Trading Up from 1 to 2 bedroom

Currently we are spending about 20% of our net income on the 15 year mortgage and maintenance on the one bedroom and have about 40% equity.

Make sure you get the second bathroom. It makes it all worthwhile. Once you each have your own bathroom you can never go back.

rc, trading is expensive due to selling cost ~7% plus for a coop. Unless you need the second bedroom in the next few years, you need to keep this cost in mind.

If you guys have a second bedroom, how will you prevent out-of-town friends and family from staying with you?

@RE: this is true because my spouse takes about 45 min to get ready in morning; @Mercer: right, plus at least another $400K, and possibly another renovation headache and higher maintenance; @Alan, lack of second bedroom is not a deterrent, but you have a good point, nobody stays more than two nights on our sofa bed.

1 person, 1 bathroom
2 people, 2 bathrooms
3 people, 2 1/2 bathrooms
4-5 people, 3 bathrooms

If all people in your household were born before World War 2 it's ok to have 1 1/2 bathrooms for 2 people.

rc10000, If you are getting a 2 bedroom coop (at least 1.5 bath; I would not do 1 bath) at a good price (not getting into bidding wars etc) and willing to spruce it up including renovating intelligently at good cost, it may be worth it. You do have to worry about coop approval as you will likely keep your 1 bed room while you renovate.

While high end condo market is slow due to foreign money inflow drying up and prices become unrealistic, there are good values (just my opinion) still to be found in coops as coops never went crazy like the high-end condos.

Curious to know what values you're seeing Mercer in the West 90s for 2/2 coops. I'm not seeing many examples with good light.

Would be interested if the whole thing with non-cheap renovation could be done for under 1.3M with maintenance no higher than the low 2000s.

I do not usually look in this area and this price range but a quick search found this. In my opinion, bid for 2 bed rooms at this level is very strong. You will need to give higher that 1.3mm for a nice 2bed.

http://streeteasy.com/building/the-broadmoor-235-west-102-street-new_york/14i
http://streeteasy.com/building/65-west-95-street-new_york/4c

I like this.
http://streeteasy.com/building/the-opera/19e

yep worth it, keep in mind with nyc property its probably going to make you more money than you would if you invested in most other areas (just pick your entry/exit).

Here in Brooklyn heights we joined 2 studios together for 4 years and was ok but adding the 3rd one gave us a much bigger master and now the spare room is home office/spare bath/den for 2nd tv etc.

Best money we ever spent even though was a stretch at the time.

Do it .
Quality of life improves a lot with a bigger apartment , especially with the 2nd bathroom

Of course the second bedroom will be great, but 2 years from now RE will be 15-25% lower than now, so buy and sell wisely. Manhattan hit peak prices Q2 last year.

It's always better to rent than to own.

@Mercer, I saw those listings too, but I don't know, they aren't much bigger than the apartment I have. I have 800sf now, getting 1000sf for another $400-500K. Ugh.

"I'm not seeing many examples with good light" -- you'll find it very hard, if not impossible, to find a 2 bedroom with even only 1 bathroom under $1.5m in this market on the UWS which also has good light.

Pick two of: good light, generously sized apartment, and more than 1 bathroom -- and you may still come in under $1.5.

@facing: Probably true.