What $400,000 Buys in NYC

In the midst of a class feud on media news site Romenesko, Post real estate editor Alison Rogers offers a helpful rundown on what a $400,000 home in New York City looks like:

-- a 3-bedroom, 1,100-square-foot ranch house in parts of Staten Island or Brooklyn that are likely an hour away from your job;

-- the same house in Queens, but probably with just one bathroom (if you want an apartment, you can also get a two-bedroom co-op in Queens for that)

-- a four-story, single-family townhouse in the South Bronx (yes, THAT South Bronx; they're gentrifying it)

-- or a 750-square foot one-bedroom co-op near midtown Manhattan (you have to stick your dining table into your 14-foot by 17-foot living room, but you get four whole closets!).

Concludes Rogers, "I don't think it's going out on a limb to say they're expensive: Between your mortgage, insurance, property taxes and utilities, you'll end up paying around $30,000 a year."
· What $400,000 gets you in NY [Romenseko Letters, scroll down]