SROs for Hipsters?
So, you wanna live alone, but you don’t quite have enough cash? There’s now a 21st century arrangement that harks back to tenement days: your own apartment (kitchenette sometimes included), with shared bathroom or other facilities down the hall. That’s what the kids are doing these days, reports the NY Times. It’s part roommate situation,…
So, you wanna live alone, but you don’t quite have enough cash? There’s now a 21st century arrangement that harks back to tenement days: your own apartment (kitchenette sometimes included), with shared bathroom or other facilities down the hall. That’s what the kids are doing these days, reports the NY Times. It’s part roommate situation, part SRO, but for the cultured class. “In recent years, as rental prices have gone up and up, students and young professionals have become more willing to live in rooming houses or other dorm-like arrangements,” they write. “Young people have been willingly choosing to live in such places for several years.” Of course, some of these SRO buildings are actually, you know, SROs. “Many apartment buildings that require this kind of intimate cooperation have rough reputations that make them unappealing beyond the practical inconvenience of sharing a shower with half a dozen strangers,” they write. “Single-room-occupancy buildings (rooming houses with six or more units) are often used as supportive housing for people coming out of homelessness or rehabilitation programs. Others are a landing pad for new immigrants. Some are quite grim, poorly run and badly maintained.” One that doesn’t fit that description is inhabited by an art gallery assistant, who pays $1,450 for her own pad with kitchenette on the top floor of a South Portland Street brownstone in Ft. Greene; she showers down the hall, sharing the bathroom with a woman she describes as “10 years her senior.” Studios in the nabe apparently start at $1,600; guess private toilets aren’t worth the extra $150.
Room to Rent. Bath Nearby [NY Times]
Photo from Brownstoner Reno Blog.
heather, other parts of brooklyn simply do not have the rental demand. many many people only want to live in williamsburg in a passionate, irrational way. if you buy and rent it out for a profit, then what’s the down side? you’ll always make money 5 to 10 years out.
Winelover, I’m not sure that’s sustainable, at least in the short-term. I think it was a good plan when Williamsburg condos were cheaper, but as I look at the moment they’re actually becoming more expensive than their counterparts elsewhere in brownstone Brooklyn AND there’s more inventory. A lot more inventory. Like, a ton more inventory.
If the bubble hadn’t burst, $1450 in the future wouldn’t even have gotten you a toilet-less room.
well, maybe these folks don’t have high fee or security deposit monies or a lot of furniture. maybe, these places are easier to get, re: credit checks, guarantors, etc…
anyway, rental apts close to manhattan are expensive. maybe she didn’t want to live further away.
keep telling you folks with some money in your pockets still to pick up some williamsburg studios or 1 bd rm condos in bldgs that have c of o’s, and people have moved in, but that have some left over units that you can deal on. you’ll rent them out immediately and in the long run, be able to continually jack up the rent. in williamsburg, $1450 wouldn’t get you too far either. maybe a share in a smallish 2 bd if you are west of the BQE.
every condo apt that’s rented out of our building went immediately (there’s make 6 or 7 out of 36). according to the folks that I know personally, they are all getting way more than their mortgages, and these places closed in 2006.
i got jumped on a few days ago when i said that i have to friends in williamsburg both paying $2900 for 1 bedroom apts.
rent is expensive in brooklyn in those nabes with short commutes.
Sharing a bathroom for $1450?? WHAT??? That’s utter lunacy.
Sounds like the tenements of old (aka 5 points) are making a comeback. Can’t wait for the fleas and bedbugs to take over and start a nice plague. Geez. What stupidity. Just another instance of greedy landlords ruining this city.
Hey, young people always want to be the next Bukowski – let ’em live like him too.
$1450 a month.
Move a little east or move a little south. YOu can easily find a one-bedroom for that price.
Are you that in love with a neighborhood to warrant getting ripped off?
i was digging through craigslist the other day and there was a regular sized studio with a little kitchen on Berkeley and 6th ave that was $875. You just had to share the bathroom with one other person.
that lady paying 1450 is getting ripped off.