I will buy a 1 BR doorman in Manhattan @ 250K

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2D61F3CF932A15752C1A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE4DE1F31F930A35751C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

A little blast from the past.

no one has a crystal ball...we'll just have to wait and see.

FYI: That's not a picture of the park, but a vacant lot.

These any better?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/1576874516/ref=dp_otherviews_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&img=2

Oh wait those arent a picture of the park either. They are next to the park, as if it literally not being the park but maybe the lot next to the park make any difference... Its not the same city it was in the 70s and 80s

Tompkins Square Park does not look radically different today from what it looked like in the early 1980s, except they tore down an attractive bandshell. It has yet to be spruced up in any meaningful way.

The "riots" you hear so much about were mostly trustfund brats from Greenwich, and all the Greenwiches across the United States of America, acting out.

Vacant lots / boarded buildings? Radical change since the early 1980s.

wow, I cant wait. If all the finance jobs disappear, the entire country/world will fall into a deep black hole since finance is by far the highest paid profession in the world.

I can't wait to buy a 2 bedroom doorman on Park Ave for $300,000, a mansion in Palm Beach for $150,000, a ski home in Aspen for $100,000 and a flat in London for 100,000 pounds.

I can't wait!! ..and im not being sarcastic. That would be awesome!

theburkhardtgroup - great article. That is a pretty recent example of a drastic drop in values and, well, there wasn't a collapse of Wall Street or an economy that is unrivaled by anything since the Depression free falling.

Those prices in there that they quote for the one beds and studios. Actually, those are HUGE sq. ft. studios by today's standards and, by now, would likely be considered 1 beds.

It gives a civil servant hope...as long as I can keep my own employment. Hahaha.

Unfortunately, and i hate to say it but my opinion strongly suggests policy makers will be unable to prevent a Depression in both the UK and United States.

For anyone who understands global imbalances I'm not so certain London and NY will remain financial capitals. They will certainly (hopefully) maintain financial positions, but more so a shared universe.

People tend to follow the money, and right now the hot money flows continue to be generated in Asia where nations such as China + Japan sit on over trillions of account surplus.

What's different this time around for NY, and the U.S. eocnomy itself is it needs a driver. Most of our drivers have been outsourced and unlike when the last bubble popped this one cannot be reflated with policy makers as the black hole, in my estimate is 10Trillion + losses we will see before the end of the crisis.

Both UK and USA will likely see downgrades in AAA...this could backfire and further extend our depression by years as interest rates would suddenly move north to keep the hot money flows rolling into treasurys....

Of course China is banking on increased U.S. consumption, but if in fact consumer sentiment remains negative we could be in for a trade war.

Should this occur, well then the Depression of the 30's would be minor to what's in the cards. Holding risky leveraged assets (both stocks and real estate not fully paid off) is not advised.

thanks.

theburkhardtgroup - great article! Thank you!

What's really happening is that we are shifting towards a more equal standard of living for everyone, as opposed to now when less than 10% consume more than 90% of global resources.

If you are an "average" joe or jane born in the 30s or earlier in the Western world, you have enjoyed an unprecedented standard of living that will probably never come around again for the likes of the average citizen of the Western hemisphere. Most of the world lives hand-to-mouth, eat and crap in the same room, and have never gone more than 50 miles away from their place of birth. We are seeing a soft reset to a more humble existence for us in the West. No amount of economic stimulus will save us.

There will always be people at the top, but the life of relative ease led by many of us will end.

Burkhardt your article re-asserts my point:

"In New York City, well-established co-ops with high financial standards for admission -- some demand that buyers have a net worth two or three times the purchase price -- are well insulated from the delinquency problem. The shortfalls are most severe in their consequences in buildings converted in the last four or five years."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE4DE1F31F930A35751C0A967958260&sec

The vast majority of Co-ops learned from the mistakes of the 90s. The co-ops did the due diligence banks disregarded because the co-ops had a huge financial incentive to make sure shareholders would be able to pay there total monthly carrying costs even if there were unemployed for a year or more. I've purchased a co-op before in the city so I'm very familiar with this. This is the main reason nyc has been insulated from the price drops around the country and why we prices will continue to drop slowly. Co-ops will even let people rent rather than sell and lower values if they have a hardship. Although this might not work, since rents are dropping... so who knows. Maybe prices will drop and I'll get lucky. Maybe we'll have a good 'ole fashioned crime wave and prices will drop and nyc will be an exciting, gritty place again.

THe other article you linked to was about a glut of studios http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2D61F3CF932A15752C1A965958260&sec
THis is not the case anymore. That article is more than 15 years old. Since then there is a shortage of studios. Many have been bought up and combined with larger apts, while at the same time there was a shift towards not building studios, so we now have a glut of one and two bedrooms.