Posted on 04/18/2014 5:00:28 PM PDT by proxy_user
With a budget of about $1 million, Patricia Marx began looking for a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in Manhattan last fall. She soon realized just how limited her options were.
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As Ms. Marx quickly learned, rising prices and an ongoing scarcity of listings mean that buyers in the million-dollar price range are increasingly out of luck or forced to make major compromises.
Low inventory, high demand and a shift toward larger units in new luxury developments pushed the median sale price for a Manhattan apartment to $972,428 in the first quarter of the year, up 18.5 percent over the same period last year, according to a report by the Douglas Elliman brokerage firm.
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Eventually, Ms. Marx went into contract on a two-bedroom, two-bath with a lovely view in the Sutton Place area that was listed for $995,000. “The apartment is a wreck,” she said, noting a crumbling bathroom, gaping holes covered with blue tarp and a vintage oven. With an impending renovation, she expects to pay at least $1.2 million in all. “I convinced myself I was dealing with play money,” said Ms. Marx, who recently listed her current home, a gracious one-bedroom corner unit on East 88th Street in Carnegie Hill for $975,000. “A million dollars to me still seems like an unfathomable amount of money.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There is an apartment available in my building that would suit this lady, two bedrooms, one and a half baths, size 1050 square feet, maintenance $1650 a month. Too bad they're asking $1,350,000 - but, the price has come down!
“ “I convinced myself I was dealing with play money,”
Good thinking.
“Ms. Marx” How fitting being that she’s living under a Marxist state. Anyone who pays even a dime to live in that abomination of a city is out of their mind. Like a friend of mine said “NYC is like North Korea but with food” lol.
New York City: the ultimate Marxist paradise.
A small elite living in luxury and large poor population who can’t survive with nothing in the middle.
Makes me so proud. :)
C. C. Baxter paid $81 a month to rent a cozy little apartment in "the West 60's,near the Park" in "The Apartment".
We paid, in US Dollars, about $800K for just over 800 square feet in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong island several years ago. But unlike Eww Yuck City, Hong Kong is a great place to live.
What the heck is she bitching about?
She’s going to sell her current place for close to a million. She’s upgrading and buying a place which needs work, but which she can afford, in part because of the killing she is making on the increased value of her current place.
What’s the point of this article? That the yuppies who want to live in Manhattan have a tough life?
Every city in America has its desirable neighborhoods, which cost much more than the less desirable areas. It’s a fact of economic life. Facts of life hold true even in New York City.
Just another reason to avoid NYC (and other places like it). In Oklahoma and Texas (and other similar places), for about $150K-$250K, I can find easily find an assortment of 10-40 acre ranches to choose from, with a 4-bedroom houses, barns, shops, convenient to town, etc.
Just nuts.
She convinced herself she was dealing with “play” money. She IS dealing with play money.
Just where in Texas are you seeing 10 acres with house a barn for $250,000? I can’t find a decent lot within 40 miles from Houston for less than $35K. And I said “decent” lot.
Been observed before that NYC is really a foreign country so your friend’s thought is not far off.
Well, not near Houston, that’s for sure...
Most of what I have seen like that is in west Texas or the panhandle, or in east and southeast Oklahoma.
Have you looked south down 288 toward Angleton? Used to be able to pick up a sizeable amount of property for a pretty good price. Prices in Houston are getting unbelievable and it’s getting so crowded that a lot of people are trying to get out of the city so it’s driving prices in the suburbs out of sight.
That’s what happens when you have 250,000 new people move in in the last two years. Houston’s housing market has been more or less affordable until now. Plus the City of Houston wants to jack up all the valuations so they can collect more taxes. It’s a no win situation for those of us who have been here for a long time. We could sell our homes and make some money but they we would need to move somewhere way outside the city where property is more affordable.
We sold our 8.33 acre Texas lot for $65,000 a year ago. With a garage and a pond.
Yes but the rats live rent free there-—such a deal for them. Shelling out a mil for a glorified big closet? No thanks...
Totally worth it to live on a smelly, overpopulated island with no beaches, bad weather, and tons of liberal scumbags.
LOL!
Just where the hell do people get this kind of money...I realize that there are rich people...but 1.3 million dollars for a damned apartment....give me a break !!
The toilets better be solid gold for that price. She and 0 use play money while the rest of us struggle with what's left of our real currency.
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