Where Two Is Better Than One

NEARLY as soon as Daniel Zarabi, a builder in Port Washington, completed a pair of two-family homes on Manhasset Isle in Manorhaven, he rented out each duplex for $3,500 a month. He is eager to build more such housing nearby.

“There is always a demand for it,” Mr. Zarabi said. “It’s a nice size, and you get to use what the community has to offer,” including parks, a pool, golf and fine schools.

Despite calls across the Island for more multifamily housing, Manorhaven is one of only a handful of communities with zoning that allows for two-family construction. Most permit such housing only if it’s grandfathered in. Among buyers, the benefits include living in one half while renting out the other to cover property taxes, if not the mortgage. For renters who cannot or are not yet ready to buy, two-family homes often provide more space — for instance, the three bedrooms that are hard to come by in apartment buildings.

In fact, to hear Mr. Zarabi and others tell it, two-families are the answer to a number of the Island’s housing problems — a way to draw younger residents while avoiding the blight that can sometimes gain a foothold if a community has too many rentals.

The “young professionals” drawn to his housing, Mr. Zarabi said, often replace more “transient” tenants. And the popularity of two-families is only being bolstered by the strength of the rental market, with prices ranging from $2,800 to $3,800 a month for new construction depending on size, location and views.

Jonathan P. Fielding, the Manorhaven village clerk, says that code permits two-family houses on lots with a minimum of 4,000 square feet, and that single-family homes are eligible for conversion if they meet that standard. There are 1,550 properties in Manorhaven, he said, and the “lion’s share” are two-families.

In quite a few, “the owner lives in one unit and rents out the other unit,” Mr. Fielding said. “We have a lot of residents who rely on the income from renting out the other unit in their house to make ends meet.” With owner-occupied units, he pointed out, people have “that same pride in ownership. That doesn’t create a problem for a community the way you could have if you have all rentals.”
Mr. Zarabi, given the green light by the village board of trustees late last year on a pair of slightly larger two-families, recently knocked down a single-family on a corner lot in preparation. Replacing it will be a pair of Hamptons-style shingle postmodern two-family homes, each with 1,600 square feet over two stories, and two and a half baths, a basement and a porch to call its own. One will have three bedrooms; the other will be laid out for two bedrooms and an office. One tenant’s front door will be on Sintsink Avenue West and the other will face Mohegan Avenue, making the dual residences look more like single-family homes.

“We don’t like to put the two doors next to each other because it is not very private,” Mr. Zarabi said.

Ed Mayourian, a builder and a partner in Putnam Development, says his two-family homes in Manorhaven sell for $650,000 to $900,000. “The demand is there,” he said. “We have plenty of customers. We sell them; we rent them.” When first-time buyers eventually move up to a single-family residence, Mr. Mayourian said, they often keep the two-story home as an investment property.

On the South Shore in Long Beach, the Island’s other two-family-home stronghold, there has been a moratorium on two-family home construction since 1999, to stem overcrowding, except for properties grandfathered in. The Multiple Listing Service of Long Island has 55 two-families on the market there

According to Alex Rubin, an associate broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman, Long Beach’s multifamilies command a premium. Mr. Rubin’s recent listing for an owner-occupied contemporary two-story two-family home “in perfect shape” on a beach side street for $699,000, a short sale, received an accepted offer “fairly quickly,” he said. Rent for the lower level runs $2,000 a month; the upstairs, including a roof deck, commands $3,000.

He said two-family homes made sense for downsizers who sometimes have difficulty shedding enough belongings to move to a two-bedroom apartment from a five- or six-bedroom home. Many empty nesters are also concerned about common charges and assessments in co-ops or condominiums. In a two-family home, Mr. Rubin said, they feel “more in control.”

At the high end in Long Beach, Gosia Malgorzata Onufrik, a sales agent with Paul Gold Realty, has a $2.65 million listing for a new two-story two-family contemporary oceanfront home that replaced an older two-family home. Each unit has three bedrooms, two and a half baths, a deck, a tandem two-car garage and an elevator. Rent runs about $5,000 a month for the lower level and $6,500 for the upper.

In Brookhaven, meanwhile, a town code amended last year is opening up a new possibility for builders. In a new 10-lot subdivision in Port Jefferson Station called Sweet Woods by Island Estates, Len Axinn, a developer, just started framing a model home with an accessory apartment that can legally be rented.

“It is a two-family house,” Mr. Axinn said, “but it cannot be owned by an investor who seeks to rent out both parts.” The basic three-bedroom one-and-a-half-bath model runs $499,900, with the apartment on a walkout lower level with its own entrance.

“It is a house to grow into,” Mr. Axinn said, envisioning first-time buyers needing the rental income. During child-rearing years, the space can be converted for family use as an extra bedroom or a media room. Later, grown children returning to their parents’ nest can relish the privacy of a separate apartment. And downsizers have yet another option: “The homeowner could live in the apartment and rent out the main house,” Mr. Axinn said.


Source: Nytimes.com