Upper Westside Townhouses

nyc10023 and others shed some light on the topic here: http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/9863-listings-im-excited-by-uws

I doubt that anyone who follows this niche closely will share a distressed bargain on a public message board.

We have a townhouse listed on the Central Park Block and 95th street. It's the lowest price vacant townhouse on the market (although it's not a distress sale). It's set up so that you can live there with income, or convert it to a one family. It has tons of original details, a big south garden, and available FAR to build another story. It's on a tree line block steps from the Park and transportation.
http://www.randny.com/listings.cfm?ListingID=88288&ListingSource=RealPlus&PropType=sale

For more on townhouses, check out my blog:
http://nychousewhisperer.blogspot.com/2009/01/truth-about-townhouses.html

it would be great to know how many of these "income producing" townhouses depend on that income to keep on paying mortgage and taxes. my bet is that many in harlem will have a tough time with lower rental income and higher vacancy rates within the next couple of years.

it's irrelevant to those owners that bought 10 years ago or earlier and didn't take equity out. but how many did take equity out? how common was to HELOC the house in manhattan? as common as in CA, FL and NV? anybody knows this?

Thanks for your interesting and informative article, "The Truth About Townhouses," nshipley!

admin, I have no idea how many people HELOC'd in Manhattan, but as has been noted before, many coop owners did so. adds a bit of a wrinkle to the safety/stability argument frequently made in terms of the coop market.

Don't you have to get board approval before you take credit on your co-op?

i think ostensibly you are, but nonetheless i know a number of people who got HELOCs, one without even asking for it, it was just given to her when she refinanced to combine two apartments. urbandigs was on a couple of weeks ago regarding the issue, and said that he too felt that it had been surprisingly easy to HELOC a coop.