Sure, owning a home is nice–but there’s no super to call when something breaks down! (Getty Images)
Chelsea couple Tim McClelland and Colleen Darr are living the American Dream . . . New York City-style. But there’s nary a minivan or picket fence in sight. Instead, they live together in a rent-stabilized Chelsea walkup, where low rent has kept them from dealing with the hassle of moving for the past couple of years.
“There are people who take it too far and only think they’re ‘making it’ if they have a rooftop penthouse,” says Darr, a 28-year-old flight attendant.
“I think you’ve made it in New York if you can live here for a prolonged period of time,” adds McClelland, a 30-year-old software engineer who moved here from Australia in 2007.
“For me personally,” he says, “it’s just being able to stay here and afford the rent.”
The saying goes that if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
But is tackling the classic American Dream — marriage, kids, a car and a home to call your own — realistic in a city where “average” apartments sell for $1 million and private-school tuition can run at least $30,000 a year?
Not necessarily, according to personal finance guru Suze Orman. Her new book, “The Money Class,” explores how Americans can move toward a new idea of the American Dream, one that is, in light of the economic crisis, rooted not in wild spending — but in living within your means.
“I do not think making it in New York means that you own a piece of real estate,” Orman says.
“I have been in rooms in New York City with hundreds and hundreds of New Yorkers, and I ask: ‘How many of you in this room, if you could live your new American Dream, would it be buying another home or getting rid of the home you’re underwater in and renting an apartment?’ Almost 90 percent of the room says, ‘renting an apartment.’ ”
More New Yorkers are trying to live within their means. According to a Marist poll released last month, 51 percent of NYC residents are trying to “put aside what they can for a rainy day,” and 42 percent say they have charged fewer items on their credit cards.
Handbag designer Sonia O’Mara, who owns a home in Bridgehampton, LI, but rents her Stuyvesant Town apartment, thinks the idea of home ownership is present in New Yorkers’ minds, but it’s not necessarily realistic — or even practical.
“There are so many headaches that go along with owning a place [here],” says the married mother of two. “There’s something really comforting about having an apartment and a super who will change the fluorescent bulbs in the kitchen.”
Her co-worker, Upper West Side resident MyKellann Ledden, agrees — despite the fact that she’s in a financial position to buy a place of her own. “Each time [I’ve looked] I’ve decided I’m happy renting,” she says. “I like the idea if my refrigerator dies I can call my landlord.”
But no matter the stats or expert advice, some New Yorkers, such as Sunnyside, Queens, electrician Steve Dalia, do covet ownership. He aspires to buy a home to live in with his wife and 2-year-old — even though he has that always-enviable rent-controlled apartment.
“You always want a backyard, you want a safe environment for your children to live in,” says the 38-year-old.
But if you have landed that rent-controlled apartment — which many consider the holy grail of New York real estate — hold on to it for as long as you can, Orman says. She believes it can be far better than owning a home.
“If it’s costing you $1,000 a month to live in a place that would have been $6,000 a month to rent, you’re saving all that money — just save it and if, when you retire, you don’t want to live in New York anymore, you can just buy a place anywhere,” she says.
What about that other cornerstone of the American Dream — a car? According to Orman, the old American Dream meant owning not one, but two or three cars. But in a city with a 24-hour transportation system, the ability to hail a cab in most parts of the city and exorbitant parking fees, owning a car is more of a nightmare than a dream.
“A car for a New Yorker is a luxury that becomes more of a pain,” she says.
Schooling is a unique issue and, often, another added cost for many New Yorkers. Many people who would send their children to public schools in the suburbs prefer to send their kids to private schools in the city. O’Mara sends her 6- and 8-year-old children to a neighborhood parochial school, and while she says paying tuition is certainly not a dream, it’s worth it — because the variety of schools in New York City is unlike anywhere else.
“There are high schools for arts and sciences, and there are a lot of different places they can go [later on],” she says.
The public versus private school issue is one Dalia, the electrician, will face with his wife when they start to look around for schools in a few years for their 2-year-old. “[My wife] is already thinking about Little Red School House in the city, and we can’t afford it,” he says. And New Yorkers are at a disadvantage, because they pay city taxes in addition to state and federal taxes, which places them in a higher income tax bracket, says Orman, who believes you need a salary of at least $300,000 to afford these things.
But many New Yorkers just want to have enough money to enjoy life in the city — and Orman says there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you keep saving money. “You live in New York because you have the energy of New York and you want to use New York,” she says. “You do not want to live [here] and not be able to go to the Broadway plays, not go out to eat at the fabulous restaurants, not go to the fabulous shops . . . you do not want to live in New York City and have to be trapped in this tower.”
At the end of the day, though, you can’t put a price on “making it” here. “It’s being able to walk to the store and go to the park, to sit down and go to an outdoor concert and be able to go see a movie,” says Upper West Side renter Myron Williams. “It’s all about the culture around you.”
christina.amoroso@nypost.com