Seeking a House in the Bronx for $600,000. Which Option Would You Choose?

By the time they were ready to buy their first home together, Melissa Koszer and Rob Skwiat had rented in just about every corner of New York City.

Ms. Koszer, who grew up in Midwood, Brooklyn, was rooming with her brother in Chinatown about 10 years ago when she met Mr. Skwiat, who was from East Brunswick, N.J., and was living in a studio in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The couple moved to Downtown Brooklyn, an easy commute to their jobs in SoHo, and then to Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, while Ms. Koszer earned a graduate degree in library science from Queens College. Then it was on to Washington Heights, convenient to her job as a children’s librarian in Harlem.

Two years ago, while expecting a baby, they upsized to a two-bedroom in Marble Hill, paying $2,200 a month.

All along, they saved diligently to buy a home. “My husband and I have always been living-below-our-means type people,” said Ms. Koszer, 31. Last year, they found the pandemic to be surprisingly helpful to their bank balance, as they weren’t commuting, eating out or going anywhere. So they sped up their timeline for a purchase.

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“It was just dumb luck not being able to go out for an entire year,” said Mr. Skwiat, 38. “We realized we were closer than we thought.”

They knew that their price limit of around $600,000 eliminated plenty of neighborhoods — but not in the Bronx, which would allow for easy access to Ms. Koszer’s job in Harlem. Mr. Skwiat, a software engineer, is currently working from home, but doesn’t mind commuting downtown, as long as he has the subway nearby.

“When you have the budget that we had, you have to be willing to make compromises,” Ms. Koszer said.

Having heard horror stories about co-op and condo boards, Mr. Skwiat was interested in buying a single-family house. The couple wanted a small yard, a large kitchen and a parking spot. In Marble Hill, street parking was hard to find. “Every time we went out, I would have a little bit of anxiety,” he said. “Depending on the day of the week or the stars in alignment, I’d be driving around for two hours.”

The two focused on several residential areas in the Bronx. Among their options:

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