House of the Day: 902 Union Street

I'd rather take this one around the corner for 200K more...

http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=1869202&ohDat=11/1/2009%2012:00:00%20AM;

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 1:17 PM

This might be one of the more heavily traveled streets around, but calling Union Street in Park Slope a "traffic nightmare" seems a bit excessive to me.

What exactly would you call the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic then?

Let's try to be a little more realistic about traffic when we live in the largest city in the country.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 1:36 PM

"How many more cash-rich folks are there?"

I'm guessing a lot.

I don't understand why you think they've all disappeared.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 1:40 PM

The next 15 years are going to produce a lot of "excess cash" too, but perhaps in different ways.

You did hear they are handing out about 25 Billion in "extra cash" this year in bonuses, correct?

Listen I'm not saying that (or anything else) is going to save the real estate market, but the sheer fact that 75% of brownstone readers make over 100K (and who knows how many of that above 200K, 300K) shows me that there's more wealth around than people realize.

Lots of old money in NYC too...people who think 3 million is chump change.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 1:52 PM

Rob...take a walk around Brooklyn Heights some time if you haven't already. There are many people there who are wealthy going back generations and their 5 million dollar home on Pierrepont Street is one of 5 they own around the world.

Seriously. It's nuts.

Same goes for the Upper East Side and scattered all around the city.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 2:00 PM

p.s. I don't think they are reading Brownstoner, however.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 2:03 PM

***
Home prices in many U.S. metropolitan areas are nearing so-called "bubble territory," according to Robert Shiller, co-founder of the Case-Shiller home price index. Home prices in the U.S. are "zipping up," according to Shiller, as the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of prices in 20 metro areas showed a 1.2 percent rise in average home prices from July to August. Certain U.S. cities, like San Francisco, have seen double-digit upticks in average price, a trend that could end badly, the economist said. Still, Shiller said that it's difficult to determine how the rising prices could ultimately affect the market. "It is entirely possible that even with the bad news we are getting, home prices could start a major increase," Shiller said. "What happens from here will depend on people's animal spirits and speculative impulses." Shiller sat down with CNBC today to analyze the sharp turnaround in prices. [Reuters]

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 3:21 PM

I live one block from Union Street.

It's funny that the brownstoner resident idiot is throwing out insults here.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 3:29 PM

Tyburg:

Please see my post above from Shiller showing that certain areas like San Francisco are already showing double digit upticks in average prices.

From talking with some neighbors (and my parents and other generally older people), this mindset (yours) happens EVERY time we go into a recession. People like you think it's impossible that prices will ever go up, and EVERY SINGLE TIME they do once the economy recovers. Every time. To think that home prices are just going to stay steady for the next 20 years is simply naive.

World don't work like that.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 3:57 PM

Ty:

For the record, I feel that this is a 2 million dollar home, not 3.

As for the rest...I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 4:39 PM

Ty:

It doesn't have to be so nuts as you're making it seem and you are overstating things by a lot.

Say you buy that 150K studio today and in 5 years you're able to sell it for 200K, lets say.

You can use that 50K and anything else you are able to save to put a 60K 20% downpayment on a 300K 1 bedroom. Then in 10 years sell that place for 400K and now you've got the 100K to put down on a 2 bedroom.

This is how it works. You might have to wait an extra year or 3 depending on the economy in my fake numbers above, but if you start somewhere you can pretty easily see how you can get in on the market and make something with it. Some years will be bad, and the market will go down, but I think my numbers above take that into consideration and put in on more of a scale that MOST of us can comprehend.

To suggest that everyone wants or need a 3 million dollar house is dumb. There are few on the market and there are few buyers. This is the top of the market.

Think smaller and stop speaking so much hyperbole.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 5:03 PM

Perhaps, chicken. But most people during those years of ownership are also paying down their mortgage, and hopefully saving a little bit of money too, so it's not quite as cut and dry as I made it seem. At least it shouldn't be anyway.

For example, I am now saving money in the goal of coming up with a downpayment on my next apartment (no plan in sight to move, but one day I may want a larger place...who knows) and in my mind fully appreciate that 5 years from now I might sell my place for the exact same amount I paid for it. It's possible.

But that will mean my next place will be cheaper than it was during the bubble years, and if I come up with the down payment on the next place, I'm just that much closer to paying that next place off.

Eventually the goal (for me anyway) is to own the final place I live in outright so that I can retire with no house payment. Everyone has different long-term goals, but that's my personal plan and it doesn't feel like a ponzi scheme.

Right now I'm paying my mortgage every month and adding extra every month towards the principal. With the downpayment and money I've paid back, I already own about 30% of my place in just a few years of owning it. You also hope that as the years go by, your salary increases thus making the payments less and less a % of your income as time passes.

Posted by: 11217 at October 29, 2009 8:07 PM