W. Village studios are now $1,588 per sq

Why do you call this woman's apartment a studio? She clearly says it is a one bedroom. Buildings like 442 Hudson have 400 sq/ft one bedrooms in WEst Village. Very small, but true bedrooms off a living room.

Her building is http://streeteasy.com/nyc/building/344-west-12-street-manhattan

Bitch is delusional. There isn't a single unit in that building that sold for over $600K.

Real estate for sale
in West Village
We found 25 listings for studio apartments
Median price: $539,000 Median size: 500 ft² Median price per ft²: $1,027

SAVE this search criteria

Information on West Village

she's a writer. this is what they do.

"At that time, mortgage prices were 18.5 percent and nobody could afford to move. I called my father and told him I really wanted it. He agreed to lend me the money. So, he became my bank and gave me a mortgage at 3.5 percent."

THat's a nice daddy.
And if she bought GE stock instead with the $75K she'd be up 10 times($2 1982, today just under $20), not to mention the dividends.

And all those GE appliances she bought instead of "manufacturing" and "selling." :)

and would rent in bushwick vs. WV for 30 years

If she flipped a coin and bought GM instead of GE, she would have nothing except her Pontiac in a junk yard. Bottom line is that no single investment would be the best. To be fair, her return is not bad by all means.

AN article from 1982 you may all enjoy.

"Typical rents for apartments in houses are $600 to $750 for studios, $900 to $1,400 for one-bedrooms and $1,400 to $2,000 for two-bedrooms."

So she did pay less than 10 times rent roll, what are we at today? 20 Times??

Sorry forgot the link

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/18/realestate/the-far-west-village.html?pagewanted=all

What she bought was the landlord's profit for 30 years. As JButton said, that was the real gain.

I dont necessarily disagree, I think investments should be spread between both real estate and stocks.
But these numbers are exagerated. Her apartment isnt worth more than 575K, that's 7.5x not 9.
The fact is GE is a pretty modest blue chip stock and would be worth $750K today.
But the all or nothing is real life here.

What if she put $40K in GE and rented in W village instead. :)

sorry meant to say "all or nothing is NOT real life"

Ultimately we can all quibble about rent (and own stocks) vs buy of which charting 20 and 30 year looks will have them always neck and neck in the end.

But rent/stock ownership is far more liquid. Big positive for that option.
For a counter argument, if you have enough assets, you have to have both so if you run into trouble and need a cash out,you increase your odds of not forceably cashing out in one sector's downswing.

"“At that time, mortgage prices were 18.5 percent and nobody could afford to move. I called my father and told him I really wanted it. He agreed to lend me the money. So, he became my bank and gave me a mortgage at 3.5 percent. That’s what he bought his house at, and he said that’s what a mortgage should be. I paid the $75,000, and it’s now worth nine times that. It was the only smart financial decision I’ve ever made in my entire life.”

People don't understand money. 30-year yields were 15% back then, papa gave a 15% under-market loan. That 15% would compound papa's $75K up to $5M after 30 years. So yeah, the only smart financial decision she ever made in her life was to rip off papa big-time. Maybe "rip off" is too strong a word as she seems to have no comprehension of the monetary value of her father's gift.