$150,000 for a Parking Space!

Steve, you are exaggerating a bit. I know a high floor, south facing, open view one bedroom coop on W 12th between 5th and 6th that traded for $175k in the mid 90s. I did a lot of shopping for west village alcove studios 10 years ago, and they were all around $150k.

They were in the $150,000 range back then, amateur. I looked at one.

But does it matter? The point is they're asking a) what a nice place to live in cost 10 years ago, and b) 27 years' rent in advance.

At 12x rent - more likely what it should cost - the price would be around $50k.

It strikes me as odd that monthly parking rates have hardly gone up at all in NYC (at least in prime uptown neighborhoods) in the past 20 years, even though it seems there are far more car-owners, and even though the garages have puzzle-tiled the cars for at least that long.

Parking rates are falling. Long live tolls on the East River Bridges!

why does the listing have pictures of the building lobby, roof deck and gym?

How do I know? Because parking spaces aren't glamorous, regardless of cost.

stevejhx, most of the east river crossings are still very much free. I would love to see them tolled!

I know they're free. They shouldn't be.

You mean re-tolled. They all collected tolls until that weasly Mayor Gaynor decided to get points with residents of the provincial hinterlands. A typical W.J. Gaynor move.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E0DE7D71431E233A25754C0A9619C946096D6CF

Also included, for your entertainment pleasure, are an exciting tale of a subway train crash and a scandal implicating Lady Duff-Gordon.

I love the way they wrote back then: "Miss Day...."

Now it's, "Da ho'."

I love the way they leave it to your imagine what da ho was doing alone with "the boy" (as they suggestively refer to him) in a subway car with the doors closed. That shameless hussy.

I also love the way news accounts NEVER refer to the East River crossings having had tolls -- they make it sound like some brand-new idea by Manhattanites to "charge money" from Brooqueensites for entering Manhattan. It's just like discussions in the 1980s about creating local rail for Los Angeles -- the extensive system that actually shaped much of the region might as well never have existed.

And where are our crosstown streetcars that moved faster than the M14 and M23, which are obviously only for the handicapped because your average healthy person walks backwards faster than those buses?

And why don't they build a new elevated train instead of that stupid park in Chelsea? We need a new westside subway!

Steve, I'm sure you know the answer to your own question: because its much harder to sell (if not impossible) to sell seven and eight figure condos along side an elevated train than a park. All of the mid-to upscale housing along and adjacent to 3rd Avenue is post war because of the el that was up until 1955. Similiarly Sixth Avenue had no luxury residences until after the el was torn down for Japanese scrap metal (and bullets shot at Americans) just prior to World War II.

Yes, we do need a new Westside subway, while hardly as desperate as the east side situation it is quite the schlepp from 8th Avenue to the River north of 14th Street and a water's edge elevated ride would be a pleasant alternative to the usual underground experience. But how many Riverside Drive coops must answer questions about highway noise. Can you imagine a train? In order to have a train, we would have to relegate the far west Chelsea area to (high tech, non-polluting) industry. Industry in Manhattan? Perish the thought....!!!!

stevejhx, although personally i would not pay for a space like this, the last one in the building actually sold for $230k in 2008, so I do not think comparatively this price of 150k is outlandish, also assuming people will pay a premium to park in their own building. Having said that, in the current economic conditions compared to when the last space sold, it will certainly be a tougher sell.
amateur- the listing has the building and gym pics because the agent is selling the apartment along with the parking space, the apartment is listed at 1,795m

"el was torn down for Japanese scrap metal (and bullets shot at Americans)" I always love hearing that story!

Much of our transit problems (and I would argue housing-affordability problems) stem from the stupid decision to remove elevated rail and streetcar routes before rapid-transit replacements were installed. So not only the 2nd and 3rd Avenue els, which of course weren't replaced by the 2nd Ave. subway, but a huge network or streetcars all over Brooklyn -- especially in neighborhoods that don't have subway lines, and have become the poorest areas of that borough.

I agree with Steve that the corroding-structure highline (and below-ground extension in midtown) should've been reserved for a light-rail line, and with Liz that the east side has greater immediate need . . . and I agree if she's suggesting that developers were the main force behind the idiotic "park" redevelopment.

However, modern light rail is super-quiet, so it's not quite the same thing as the old els.

The east side as a greater need b/c there's virtually nothing on the west side after 10th Avenue - it goes all the way to 12th Avenue, remember, and the subway ends at 8th. There's a shovel-ready project just itching for stimulus funding.

Just because one idiot would pay $230,000 for a parking spot doesn't mean that a parking spot is worth $150,000, either. I just sold my car b/c I rarely ever used it, but it cost me $450 a month to keep it in my building. Far cheaper than $150,000 - half the cost.

"Just because one idiot would pay $230,000 for a parking spot doesn't mean that a parking spot is worth $150,000, either."

Steve, it's not worth that much to me either, but if someone actually pays that, then it's priced correctly.

As for the new trains/rail talk, that will always be an issue because there are several key areas in Manhattan that are quite far (relatively) from any subways. That's mostly due to Manhattan's shape, which strongly discourages a really integrated underground network (see Paris' Metro, which is remarkable) and kind of forces all these north-south lines (the other big factor is the city's history, which is why so many of the lines converge downtown). Brooklyn and Queens' geographies lend themselves better to a subway system, but they got the short end of the stick for the most part. The MTA could do a lot of good there if they could ever get their act together. Extending the V into north Brooklyn, improving the F and G, adding more lines that would connect neighborhoods/boroughs better, etc. We'll all be underground ourselves by the time much of this happens though (if it ever does).

"if someone actually pays that, then it's priced correctly."

Not really. If last year it cost $230,000 and this year it costs $150,000, a relatively good argument could be made that it was never worth (to the market) what one person paid for it.

And 27x annual rent seems like something only tech_guy = LICComment would consider a good buy.

I'd also expect that there is tax abatement on the tax so you could probably expect your tax costs to rise significantly over time.

I was born within five years of the undoing of the 3rd Avenue el and the Second Avenue subway has been a part of planning and discussion, some digging and not much else my whole life. My mother lived to be 90 and passed as the result of an accident and while I'm not suggesting that I will match her longevity the genens are there. Still, no one will be more surprised than I if I actually get to ride on the "T" line even with the assistance of walkers, health care aides and whatever other technology is available to help the aged as the century approaches it middle years. Additional transpo projects requiring capital investment not to mention the incredibly cumbersome review and approval process. Probably not even worth proposing. After all it will take this city more than ten years to build a memorial to the victims of the most tragic and tramautic event to ocur here...

Anyway, for that kind of money I'd want my parking space to be right at the back door to my high-floor apartment, not underground. Which Chelsea building was built with a car-elevator that achieves just that? It's so low-tech Jetsons.

I saw that building with the car lift. LMAO! Park your car on the 12th floor, then head down into traffic and wait and wait and wait and wait.

A permanent parking spot costs $600 - $650 a month in top buildings on Fifth.... $1000 for exotic car or SUV