77 Park Avenue

Woulda, shoulda, coulda...10 or 11 years ago, I came very close to putting a bid on a pre-war 2br in a doorman building in the UWS (on Broadway (near Fairway's)) - oh, and believe it or not, the aprtment also had a nice size private terrace too, but, if I recall correctly, not much of a view. I seem to recall that the asking price was somehting like $219k. It would probably sell for about $1.1 million today. Do I regret not having bought that, of course. But hindsight is 20/20, and I had good reasons for not making the purchase (among others an ailing father at the time). However, my equity investments have done extremely well during that same period (the tech bubble notwithstanding). I would not say that that experience in and of itself put me on the sidelines, but it probably did help. Perhaps more imortantly, now that I have a wife and child, I decided to actually take the plunge and purchase. We went to contract last year on an UWS apartment in a new condo (due to be completed this year). Our current purchase price is more than a million more than what I would have spent a decade or so ago! In all fairness, however, the two aprtments are very different.

Coulda, shoulda, prada...