just closed

Congrats! 8% listing discount, which ain't bad. And it'll be an easy move.

Congratulations!

Congratulations! It has a huge "maid's room" and amazing views.

thanks - we are planning to open the whole thing up - initial thoughts are - the kitchen and studio will become kitchen/family room or kitchen/dining room. our son will get the current living room as his world - bedroom/den/hangout when his friends come over. knocking down the wall inbetween the dining room and the other bedroom to make a loft like living space to take advantage of the views. also - turning the current foyer into some type of room (not sure yet) office/media etc. moving washer dryer into a "laundry room" back where the 3rd bathroom for the studio is. also - probably enlarging both the bathrooms near the bedrooms.

Would love any and all feedback regarding the floorplan/ideas etc. We have 1 child and are not planning on more - so for now 2 bedrooms suits us just fine.

Looks great -- enjoy it!

how big is the combo dining/bedroom? Looks like it will be smaller than current living room. Also, getting rid of the 3rd bedroom definitely will make a difference for future re-sale.

Then again, I do understand making an apartment perfect for your own needs/desires, despite resale impact.

Nice place, well done. Congrats.

the new living space will be 23 x 18 - but more importantly will have amazing views - my 6 year old does not need river views in his bedroom

eventually if/when we sell, the wall can always go back up between the 2 rooms - I refuse to worry about resale - we plan on being here for a long time

Congrats! I think you are well on your way to a great home. Please keep us updated to the renovations!

congrats -- looks fabulous and I think you got a great price!!

thanks again - now the hard part begins - luckily we are currently in a rent stabilized apt and will stay during renovations

How does one get stabilized rent and still be able to buy $1 mil+ places?

jsut guessing - the rent is under $2,000/mo, or (less likely, if the rent is over $2,000/mo annual income is under $200K)

"luckily we are currently in a rent stabilized apt and will stay during renovations"

How lovely for you. $1.56M deal plus bags of loot left over for renos. Aren't rent stabilized apartments subsidized by my tax contributions? Maybe instead on congratulating yourself you should be thanking us.

UWS - actually RS is subsidized by the landlord(s)

200k income with these carrying charges...?

So what's the deal leelaura? Educate me on your technique.

BTW I am very happy for you!

UWS - you sound very bitter - I guarantee that you would be kicking up your heals if you had the same deal - take it up with my landlord - that is the lease they gave me - I didn't ask for it. My building is so disorganized that they did not ask for income verification until last year and we will be destabilized at the end of the lease this June. Should I have gone to them and begged them to raise my rent?? You sound foolish.

UWS, you dont understand rent stab. very well. I am a rent stab. tenant. When I moved in 25 years ago, the rent was about $550. Now it's about $1350. I am not poor, but the landlord cant take it to market until it reaches $2000,which could be quite some time, and establishes my income is over $175K for two years. My landlord is the ghost of Sol Goldman. When alive this fellow was something like a billionaire. Your taxes are NOT subsidizing me. If however you'd like to send me money (I prefer euros or yuan-no dollars), I'll give you my address.

LL, great apartment.

Anyone who can get one over on The Man is fine with me. As long as I'm not paying for it.

Congratulations. Good luck with the reno - remember to double-check EVERYTHING yourself, and check in regularly. No matter who the architect/designer/contractor is, no one cares about the details as much as you.

I beg to differ. At least some rent stabilized buildings are taxpayer subsidized. From the rent guidelines board (http://www.housingnyc.com/html/guide/stabilized.html):

Apartments can also become rent stabilized if a developer utilizes the J-51 or 421-a tax incentive programs. Click here for a list of buildings in New York City with rent-stabilized apartments.

You will see that 189 W. 89th is on the list - that's the Sagamore, a Related building. I know that these are hardly cheap, but if you get in at the right time you could still end up at below market rent after a few years.

Sorry, SE ate my link to the list of rent stabilized buildings: http://www.housingnyc.com/downloads/resources/sta_bldngs/DHCR2007-Manhattan.pdf

"Your taxes are NOT subsidizing me".

Sure they are. Every under market rent-stab apt means property taxes on the building are lower than they would be for a free market building, therefore those taxes are made up elsewhere by others. Also, the owner is paying less in income taxes to the City and State with lower incomes.

If anybody thinks that rent stabilization doesn't affect NYC real estate prices, they are fooling themselves. You may not be tax subsidized, but you are essentially market subsidized. If all the rent stabs were able to freely price, rents for non-stabilized units would certainly come down.

I am not against rent stab, only because without it, NYC would be a community with zero diversity.

What I am opposed to is gaming the system. Whether you are Charlie Rangle or anybody else, if you are ineligible for rent stab, you are denying the opportunity for someone that is eligible - it's that simple.

OTM, I see your point. Yes, developers must submit to rent stab. to get the tax abatement. But upon building completion, the first "rent stabilized" rents are really at market. I would think that the availability of the tax abatment benefits ("subsidizes") the owner of the land who sells to the developer more than the rent stabilized tenants. But still good point. I stand partially corrected.

congrats!

gotta love saving a cool million of the old asking (38%!)

"Sure they are. Every under market rent-stab apt means property taxes on the building are lower than they would be for a free market building, therefore those taxes are made up elsewhere by others. Also, the owner is paying less in income taxes to the City and State with lower incomes."

Bingo.

Taxpayers subsidize rent stabilization, plain and simple. As do everyone that bought or rented a non-stabilized apartment.

Did you find the deal yourself or through a good broker? If it was your broker, do you mind sharing the name?

hey leelaura: bullshit to all these sour grapers. landlord gives you a lease that works for you---tough for him/her. of course, you shouldn't point out how he/she might make more. that's ridiculous. and i agree with you---none of them would do any differently.

Leelaura: Congratulations on a great new home. Best of luck with the renovations.

I'm curious about the building. Values seem very attractive there. If you don't mind sharing, did you turn up anything of concern during your diligence?

Figure there are 1 million rent-stab apts, undervalued by at least $100k per unit for tax purposes over free market rentals, that is $100 BILLION of underassessments.

The entire market value of NYC real estate is $800 billion, so $100 billion is not chopped liver in terms of lost taxes. And my estimate of $100k per unit is probably way low.

Stabilized apartments down, frets up

BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, June 3rd 2008, 11:38 PM

The number of rent-stabilized apartments in New York shrank 4% to 836,004 last year, the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal said Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/06/04/2008-06-04_stabilized_apartments_down_frets_up.html#ixzz0UQhcMU5L

so...you're off by 15% in the absolute number, you have no back up for the so called undervalue. I say bullshit to you and everyone else here who is so happy making up numbers to make their point.

and more to the point--if you were fortunate enough to luck into one of these places, would you call the ll and tell them to charge you more?

Wow...

enjoy

Congratulations on a great home! if you remained RS for the long term (ie, your landlord doesn't ever check your income) would you have bought or save all the extra cash you are pouring into this new house?

nyc 10022: yes - the $1 million off the original ask made us pretty happy

cool relax 52: I found the apt myself - personally find brokers useless(no offenseto any of you brokers) - they show you everything you can see online

west 81: financials on the building are phenominal - no mortgage - plenty of reserve -

the block is beautiful - it is between york & east end (really henderson place) and there is no commercial traffic as the buses turn on york.

admin : we would have bought regardless - it was time for us to "grow up" and put our roots down - I want the kitchen that I want

@Leelaura At worst brokers are useless. But what if your broker rebated you up to 67% of their commission? Congrats on the new home!

lol leelaura, now you are grown up :-)

west81, "financials on the building are phenominal - no mortgage - plenty of reserve", where do you find building's financial info?

admin, in ACRIS do a business-name search on "THIRD EQUITY".

Looks as if the co-op had a $3.5M mortgage as of 1993, which they'd paid off by 2005. Quite a feat.

Since then they must've been able to take what they'd been paying in interest and principal and route it to reserves.

thank you NWT!!! so far i've been using ACRIS to find about homes only... and love it!