Will I ever be able to buy a 3 BR in the UWS ?

Rhino, why do you care if spinny is smug about his decision, whether rightly or not? It's not as if he's telling you that you need to buy to take care of your family.

W81: wasn't there a 1.3mish or 1.4mish (ask) on WEA for a C7 last year?

It just seems as if Rhino and West67th, the two biggest bears on SE, are also the only two who really get upset that Spin is happy with his purchase. Perhaps there is a little jealousy at work there.

Are you asking why smugness is annoying? Well smugness is annoying in its own right. His also offends logic. Its not as though 2009 has proven to be the epic buy that say 1993 was....or that the stock market rally affirms his purchase in some way. If this board isn't a place to agree and disagree with statements, then what is it?

How is there jealousy when you can buy and chose not to buy? That's Printers cool aid. Its great to be happy.... There are other ways to get there beside buying a coop. I'd much rather listen to a braggard who made a double by buying a shit ton of cyclical stocks last March...then someone who thinks owning a coop makes him a better dad. Hahaha.

I try to address facts, and half of these own v. rent threads are based on QOL which is hard to prove or disprove. It is enjoyable to decorate beyond a mere paint job. People who redo kitchens in rentals ala AR are rare. How much that right to decorate is worth in the here and now, as opposed to waiting for a market correction is subjective. Sorta like saying I am the best provider for my child because we live in a 1-bedroom rental and will be saving every penny so that I can retire early and spend time 24/7 with her/him.

Feel like we're just rehashing the same old points.

Back to OP's question. Condo is hard to do on UWS, especially in more "prime" locations. And condo is priced at least 20% higher than co-op (assuming you can find apples v. apples comparison). If a C6 in a not bad location (PS166) closed for 950k, you can probably get the same deal or better if you keep looking. If you truly don't love the idea of a co-op, maybe a rowhouse in Bk is the way to go.

Rhino, what's your favorite complex? (and I don't mean building)

Spin, I think I am done with you. If you can't see the inconsistency between disliking braggarts and being one, then so be it. Enjoy your place.

Nyc10023, I think there is a difference between depriving your kids of space to save money...and pretending that custom fixtures make you a better parent. Maybe there is just liking your custom fixtures, enjoying them, and leaving the parenting angle out of it....also the savvy contrarian stuff at least until prices move up.

Ph41 you wouldn't know a rational financial decision even if it had a Tiffany bow on it and was written for 5th graders.

NYc10023, you know I own re in NYC, you know my story, you know my situation. I think my constant repetiton of the bubble and lemmings gets in the way of my primary point. A bubbe economy goes against honest and hard work that is the pillar of USA. Now spinny crystal ball is the size of a squirrel nut, it's a selfish crystal that looks just at his own situation. Me, I'm looking down 20 yrs when my daughter does something great that takes alot of effort. What if her being a doctor paid $300k and borkers on average in NYC are making $300k working 1/3 of her time? Does that make sense? Or a banker trading mortgage paper making $1mm on bullshit liar loans? To me the ratios of hard work/ luck/ musical chairs and just randomness is crazy outta balance. A union transit worker with better pension and health than 99% of Americans? WTF?

So spinny and yourself who buy cords of firewood together from 4 hours away to save $100, please spare me how 'your home's' value has no impact your future financial well being/happiness.

Spinny what happened with the hockey game? I thought u guys were invincible? Heh?

W67: Fairway uptown & Whole Foods wood is cheaper, but I am getting tired of hauling it. 4 hours away wood is MORE expensive.

The 300k doctor and 300k broker thing - the whole system is way out of whack and has been for decades, not just now. Lots of jobs require huge amounts of effort and talent and pay very little, with little job security. Why should a subway station clerk or tollbooth attendant be compensated better than others? On the other hand, many of those jobs are filled by people who would strain the economy mightily if it were truly a free-for-all. Is it their fault that they were not intellectually gifted enough or had the family bkground to be better educated and get better jobs? I mean, what kind of society would we have (and would we desire such a society) if everyone truly had equal educational opportunities and people were compensated based on a "good-to-society" + "artistic merit" + "brainpower" metric. In the absence of social engineering, we just let our current version of capitalism dictate this.

I buy that. I think all we can do is level the playing field a bit in terms of primary and secondary education. Also in some ways, the market is pretty decent at finding the right clearing price for rewarding areas like teaching and medicine. Sadly, I think 'efficiency' dictates that people with alternative sources of funds gravitate to those.

And few people truly succeed based on hard work anyway, and I'm talking immigrants. Immigrants who arrive with some education and a striver-type society and have a financial & social network of other immigrants from the same country have a HUGE advantage. Few people succeed in a total vacuum just by dint of hard work.

Huge number of studies on this. One good example are the Ugandan Indians who were given a week (?) to leave Uganda with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and a few thousand bucks. Ugandan Indians who came to Britain now populate the top 10 UK list and by educational and wealth measures have done very well. But they didn't succeed just because they were hard workers. They tended to be well-educated anyway or had entrepreneurial skills, and there were enough of them to provide each other with a social network. So it ain't just the sweat of your brow.

So in the absence of a 'level' playing field the best alternative is bubble economy where the first tulip buyers makes $mms. Where first tech buyer makes $mms, where first home buyers make $mms. Yeah okay.

I don't think you can prevent bubbles that easily, W67. We could certainly deflate a lot faster than we have but the gov't is doing otherwise. Nothing is FAIR, dude. I think it's very unfair that I didn't pick the right dotcom to work for back in the day and make millions like my classmates who weren't any smarter or harder working or prettier.

I think the education stuff and the bubble stuff are two different things. But yes, when the government contributed to the boom in real estate, it created a transfer of wealth from the 2000s buyers to the 1990s buyers that was unnatural...as is what they are doing now, which is prop that value for the 2000s buyers. I don't know what could have been done about the tech bubble. I dont see how that was government driver. Or the tulipmania.

67th - we'll dine on Russian caviar tonight and American cheeseburger leftovers on Sunday. And I promise not to brag or deprive my children of space, or salivate over indulgent fixtures when it's over.

What's a HEH? Eh is spelled EH, if that's what you meant.

I attribute the boom to 1) interest rates 2) Fannie/Freddie 3) initiatives like ACORN and 4) mania/public stupidity. Don't know what weighting to give to any of the 4 factors. Booms have happened in other places w/o factors 1 to 3.

W67, you're starting to sound like a socialist to me.

Since when has anything in this world been fair or equal? Jesus if its utopia you're waiting for why not commit to building an intergalactic rocket ship?

I do like my ridiculously expensive kitchen faucet. It doesn't make me a better parent.

...and go find it.

Rhino86
about 1 hour ago How is there jealousy when you can buy and chose not to buy? That's Printers cool aid. Its great to be happy.... There are other ways to get there beside buying a coop. I'd much rather listen to a braggard who made a double by buying a shit ton of cyclical stocks last March...then someone who thinks owning a coop makes him a better dad. Hahaha.

Rhino, it's not "business" for everyone. Lots and lots of people want to own their own home. you don't. it doesn't make them wrong and you right. it makes you obsessively motivated by the dollars and cents of it.

Leave decisions and reasons out of it... Bragging is just lame.

Locking in a house payment in the early innings of a bubble unwind is potentially life changing...in a bad way. If people think the downside risk is less than I do, then they go buy...like Spin and Printer. For now, my child will suffer the ignominy of generic fixtures. The funny thing is that its assumed I don't enjoy my neighborhood as much...My wife doesn't make play dates....I don't know my building staff...and so on. I do appreciate all the intrinsic value of buying. I just thing -30% is much more possible than others do. I also thing I have little upside to miss over the next two years...And oh yeah for the umpteenth time, my monthly cost is lower.

I attribute the boom to a generational change with respect to entitlement. Almost every kid I hired in the late 90's expected to take his/her paycheck to the BMW dealer and drive the new car out to the show homes on the "street of dreams" to buy a house. After a quick break for lunch they were off to load up on electronics and furniture, all with deferred payment plans. Within 6 months they were in debt beyond anything I could imagine for myself. Then they heloc'd through the last 5 years until they were kicked out of their homes and back to driving 15 yr old toyotas again. #1 and #2 fed the machine but somehow along the way society created a cult-like mentality of entitlement. You couldn't even talk sense to these people without them getting all glassy eyed.

Okay, let's not end up all nice-nice-happy-happy.

I'm guessing w67th is busy digging out his USSR jersey and getting juiced for the big game tonight. Although he should consider a win for Canada is a win for modern socialism, which means we all win, really. Canada won't even discriminate against pretend American capitalists that can't spell eh correctly.

capitalists who

Nyc10023, I'm social liberal fiscal conservative. Yes rhino, let bubbles happen but then let the failures happen. To me it's heads I win $mms. If it's tail then they sit back on soc security and Medicare? No, eh? So tell me how is that ever free market? How is my wife's salary free market? To pick and choose what is free mkt vs. Not iz whole can of worms. But let's just start with low lying mangos, like housing bubble front and center.

Spinny I'm rooting for Canada tonite, so that USA's win over Canada will be that much sweeeter ; ), eh?

Listen to rhino, buying yourself an overpriced fixed payment plan and then cutting coupons to make ends meet is NO financial planning in my book. Flmao. It makes me giggle like girl looking at an oversized dildo with those bumpy things on them, when I listen to all the 'rationalizations' to buying in a deflating bubble. Lemmings, you keep me entertained. Flmao.

Go Canada! At least tonite :)

That's for glamma ;)

OP: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/493557-coop-75-prospect-park-west-park-slope-brooklyn

I know it's a terrible fate to forego the UWS and settle for a Classic 6 directly on Prospect Park in a good school district in Brooklyn, but be brave.

;-)

This is a great neighborhood. Not sure about schools. But 3 bedroom in your price range.

http://www.halstead.com/detail.aspx?id=1813143