New York Beats London as 'World's Best City'

'well, you're not in a 3,000 sf apartment, and NO, YOU CAN'T ACHIEVE THAT (or you would have tried by now).. And yes i totally feel for the "common person", and I had no desire to "cash out" I told you my husband has said we will be carried out of here feet first ( and actually seeing what's out there, and what was out there 3-4 years ago, I agree with him). Can not now imagine living anywhere else.

But, I do empathize, as with MHillqt - who was so flumomoxed with all the bears that she(he) backed out on a deal which would have been optimal for her (him). That was truly an example of SE having a very negative effect. my heart went out to her - the aparmtnet of her dreams, and she just listened to too many SE bears. (and someonne else jumped right in)

mimi, hi. and thanks.

ph41, you just don't get it. when marco_m or julia or mhillq (whatever, sorry i don't recall the exact letters) are looking for something, i try to help. i care. really.

and i never ever discouraged mhillqt. i actually encouraged him. and if you were to be honest, you'd admit it.

This is the part I take exception to - you should not assume that people who don't live in a 3000sqft, WBFP, terraced apt in Murray Hill (or any neighborhood for that matter) can't afford it or else they would have be there already. I know a few people in real life, not Streeteasy, who rent because they have always been nervous about the direction of the market and they can certainly afford to buy. Maybe there's a pathology in not wanting to risk even a small part of your net worth in what you perceive to be an overvalued market, but it's a very common pathology.

No, it was always th "price will go down' there are full one bedrooms for $400K - come on. That person had her heart set on a very particular area, and had looked at a lot, and you were giving comps in Yorkville - way east in semi- tenement buildings.

Thogh I will say, in this particular case I dont' know if she will ever buy -total fear and inertia. Will be moaning about the "lost" aparmtnment" for the next 3 years. And I really feel for her.
Come on- don't you think that "mhillqt" is a woman?

mhillqt is a gay man, i believe. but i don't really care.

my comps in yorkville were in the UES comps thread, i believe?

you think you have a morally preferable position? you want to encourage people to buy in a down market? i think you are trying to maintain your market position.

oh, and btw, you might want to take a peak at the downtown comps thread. thanks for the push in that direction. stunned at what i found, only a few months after i last looked.

nyc10023 - I just really can't imagine what the rent would be for an apartment comparable to what we have now. And you must underatand that we bought 10 years ago, and have a really minimal mortgage. There is no way we could rent now for what we pay in mtg/maintenance.

Just saw a thread on 50 East 78th street (where my husband had his bachelor pad back in the 80's) and the penthouse (2,600 sf) with terraces in now for rent for $21,800/mo. Couldn't do it now - happy where we are.

isnt that fab for you? and not common? so what's you're point?

Ph41: the point is not to compare what your carrying costs are to rent if you bought 10 yrs ago. That's why I never talk about my personal situation because it isn't relevant to many people on Streeteasy (I've also been in the market 10 years). This has been discussed ad nauseum, but to rent an apt is much cheaper than to buy right now by most methods of calculation. Yes, there will always be apartments that you cannot rent for any price (740 Park Ave.) and apts that are hard to find (3000+sqft with terraces) but the vast majority of apts are fungible, to some extent.

That PH may not rent for 21.8k, and I would be willing to bet that to buy it would cost more than to rent.

I should amend that to "I don't talk much".

Not trying to have people buy in a down market. And the down market is your version of the market. Just sorry to see someone not buy something they really wanted because people like you kept telling them the market would go further down. Someone saw the apartment MHillqt had bid down to $490 and jumped on it. And she (or he)) will be moaning for the next 4 yesrs because it really was a good deal.

Amd re: 50 E. 78th , I am dying to see this penthouse!!!

ph41, you are cruel, aren't you? there is absolutely no proof that mhillqt can't get a better deal going forward. and yet you continue to tell this person that he has totally lost out.

nasty.

Excues me - Mhillqt feels that he(she) can't get a better deal going forward. And he(she) knows that particular market a lot better than you do. Reading the posts, they'[ve seen a lot in the area, and knoow the buildings and apartments quite well. He(she) is the one who feels they've lost out - not me.Again, you go by website info, this perosn is going by real time

And you are the one who is cruel - yes, wait for the true 1 Br om Park in Murray Hill for $400K - Please!!

And yes, they have lost out.

And Mimi - you are really sort of sad - get a brain and get a life.

Oh and Mimi - keep underbidding on properties you want, because you can't stand to see how much profit those people made taking an enormous risk - and then crying about how you can't get the place you want because the people who put in the energy, money and took the risk won't roll over for you.

If you are not mhillkt broker I'll be surprised, phstalker.
Now, ignore. Not worth one more word.

I AM NOT A BROKER AND YOU ARE PATHETIC. do you really have a brain of your own? Or just follow aboutready around like a little lost sheep? Seriously , you scare me - parent of grown children with very little mind of their own? Can't stand a little challenge to their accepted leader/belief? Have you bought yet? Do you really think you will buy in the near (2 year ) future? NO - wait for 2001 levels - and you'll be waiting for the rest of your life.
AND NO, I AM NOT A BROKER!!! - JUST A SEMI-SANE PERSON

ph41, which RE brokerage are you with?

ph41, how much equity have you lost?

i suppose you thought it was grand to buy in 2007 also?

that would be so horrible. to never buy again. gee, i might just have to shoot myself, i'd be such a loser. who doesn't have a mind of her own here?

Try about $2.5 million in equity gained.
And really don't understand why if someone happens to think that it might NOT be terrible to buy now, it is automatically assumed that someone must be a real estate broker. Again, I reiterate, I AM NOT A REAL ESTATE BROKER!!!

"why if someone happens to think that it might NOT be terrible to buy now, it is automatically assumed that someone must be a real estate broker."

because it so obviously makes no economic sense unless you are in a position to write off the investment the day you make it. for anyone else, for whom the purchase price represents a significant percentage of their net worth, it is crazy to make such an illiquid investment in a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty.

columbiacounty - if someone has been watching a property for some time, has seen the asking price fall, feels that that is the property that makes sense for them to LIVE in for the next 5 - 10 years, why is that so wrong? As someone has posted elsewhere (or am I just remembering a lot of newspaper articles) one of the things that got everyone into trouble in the first place was looking at a home strictly as an investment, not as your place to live. I do realize that the purchase price (or at least the downpayment) represents a significant investment, that's why buyers should do their own due diligence in determining the right time for them to buy. And, if you have put in a decent downpayment (which the banks are now forcing people to do in order to get a mortgage), the investment stands much less (even very little) chance of being "written off"

at the risk of repeating myself.

can we agree that we are living in extremely uncertain economic times?
is is not the first time since the late '80's/early 90's that it wasn't a given that buying nyc real estate would result in a gain?
sure, re shouldn't be viewed as an investment; I agree completely. but...if there is a chance (i.e. greater than 10%) of losing more than 10% shouldn't that fact be added into the affordability equation? i.e. it no longer is enough to determine whether you have the down payment and can cover the monthlies---are you prepared for a hit to principal at the end of your holding period.

and...lets stop saying that as long as you can stay long enough, the price inevitably has to go up. i agree that prices will most likely mirror inflation over time but the tough question is whether or not you bought at anything close to the ultimate starting point. so, if you buy your hypothetical apt which has dropped from $2.0 million to $1.5 million but ultimate drops to $800K before it starts to rise in conjunction with inflation, it'll be a long time if ever that you get back to your original par of $1.5 million.

Your hypothetical drop is really the prduct of a bear's active imagination - I have said before, I do not believe we will go back to 2001-2002 prices, which is what you are assuming.

Sorry- unless one bought in a brand new condo in 2007-2008, but many of those purchasers were investors.

you're not getting it.

i'm not saying that we will--i'm saying there is a chance that we will.

and if we do -- and if someone buys now, they stand to lose equity that represents years of work....years of work.

sure its nice to own (i do). but, i never bought at a time when there was this kind of possibility of loss. do you think that the banks have recovered? do you think that the federal budget is sustainable at its current rate? do you think long term interest rates of close to zero makes any sense? these and other questions are what make these economic times so challenging.

And whoever buys into the new apartments with their 9X10 "bedrooms" and 10X15 ft. "master bedrooms" deserves whatever they to. Guess the huge bathrooms (because of ADA requirements) just blinded them

so now its "they deserve what they get?"

Only for those stupid new condominiums - bought by a lot of people with the investor only mentality.

The internet has provided us with instant definitive answers to trivia, sports or historical questions. Immediately we're able to settle arguments and bets without arguing ad nauseam. How old is Jimmy Carter? how many majors does Tiger Woods have? We just look it up and all these arguments with my wife end immediately. (She usually wins)

For speculative issues, like what direction will the NY RE market go, we need to gather the data and come to an informed opinion. We can present our evidence, listen to others evidence, but what good is it to continue to repeat the identical opinion over and over again. Let's state our case with backup data and just wait. Why not revisit this issue every quarter with latest data and see if we can determine a trend or direction.