Historical Rents

how would information from the early 1980s help you?

Are you planning to vote for Reagan this election? Or Carter?

I understand why somebody would want this. If I were looking to sublet my place on a long-term basis I'd want to have some idea where rents might end up in a downturn. Rents have spiked in the past 3-4 years and I too am curious what the history is ... would love to see this data too.

Yes, I agree that it's very important to know historical performance of rents if you're of the "well, then I'll just rent it out" mentality -- as an individual unit owner, or as a developer of a condo that isn't selling, with a big fat construction loan looming overhead.

Do you really want to become a landlord and deal with the headaches associated with it?

This is a naive question, but how great are the headaches associated with being a landlord? I live in a full service condo, so I had assumed that the building staff would handle the day-to-day nuisances if I ever decided to rent out my apartment.

Well, this is the equation a buyer goes through:

(Buy price + yearly maintenance costs [post-tax deduction]) divided by yearly rent of a similar unit
This multiple compare to the stock market (if that is what you would otherwise do with the principal) or the inverse of the yield to whatever bonds you might buy.

SO your equation is the opposite
(Sell price (be realistic, what it would take to sell it now - $150-250/sf below current ask prices) - yearly maintenance costs) - compare with the SPX now trading at 10-11x.

It's very likely it comes out favorable to sell now.

Sure makes sense that the stock market should rise before the real estate market does. Notwithstanding the amazing resilience the real estate market had to previous declines, this problem is a lot closer to the Manhattan real estate market. One should make a good amount in the market before real estate prices bottom.

(divided by rent you can get) in the middle of the 2nd equation