Author Topic: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times  (Read 7106 times)

capital

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Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« on: October 24, 2012, 02:47:02 PM »
The majority of New Yorkers don't have cars, because they're unnecessary in the city. To compensate, people spend insane amounts of money on real estate, especially in fashionable neighborhoods. Rental rates in Brooklyn have been gone up "just a bit:"
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/04/11/big-brooklyn-neighborhoods-push-nyc-average-rent-up-7-percent-last-quarter/
http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/08/market-report-rents-are-increasing-in-brooklyn/

And here are two relatively normal folks spending just under a million dollars on an old building (with a storefront they aren't even using) in a neighborhood that in 1990 was "the crack capital of America" per Wikipedia, and still has its share of troubles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/realestate/the-hunt-filling-a-familys-tall-order.html?hp&_r=0
It also doesn't have subway service and is seven feet above sea level, which could be problematic with a meter of sea level rise and increased hurricane activity being in the realm of possibility.

There's a lot of money in the city, so there's some change that the prices are rooted in reality and these folks will be just fine. I wouldn't bet a million dollars on it, though.

strider3700

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2012, 02:54:22 PM »
Quote
“We prefer to buy something maybe more expensive, but not with the maintenance.”

Good luck on that.   My everything is already done home has cost less to maintain then my ancient crappy mobile I had  but it's still far from maintenance free.  Ownership means you have to take care of it and that's going to cost something  period.

Use it up, wear it out...

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2012, 02:58:18 PM »
Quote
“We prefer to buy something maybe more expensive, but not with the maintenance.”

Good luck on that.   My everything is already done home has cost less to maintain then my ancient crappy mobile I had  but it's still far from maintenance free.  Ownership means you have to take care of it and that's going to cost something  period.

In this case, "maintenance" is NYC-talk for HOA fees. They're saying they'd like to pay more up-front to live in a place with less or no HOA fees. It's an attitude I can understand - the maintenance (read: HOA fees) for my Brooklyn apartment are $1100 / month, on top of my mortgage.

strider3700

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2012, 03:27:52 PM »
ahh OK I can understand that.  I always wondered about places that have condo fees close to my mortgage price  plus a mortgage.   

Nords

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2012, 06:23:02 PM »
ahh OK I can understand that.  I always wondered about places that have condo fees close to my mortgage price  plus a mortgage.   
Every time we look at downsizing from our single-family home to a smaller place, the condo fees make that uneconomical.  Part of the problem is that we got a great deal on buying our home (crappy condition, lots of sweat equity) so we only factor the money into the decision.

SpendyMcSpend

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2012, 11:02:18 AM »
This makes me more and more glad we are renting.  We found a nice sublet for very cheap for NYC (one bedroom at $1450) in a nice neighborhood but it's almost impossible to find this.

capital

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2012, 04:33:51 PM »
Unfortunately, storm surge is likely to peak at 12 feet during Hurricane Sandy, 5 feet above the elevation of this recently-purchased million-dollar home.

jbhernandez

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2012, 11:49:27 PM »
Quote
“We prefer to buy something maybe more expensive, but not with the maintenance.”

Good luck on that.   My everything is already done home has cost less to maintain then my ancient crappy mobile I had  but it's still far from maintenance free.  Ownership means you have to take care of it and that's going to cost something  period.

In this case, "maintenance" is NYC-talk for HOA fees. They're saying they'd like to pay more up-front to live in a place with less or no HOA fees. It's an attitude I can understand - the maintenance (read: HOA fees) for my Brooklyn apartment are $1100 / month, on top of my mortgage.

I'm right behind you @ $1000 a month. It sucks!

c

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2012, 03:43:15 PM »
The maintenance includes things like heat, hot water, general water, trash pickup, sewerage and property taxes (at least for a co-op). To really understand the true cost you'd need to subtract what you pay for those things in your area. My maintenance is $740, I have colleagues in Jersey who pay that per month on property taxes alone. Part of my maintenance is also tax deductible, a small part, but it all adds up.

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2012, 08:25:36 PM »
The maintenance includes things like heat, hot water, general water, trash pickup, sewerage and property taxes (at least for a co-op). To really understand the true cost you'd need to subtract what you pay for those things in your area. My maintenance is $740, I have colleagues in Jersey who pay that per month on property taxes alone. Part of my maintenance is also tax deductible, a small part, but it all adds up.

True. Our actual condo-fee portion of our maintenance is $686 / month. The rest is: heat $143, property tax $236, water $35. Some of the $686 is tax-deductible, because the coop takes out a mortgage on the building to pay for large maintenance work, and the our portion of the interest on that mortgage is tax-deductible for us.

TomTX

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #10 on: November 01, 2012, 05:42:09 AM »
Yep, the complexity of real estate in NYC is crazy.

Nords

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #11 on: November 01, 2012, 02:25:52 PM »
True. Our actual condo-fee portion of our maintenance is $686 / month. The rest is: heat $143, property tax $236, water $35. Some of the $686 is tax-deductible, because the coop takes out a mortgage on the building to pay for large maintenance work, and the our portion of the interest on that mortgage is tax-deductible for us.
Holy crap, and I thought Oahu condo fees were way too high for value received...

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #12 on: November 01, 2012, 02:31:50 PM »
True. Our actual condo-fee portion of our maintenance is $686 / month. The rest is: heat $143, property tax $236, water $35. Some of the $686 is tax-deductible, because the coop takes out a mortgage on the building to pay for large maintenance work, and the our portion of the interest on that mortgage is tax-deductible for us.
Holy crap, and I thought Oahu condo fees were way too high for value received...

What they call that is... "deferred maintenance". When we moved into the building (2003) the maintenance - all in - was under $400. Unfortunately, as first-time buyers, we didn't realize how much maintenance they had failed to perform for the building envelope over the previous 20 years. So... then we had to do many hundreds of thousands of dollars of work (new roof, lintel repairs, major facade and parapet repairs) the cost of which came all at once and is divided across only 12 apartments.

However, when I talk to other people supposedly in the know about NY cooperatives & real estate, they tell me that we're (currently) better managed than most other coop buildings and in a better situation. I'll think twice before buying another coop apartment.

c

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #13 on: November 01, 2012, 04:02:10 PM »
Use it, something similar happened to me. Mine was $550 when I moved in. We had to take a loan out to do major structural repairs to the back wall and pay some stupid balloon payment on the old mortgage the idiots took out to avoid raising their maintenance. I was the one who really pushed for this though.

My maintenance + mortgage interest is less than I was paying in rent. When I ran the rent vs buy numbers they came out pretty even for me, so it was down to the intangibles, which swung me.

We're "self managed", it means we take out our own trash, have a cleaning roster etc, so we keep our costs fairly low. I wouldn't not buy in a co-op again, but I will certainly ask a lot more questions before buying anything.

Use it up, wear it out...

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #14 on: November 01, 2012, 04:08:34 PM »
Use it, something similar happened to me. Mine was $550 when I moved in. We had to take a loan out to do major structural repairs to the back wall and pay some stupid balloon payment on the old mortgage the idiots took out to avoid raising their maintenance. I was the one who really pushed for this though.

My maintenance + mortgage interest is less than I was paying in rent. When I ran the rent vs buy numbers they came out pretty even for me, so it was down to the intangibles, which swung me.

We're "self managed", it means we take out our own trash, have a cleaning roster etc, so we keep our costs fairly low. I wouldn't not buy in a co-op again, but I will certainly ask a lot more questions before buying anything.

Looks like we need to start a thread dedicated to sharing info about the ins & outs of NYC real estate - anyone know if it's possible to copy / move these over to a new thread?

Anyway, C, I'm with you. Part of the work we just did includes a balloon payment on our current mortgage, which I strenuously objected to (and lost). We're also self-managed. Our costs are very, very low other than all of the building work that we've had to do...

The positive side is, that even with the high mtc, I don't think we'd be able to rent a similar apartment now for anywhere near what we're paying in combined mortgage + mtc. If you know of a rental, though, feel free to let me know! :-)
« Last Edit: November 01, 2012, 04:10:25 PM by Use it up, wear it out... »

strider3700

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #15 on: November 01, 2012, 11:57:01 PM »
Looks like we need to start a thread dedicated to sharing info about the ins & outs of NYC real estate - anyone know if it's possible to copy / move these over to a new thread?

A moderator can do that.

arebelspy

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Re: Just about everything in "The Hunt" in The New York Times
« Reply #16 on: November 02, 2012, 07:46:19 AM »
Sure.  Someone lmk which posts.  It looks to me like the whole thread has been about that.

Easiest to continue, or just start a new thread, but I can split if there's two separate topics. Someone post or pm me which posts to stay and which for the new thread.
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