| Newsday Darsaklis and fiance Jeff Helgeson, both 32, will be moving this summer into their new home, a $369,000 two-family house at Country Pointe at Alley Pond in Queens Village. Their portion of the home will consist of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit. A rental apartment, which will have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, will probably go for about $1,500 a month, she said. Having this rental unit will greatly ease the burden of their $2,000-a-month mortgage payment. "We didn't want to have to pay rent, but rather own our own home," said Darsaklis, a human resources manager who works in Manhattan. She and her fiance, an engineer, are currently living with her parents in Bayside. "Single-family houses were just too expensive, and we wanted to be able to stay in Queens," Darsaklis said. "Now, we can have what we want - and we get to live in a brand-new house." For young, first-time home buyers like Darsaklis and Helgeson, a two-family house may be one of the few options in today's torrid housing market. Purchasing a two-family house with an apartment that can be rented eases the monthly nut of a mortgage and other expenses. This is especially true today, given that housing prices in Queens and on Long Island have continued to climb. From June 2001 to June 2002, median closing prices for existing single-family homes rose more than 21 percent, from $275,000 to $333,000 in Nassau County; and 20.5 percent, from $220,000 to $265,000 in Suffolk County, according to figures released this week by the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island. During the same time period, median single-family housing prices in Queens rose 10.6 percent, from $235,100 to $260,000, according to the Multiple Listing Service. "Two-family homes can help solve certain housing problems," said Pearl Kamer, economist for the Long Island Association, the region's largest business group. "In some Queens communities, like Kew Gardens Hills, for example, they're even tearing down single-family houses and replacing them with two-family units." Advocates of affordable two-family houses say that such units not only keep younger people from leaving the area, but also help stabilize older downtown areas. Still, many communities on the Island have not favored the building of two-family houses. Officials and civic groups have been concerned that such housing may cause overcrowding in neighborhoods and school districts, experts say. And these houses may give the suburbs too much of an urban feel, critics say, disrupting the look of single-family neighborhoods. "Traditionally, two-family homes have been found more in cities than in the suburbs, because cities have more of a diversity of housing stock," said Ellen Roche, managing director of real estate research for the National Association of Realtors, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. Of the 6,000 housing units built each year on Long Island, only about 1 percent to 1 1/2 percent of that number - 60 to 100 units - are two-family houses, said Bob Wieboldt, executive vice president of the Long Island Builders Institute in Islandia. Often, many towns have zoning restrictions that don't allow such dwellings. "Two-family homes are vastly underrepresented in Nassau and Suffolk counties," Wieboldt said. "There is a definite need for more of these kinds of houses." The two-family home is "the answer to affordable housing that most of Long Island won't consider," added Michael Dubb, a partner in The Beechwood Organization, a Jericho-based developer. "You get rental income, depreciation on the house and a tax deduction, all in one house." Some homeowners also see two-family houses as solid investment vehicles. For instance, in March, Maspeth resident Kay Gallagher, 36, bought a three-family house for $335,000 as an investment and rents out each apartment. She and her family live nearby in their own two-family house that they bought eight years ago. "This kind of real estate is a good investment," Gallagher said, "Real estate is still one of the safer places to put your money these days." Two-family houses also offer some advantages for renters. These apartments tend to be less expensive than those found in traditional rental buildings. And, for Long Island especially, there is a shortage of rental units that two-family houses can help fill. Such rentals are particularly important for younger, single people who are not yet financially ready to buy their own homes, said Westbury financial planner Judith Beckman. "I hear this all the time from clients and their adult children. Young people who can't find adequate rentals will leave the area for places like New Jersey where there is more housing available," Beckman said. "Even before the foundation even goes up, new rentals are grabbed up." For many young families, a two-family home can begin as an affordable housing option and end up as an investment for their retirement years, said Phillip Greenblatt, the owner-broker of Village Plaza Realty in Malverne. Mortgage companies often look more favorably at legal two-family houses for young couples, Green- blatt added, because rent payments from the second unit count as additional income in qualifying for a mortgage. And if a couple eventually decides they need more space for their children, they can refinance the two-family home - keeping it as a rental property after they buy a single-family house. Some two-family housing developments may not offer rental units, but still provide affordable housing options - with a distinctive sense of community. At Bayview Court in Manhasset, for example, the more than two dozen two-family houses (upstairs-downstairs units) are predominantly owner-occupied, said Mary Watts, who bought her home there for $49,000 in 1976. Many of the houses used to have a family "with one kid who moved out when they had two kids," Watts said. But now "there's pretty much a feeling of permanence," she said, as younger families - confronted with high prices elsewhere in the region - are deciding to stay on. "It's pretty neighborly," said Watts, a recently retired Garden City High School English teacher. There are block parties on the Fourth of July and Labor Day and a Christmas tree decorating (and undecorating) party. At the same time, "when you're part of a two-family house, you're really married to your neighbors," Watts noted. "It calls for some personal and social negotiating skills. You have to get out of that mind-set that you're lord of all you see." Experts say the zoning regulations in many communities are a major barrier to increasing the stock of affordable two-family housing. "Zoning will need to change in any given area to at least allow 10 to 25 percent of new homes built to be two-family dwellings, especially if we are going to meet affordable and senior-housing needs for home buyers over the next few years," said Wieboldt of the Builders Institute. "We've seen how two-family homes have helped stabilize and maintain some neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island." This is just what observers say is happening in Queens Village, with the opening of Country Pointe at Alley Pond. The 100 two-family homes that were built by Beechwood sold from $359,000 to $459,000 in the last year, said Beechwood partner Leslie Lerner. Beechwood has built 1,000 two-family houses during a 15-year period in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn. The company also is building two-family homes in an Arverne-by-the-Sea development in the Rockaways, Lerner said. "There is such a great demand for two-family houses that if I had another 100 of them at Alley Pond, they would all be sold," Lerner said. Here is an example of how some of the numbers could work at Country Pointe, according to Lerner: A two-family home sells for $400,000. The buyers put down 10 percent, or $40,000 and takeout a $360,000 mortgage, at a 30-year fixed interest rate of 6.75 percent. The monthly mortgage payment would be about $2,200, but the owners could rent out a two-bedroom apartment in the house for $1,500. That monthly nut is now reduced to about $700. "These houses would fit in well in Long Island communities where homes sell in the $300,000 to $500,000 range and on the perimeters of our older downtown areas," said Beechwood partner Dubb. One community that has a sizable number of two-family homes is Lynbrook, said real estate broker Greenblatt. Many of these homes are large three-story homes that were converted to two-family houses after World War II, he said. About 10 percent of the homes in the Lynbrook and Valley Stream area are still two-family units, Greenblatt said, but since the postwar conversion, local officials have not allowed zoning for additional two-family housing. One Long Island township that has been more amenable to two-family houses is Islip, said Dan Gulizio, head of the Department of Planning and Development for the town. One-third of an acre is the required property for two-family houses in Islip. In general, houses in the town are situated on one-third to one-half acre. "Our comprehensive goal for housing is to meet the needs of all Islip residents," Gulizio said. The Long Island Housing Partnership, a Hauppauge-based nonprofit, affordable-housing group, has been "extolling the benefits of two-family homes for 10 years," said partnership president Jim Morgo. The partnership built eight subsidized two-family homes at Brookside Mews in North Bay Shore in 1995 that each sold for $117,500. The partnership also is in the process of obtaining financing to build subsidized two-family houses in Bridgehampton in the Town of Southampton. In addition to the overall need for more affordable housing in the region, Long Island Association economist Kamer noted that an aging population would dictate that more young couples buy two-family homes so that an elderly parent could live upstairs or downstairs. "This way, an adult child can easily help out an older parent, and that parent would still have his or her own apartment. Everyone still maintains some sense of privacy, which works out best for both parties," Kamer said. This was the case for teacher Peter Hoey, 44, who moved into his Belle Harbor two-family house four years ago. His mother, Mary, 81, who has a pacemaker and is diabetic, lives in an apartment in the house and contributes about $500 a month toward expenses. The situation has worked out well for Hoey, his wife, Geraldine, 42, a nurse, and their three children. Hoey noted that many of his neighbors, as well, have parents living with them in two-family houses. "My mother loves being around the kids, still has her independence, and we know that we can easily take her to the doctor or help her when she needs it," said Hoey, who paid $258,000 for the home. "This has been good for the entire family." Still, real estate agents on Long Island and in Queens said the demand for two-family homes continues to far exceed the supply. Frank Dell Accio, president of Century 21 AA Realty in Lindenhurst, said 40 percent of his prospective homebuyers are looking for such residences. Most of the two-family houses in his selling areas of Lindenhurst and the Babylon area are between 25 and 40 years old. These homes tend to sell for $275,000 to $350,000 and they feature one- and two-bedroom apartments that rent from $850 to $1,200. Belle Harbor agent Annie Graves said half of her inventory tends to be two-family homes. Demand for such houses is up about 20 percent from five years ago, she said, selling in the low $500,000s in her market. "Two-family homes have always been in this community, and people are used to them," Graves said. "We have renters in these homes who have been here forever." In
Maspeth, about 70 percent of those looking to buy homes are asking
for two-family units, said Jim O'Kane, owner-broker at ERA O'Kane
Realty, which handles real estate in Maspeth, Woodside and Elmhurst.
But only 40 percent of the homes in this market are two-family houses.
About 25 percent of buyers coming to Forest Hills, Kew Gardens and
Rego Park are looking for two-family dwellings, said Walter Messina,
owner of Glenjay Realty in Forest Hills. "You
will always have some interest in the purchase of two-family homes,
particularly when housing costs are high," Messina said. |