 10 couples over, every now and then, I do not want this being a problem. The issue I'm having is that most of the co-ops seem so close to each other, so I wonder if people complain a lot, even if you have the TV on late at night. I do not want to feel trapped in my own 'home', even if its a co-op.
6. A place where maintenance is done by the building, I have very long hours at work, and do not want to worry right now about the headaches of fixing things around the house. That is why I'm leaning towards a co-op.

So far, I have seen the Roslyn Garden Co-ops, Birchwood Co-ops, North Shore Towers, and a few places in Great Neck. Here are some issues I have with the above:

1. Birchwood. No vistor parking.
2. North Shore Towers. I went there three times already, and the last two times, I saw an unusually high volume of Snr. Citizens. There is nothing wrong with older people, but everyone seemed to be on a scooter or with a walker. I was wondering if I would be an odd ball out in this place, if I am the only young professional there.
3. All Co-ops. I wonder the units being so close to each other, if I invited guests over, would the other tenants have issues with that? This kind of goes with all co-ops, being they are so close to each other, would people complain? We definitely wouldn't be very loud, but I would like to play my TV in the night with a nice surround sound, possibly have a few dinner parties with co-workers, etc. Does anyone live in these co-ops, and can shed some insight about my above comment.

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated. I want to make an informed decision before I choose a place.

[Coney]

Whether you live in a coop or a rental, you should be respectful of your neighbors when you live in an apartment building where you are sharing walls,floors, and ceilings. However, you are entitled to a life. If you have guests over on a Saturday night, the neighbors should accept a certain amount of reasonable noise level before midnight. If you must watch TV late at night, then keep the volume low or use head phones. Bottom line is do unto others because you never know, you could end up living next door to the noisey neighbor from hell with the screaming kids or the dog barking all night or early in the morning when you are trying to sleep in.

I believe that there are younger people in North Shore Towers, but yes, there is a sizable senior population as well. Older buildings tend to have walls and doors that are more solid and muffle the sound better.

[Walter Greenspan]

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Handyman64, this thread should be on the Long Island forum = https://www.city-data.com/forum/long-island/, I'm guessing.
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[Handyman64]

Thanks for the input.

[twingles]

Birchwood is pretty close to the train tracks in Mineola - I might rule that out for re-sale just based on that (although since they put Roslyn Road under the tracks there has been an improvement over there). There are a lot of people who work at Winthrop who live there, but may be residents and therefore more transient?!

I'm not sure about the others. The ones in Roslyn, are they right outside town by the duck pond?

One thing is that these all seem a little small for heavy duty entertaining, especially 16-20 people at a time. Just a thought.

Can't believe these prices...really drives home the RE market. When DH were getting engaged we looked at Birchwood and Roslyn and the co-ops were $40-$60K. ANd I thought THAT was overpriced!

[Sal_M]

Great Neck Terrace co-ops are in a good location if you work at LIJ. You can take Little Neck Parkway or Lakeville Rd to the hospital. They are walking distance to the LIRR (little neck station) which is good if you want to go out in the city or for resale. They have 2 bedroom apartments. Some apartments come with a parking spot (or two), some even have garages. I would not purchase one without a parking space.

[SandyJet]

on Homepath fannie mae reo site a nice Great Neck Terrace two bedroom for sale at a good price.

BTW North Shore is fantastic but mainly older Jewish senior citzens

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by SandyJet

on Homepath fannie mae reo site a nice Great Neck Terrace two bedroom for sale at a good price.

BTW North Shore is fantastic but mainly older Jewish senior citzens

OP posted his request almost five years ago - probably thinking of selling about now