am i stupid?

w67: my partner won't let us stay in cash. Has this crazy insistence on buying muni bonds (after having been burnt last year). So probably going to lock in another loss. I would rather play with the currency mkts myself, not staying in any one position too long. Partner insists I can't. Am doing quite well in my personal portfolio.

w67: my partner won't let us stay in cash. Has this crazy insistence on buying muni bonds (after having been burnt last year). So probably going to lock in another loss. I would rather play with the currency mkts myself, not staying in any one position too long. Partner insists I can't. Am doing quite well in my personal portfolio.
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agree, muni lovers are weird to me too. how much did he lose last year? a case of unconditional love over there. munis and state finances are in dire straits... congrats on you success 10023

From my point of view, it is less painful to have $ potentially lost in RE having lost so much in other areas.

My partner thinks that the markets are 100%efficient.

cbs - sounds like you have plenty of time to lock in a nice 2br rental before the kid comes. Seriously, do you really want to rush into this because your kid is on the way? Going through the hassle of a board package a move and a delivery at the same time would send me running to related.com

My partner thinks that the markets are 100%efficient.

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that's a belief more than a thought imho

spinnaker, cbs is gone and imho he already opt for buying. not everybody can rent psychologically speaking.

i love how matt thumbs his nose at everyone in finance for their jobs being too risky. meanwhile, you work in network television - which, in case you missed the headlines, has been in decline for 30+yrs and fading fast. if you are good at what you do in finance (able to make money), you'll always find a home. being good in a disappearing industry is substantially less stable.

5) notadmin.. .as soon as my wife stopped paying for the "privilage" to work in a Ivy Tower. that would coincide with the birth of our 2nd child, 4 yrs ago.

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well done w67!

rhino - you should get cbs's contact details - i have a feeling you'll be buying a very similar place in 5 yrs 20% up from here - maybe you can buy direct and shave some dollars off.

CBS - I completely agree with all of your points that this is about lifestyle. I would just strongly warn you that what you think you want before you have a kid may be different than you find you want. That is to me as much the risk as the financial risk. We're very similar to you and your wife in terms of income profile and savings, but a couple years ahead on the kid. I am glad I have the flexibility ... still thinking about what I want exactly.

When I was 6 months pregnant, we moved out of our 1 bedroom rental into a really nice 2 bedroom condo, 2000 square feet in a great family neighbhorhood. We're subletting and had a 1 year lease with two automatic rights to extend @ the same rent (we have a situation where the owner has no intention of living in the condo for at least another 5 years). I can't say our monthly cost is too differnt than yours would be after taxes. For what it's worth, we love having a nice space (were in a 1 BR rental before) and definitely know our neighbhors better than we would have in a normal rental building and love having a place for family to stay. These quality of life issues are a big deal, but there are other ways to get many of the same experiences, but these situations are not easy to come by. Good luck to you regardless - either way you'll be fine, because you have plenty saved.

>> w67 wrote: cause I guarantee you NYC re is gonna take another kick in the groin this summer as bankers hoard their cash. >>

Let me tell you, that's totally got a ring of truth to it for me. I work in banking (for about 12 years now), managed to evade the layoffs during the crisis, but took a big hit to my income. Things look way better for 2010 than they did for 2008 or 2009, but my risk aversion has shot way up. I will think a lot harder about parting with cash that I ever have.

No surprise, biggest component in my thinking is concern about how long it would take to get a new job if things went south in this one. In that regard, I think things are still worse than they were in the post-9/11 recession. We have open reqs, and the process of filling them has been like molasses.

alrighty, one corp tax done.. personal ones to go.
Carol, you little dirty broker? Where've you been, I missed you... I even bought another pencil sharpener for you? Come on give me some sugar.

cbs, are you white? do you need/want to live with other white ppl in a coop? Preferably, in the same religious category, same "schooling" same background... need all the little ones to look alike etc etc etc.. wellz Iz dont' got that problem. I like the frat boys rolling in, sometimes they let me borrow the bong., always fun to think about just tearing naked across central park, hoping on a boat and chasing the horizons... to me I've worked my entire life (taking a little haitus now - amazing what little ones will do to you) as did my wife... so $1MM in cash means alot to us, I wouldn't want to piss it away but seems like you hit the jackpot.... "easy come, easy go" right?

Is it just me, or am i the only person who can see what's been happening to NYC RE and will continue to.... it is so so so easy to see NYC RE is gonna take another hit this summer.. .what are you afraid of..a 5% pop, 10% maybe even 50% jump from today? Jeez, VERY VERY SMART but gullible ppl paid $6.3B for stuy and is now worth $2B (therez you go bjw... a greater than 50% drop from peak)... ya think the $2000psf "new" developments can't go down to $650psf? WHAT R U GUYS SMOKING? Ganja that strong should be very very illegal or at least shared.

MAN, I am really really gettin tired of all this. Sometimes the camel dies of thirst cause they r too stupid to drink the water.

Do me a favor;
1) walk down manhattan for 4 hours today... look at all the windows in all the bldgs (residential) .. => every single one thinks "it's their spl place." Itz not, just 4 walls and a top...
2) now walk 4 hours looking down about waist high 12 inches ahead of you... well that's what you'll be doing for the next 24 months. The least of your worries will be "will" I get the "right" playdates going? b/c I'm not in my $1.4MM unit? ... .trust me, welcome to the real world.... and get ready for your world to get ROCKED!

CBS Your original question was "Am I Stupid" The answer is no. Your life and career seem to be doing fine and you seem to be able to comfortably afford the $1.4M Co-Op.

If your original question was "is this a prudent time to make this investment" the answer would be absolutely not.

You say it's a lifestyle choice. Buying a Yacht or a Bentley might also be lifestyle choices but are definitely not prudent investments.

"i love how matt thumbs his nose at everyone in finance for their jobs being too risky. meanwhile, you work in network television - which, in case you missed the headlines, has been in decline for 30+yrs and fading fast. if you are good at what you do in finance (able to make money), you'll always find a home. being good in a disappearing industry is substantially less stable."

Right.

Eventually, everyone's going to stop watching television and movies.

"rhino - you should get cbs's contact details - i have a feeling you'll be buying a very similar place in 5 yrs 20% up from here - maybe you can buy direct and shave some dollars off."

Of course you wish that. You bought.

I also love that there is not a rental available in PS 6 that isnt damning your child to poor appliances and a life of shame. Its also funny because anyone who is that hot shit can buy the lifetime apartment. $1.4mm aint that. And if you cant afford the lifetime apartment, there is no reasoned analysis that suggests this is anything but a terrible time to buy.

This is really simple...if you're buying a five-year apartment into this kind of valuation...you are still suffering from bubble mentality. Enjoy 2000-level rents until you can afford your last apartment.

Kspeak, where did you get 2000 sqft for $8k?

nycdreamer, nicely synthesized.

Rhino - We are paying 7l/ 15 foot ceilings, huge windows, doorman building, etc. - there is nothing "wrong" with the place. It's only 2 bedrooms though - master bedroom is huge, kid's bedroom is smaller. Because of the confiuration, it would be pretty hard to make it a 3 bedroom though.

When we looked for a place we pretty much only tried to sublet condos or coops. A lot of people are looking to sublet right now. One thing I learned quickly is if you have a good profile (savings, 2 good incomes) and indicate a desire to stay more than 1 year, that is worth a lot to people. Individual condo owners want to deal with even less hassle than true landlords. They aren't set up to switch tenants frequently.

Yes, just rent a condo in one of those thousands and thousands of empty condos sitting out there in buildings which will probably go bankrupt. You will save a million bucks and be so happy you don't actually own the unit when the building goes under. It is a seriously stupid decision to buy anything in NYC right now.

"it doesn't invovle renting random apartments throughout the city to save myself the extra 100-200kk... it invovles living in a place where we can develop relationships, have neighbors who can "watch the kids for 10 minutes", have doormen who have an interest in the tenents... "

Of course, you said yourself you're going to move anyway. I'm not sure what makes rentals any more "random" than buying if you're moving around the same.

But if goes between renting 2 different apartments in the next 10 years vs. buying and selling 2 in the next 2 years, I'm certainly happy to take a few hundred thousand extra on the deal....

And not sure why you think doormen are necessarily better in an owned building. If anything, isn't it potentially worse because they know you're "stuck". While a rental building has to keep up the service to keep tenants.

Speaking of lifestyle and crappy rental appliances and rent v. buy, check out the first apartment in Architectural Digest this month. It is -- gasp -- a rental.