Friday Links
Rowhouses, Cobble Hill. Photo by fake is the new real. Home Prices Fall in More Than Half of Biggest Markets [NY Times] EV Couple Can Boot Rent-Control Tenants [NY Post] Case of Nerves on Rent Rules Hits Owners [NY Sun] How Good Are Zillow’s Estimates [RE Journal] Oro Condos: Now For Sale [Myrtle Minutes] Thinking…
Rowhouses, Cobble Hill. Photo by fake is the new real.
Home Prices Fall in More Than Half of Biggest Markets [NY Times]
EV Couple Can Boot Rent-Control Tenants [NY Post]
Case of Nerves on Rent Rules Hits Owners [NY Sun]
How Good Are Zillow’s Estimates [RE Journal]
Oro Condos: Now For Sale [Myrtle Minutes]
Thinking of Spring: Fence Replacement [Forum]
Brownstoner Bloggers Going Full Time [Colin O’Malley]
Feedback on 649 Washington Open House [Brooklynian]
Good night and good riddance to you too Frenchie.
As a long time “rent stabilized” tenant/resident of the East Village ( We use to just call it the Lower East Side) I read with obvious interest the recent articles concerning the fate of the tenants of 47 East 3rd Street. By chance I happened upon the comments posted on ‘The Brownstoner’ concerning this matter. Mon Dieu. The term “Bully Pulpit” comes to mind. What has happened to New York? I guess I shall feel no remorse (Je ne regrette rien) in taking “all the money I have saved” living in a rent sabilized apartment for the past 30 years and moving to France to live out my dotage in the lap of luxury. The French have the best medical care in the world, according to a recent UN survey (the United States came in 35th) so I should be in good hands.
Bon Soir NYC
I had a large rent-stabilized 1 bdrm in the EVill for 8 yrs from the late 70s-80s, for $250/month. My landlord and his ninety year old mother lived in the basement, and there were 7 other one bedroom apts in the building. I did the math (taxes, utilities, etc.) and realized that the buliding couldn’t possibly be showing a profit – and that was why he was struggling to make repairs and constantly bellyaching about having to lodge his mother in a basement. So I saved the money I wasn’t spending on rent and as soon as I could swing it, bought a building in Brooklyn in 1988, with all the space I would ever need – when RE in Clinton Hill was still actually affordable to freelance artists (although everyone I knew thought I was crazy and none of my friends would visit because they were terrified they’d get mugged despite stats that showed the crime rate was higher in the EVill). My landlord gutted my apartment and spent enough on the rehab to get it out of rent stabilization; more power to him – he was a nice guy. But I never deluded myself that I was entitled to live in Manhattan forever at my landlord’s expense, and was willing to go somewhere nobody considered “hip” if it meant I’d own instead of rent. Nobody had ever told me that real estate is supposed to appreciate, and I never expected it. I just wanted to pull my own weight and not leech off a pair of seniors living in the basement. As it turned out, if I’d continued to take advantage of the rent stabilization laws, I’d have missed out on the best investment I ever made. I do agree that if and when deregulation occurs, provisions must be made to cover the elderly and disabled. But that’s the government’s business – individual landlords shouldn’t be inequitably burdened with a problem that belongs to everyone.
I disagree Sylvia. NYC maybe the center of banking and finance (though that distinction is slipping away too) but property rights, hell no.
I would argue that NYC real estate market is one of the most heavily regulated and inefficient in the US. If the fact that the Economakises had to go through a 3+ year legal battle to be able to use their property as they see fit is not enough evidence take a look at the needless transaction costs and taxes charged to buy/sell property in the city (lawyer, city and state transfer taxes, mortgage tax, mansion tax etc. etc.) the dense rent control/stabilization laws (fortunately being phased out, but still onerous) and the inefficiencies in the RE market generally (why no MLS in NYC). Believe it or not these regulations do not exist in the vast majority of the US and I believe they discourage development, especially of low income housing and result in higher prices for all.
Sorry to be so preachy with the last post though, probably a little over the top. But I stand behind the what I said.
oh and btw eryximachus….on the very first page of craigslist for rent in chicago i found this….
$595 / 1br – 7301 S.STEWART
——————————————————————————–
Reply to: dannyrlinvestors@yahoo.com
Date: 2007-02-16, 3:37PM CST
1 BDRM ,HEAT INCLUDED $595 CALL MR.JONES 773-932-7301
73 rd at STEWART google map yahoo map
Location: SOUTH SIDE
you don’t have a clue what you are talking about. and now that i’ve found you a great one bedroom in the ghetto of chicago for less than $625, maybe you’ll want to move….please, please????? I won’t even charge you a broker fee!!!!
don’t forget sylvia…that we are all supposed to weep ourselves to sleep because eryximachus (who is in his 20’s, supposedly) can’t get by on his “barely 6 figures.” i’m sorry to be so judgy, but after a comment like that, it is so clear that this is not a person who bases his life in reality at all. i have a difficult time listening to a word he says after a comment like that.
save the bleeding heart crap please. People the guy wasnt poor he was just lazy. Let’s not confuse the 2.
I myself have zero tolerance for people who sit on thier fat ass for 30 yrs with thier stubby lil fingers out.
People need to pull thier own weight after 2 yrs or the government needs to investigate and draft the abusers.They can ship them and have them help really poor countries so they can learn and see that they had it good in this land of milk and honey.
and just to clarify: i don’t think there’s anything wrong with landlords making a profit and i’m not advocating that the government base our national laws on pure morality (as if such an approach were even possible).
i just take issue with c-roy and the ever-entertaining eryximachus stating their case as if they’re on some kind of moral crusade against the cruel, cruel injustices being perpetrated against these unassailable property rights. it’s a dishonest rhetorical ploy, when they could just be saying: this is bad for the city’s economy, and thus bad for all of us.
“I will though, continue at every opportunity, to advocate fiercely for the principles of capitalism and individual property rights that I believe too often receive short shrift on this site and in this city.”
you’ve got to be kidding me. if the principles of capitalism and individual property rights receive “short shrift” in new york city, where are they receiving “long” shrift? honestly, we’re standing in the warm little center of capitalism and property rights, here.
you’re trying to make it sound, again, like you’re engaged in some kind of moral crusade. for that to be true, you’d have to be advocating for a morally compelling cause against a morally repugnant cause. throwing poor people out on the street because the landlord wants to build himself a mansion doesn’t exactly qualify.