Rent Vs Buy

Honestly, where I live (UES) this bubble they are showing for New York makes no sense. On the one hand, it is quite difficult to find a real 2-bedroom for rent at 3500-4000 which would not be deficient in some ways, and on the other hand, there are tons of cookie-cutter 2 bedrooms (coops) for sale under $1M. For $1.3M-1.4M one can buy a quality convertible 3, which would certainly rent north of $5000. I guess serious sellers and renters just do not list on Trulia.

I think NYC is such an outlier partly because of an inventory mismatch -- more in my LearnVest column here:

http://www.learnvest.com/money-tuneup/real-estate-info/is-it-cheaper-to-rent-or-to-buy-the-map/

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Some real data on our ~1700 sq ft 3BR/3BA in the middle Trump building on RSB:
March 2009: $7,425/month for a one-year lease. Hearsay that that was down more than 20% its prior lease.
March 2010: $8,100/month (after balking at initially-proposed $9,500/month), i.e. increase of 9%
March 2011: $10,550/month, an increase of 30%.
March 2012: ?

I'd guess that the increase is mainly catch-up from the unusually good luck we had with timing in '09.

Oops -- meant to post these data in a different threat. Sorry for off-topic

I think Ali raises some good points. I would estimate that in a completely free market our unit would rent for somewhere between $4,000 and $4,500 per month, which is about our net monthly payment after tax savings on a 15-year loan. But between a one-year sublet restriction and the co-op board interview process, I'd be surprised if we could rent it out for even $3,000. Any potential renter would need to be willing to wait at least six weeks for a board OK and would go into the process facing certain move-out after a year. The odds of finding someone willing to do that are low to nonexistent unless the rent is truly a steal.

That's co-op life. (And I'm not complaining - I favor a very restrictive sublet policy.)

lad -- I have a question for you re the roofdeck process you are undergoing. ikvwmail "at" verizon.net