Stevie -- after a run-up of more than 200-300% since the early 90s, I would think ti fair to say the townhouse declines in prime brownstoner areas were "relatively soft" (pay attention to those adjectives).

Were you really set to buy at peak with no inclination that prices were high due exclusively to advice you got here and only the what convinced you not to? But for the what, you would own, with a mortgage you couldn't afford, and be foreclosed and on the street with no income to rent? Is that really how your life played out in fact? Because that is the implication of your puffery.

Meanwhile, Biff, I think your 76.4% proof is a little weak.

Sorry, m4l, I promise I will take my logic and go home now.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 6, 2009 4:01 PM in response to Open Thread

Stevie,

maybe I missed it. Would you post a link to your entry in which you asked if it was a good time for you to buy a house and someone on this site said "yes, you should buy right now, stevie, don't miss a beat"? Thanks. I would love to see it. If you truly believe that the what is all that has kept you from homelessness, why should anyone take you seriously about anything?

Meanwhile, I think even the so-called bulls on this site predicted a relatively soft decline -- not rise -- in townhouse prices with a price bottom in the not too distant future. They are bulls only by comparison to the free-fall gloom and doom of your pall and a few others, not in the true definitional sense. And most folks on this site will tell you that the decision to buy depends on your own circumstances -- where you are now and how long you plan to live in the next place, for example.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 6, 2009 2:59 PM in response to Open Thread

Forget vinylsider. Anyone register www.hardiplanker.com yet?

Posted by: slopefarm at November 6, 2009 2:01 PM in response to The Albemarle Renovation Blog Launches!

Ok, that was the easy part.
Snarling and teeth-gnashing = 1/available cash.

Seriously, good luck. I'm looking forward to seeing this and hope the surprises are few.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 6, 2009 11:06 AM in response to Welcome to The Albemarle Reno Blog

eman,

do you install boiler flue dampers? Do you do light electrical?

Posted by: slopefarm at November 6, 2009 10:59 AM in response to Furnace or Thermostat Issues

You're just killin' today, broke.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 6, 2009 10:25 AM in response to Open Thread

Landmark Preservation
Details on the wall,
Landmark Preservation,
Cornice 'bout to fall,

Thirteen month old baby,
Broke the treated glass
Seven years of hearings,
Violations in your past

When you install things
That you leave off the plans,
Then you suffer,
Preservation ain't the way

Landmark preservation
Wash off modern tans
Rid me of the problem,
Do all that you can,

Keep me in a daydream,
Keep foundation strong,
You don't wanna save me,
Sad is the song

When you install things
That you leave off the plans
Then you suffer,
Preservation ain't the way,

Posted by: slopefarm at November 6, 2009 10:04 AM in response to Open Thread

"Would you play cello in a marching band?"

I wouldn't fret about it.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 5, 2009 2:48 PM in response to Open Thread

"11217,

...yet curiously enough, New Jersey was willing to live with high property taxes even through the other shenanigans like Torricelli and Florio. What changed?"

1. Unemployment. Makes high property taxes a more urgent problem. Unlike income tax, you owe it even if you don't earn. Unlike sales tax, you owe it even if you don't transact.

2. Blind eye to corruption in Hudson county.

3. Corzine = Goldman Sachs (no one gave a sh*t about that four years ago, now WS, and specifically GS, is politically toxic).

4. Stupid speeding accident.

Dems would be stupid to ignore results but republicans would be equally stupid to assume this was a referendum on Obama.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 5, 2009 2:46 PM in response to Open Thread

"I would rather live under a rollercoaster a la Annie Hall."

Now I've got an "Uncle Joey Nichols" ear worm. Thanks a bunch, Biff.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 5, 2009 2:36 PM in response to Open Thread

You're on a roll denton. Stay the course in 2010? -- sounds eerily like the 1982 mid-terms for RR. Congrats to you and your daughter, btw.

Interesting perspective, benson. A lot will depend politically on what the jobs picture looks like in late spring.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 5, 2009 1:04 PM in response to Open Thread

You nailed it, Brenda (the rhetorical point, not the crooked lintel). Funny how the people who keep saying the brownstone Brooklyn housing market is in free fall also keep expressing shock at how much everyone keeps paying for houses. Opinion seems to matter so much more than data points. 2+2 =??

Posted by: slopefarm at November 5, 2009 12:45 PM in response to Brooklyn Sales: Under a Million

Just cause you're not mayor, snappy, doesn't mean you can shirk your responsibilities here. Take a good look around and clean out the joint before you turn off the lights next time.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 4, 2009 7:41 PM in response to Open Thread

There were ghosts in the eyes
of all the buyers you sent away
They haunt these dusty nabes with the skeleton frames
of burned out houses of the day
They screem your ID at night in their sleep
Their offer sheets lie in rags at your feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
The bitter renters keep roaring on
But when they get to the open house your gone
So baby log in
It's a blog full of PLUSAs and I'm signing off of here to win!

(Sax break)

-----

OK, snark still wins.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 4, 2009 5:16 PM in response to Open Thread

Ok, let's clear up some misconceptions.

#1 "Here's another clue for you all: Don't you know the walrus was Paul?"

#2 Seasoned Ritz bread crumbs were invented in China and brought to Italy by Marco Polo (sorry, benson).

# 3 Snappy didn't lose. She won the runoff against Karzai.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 4, 2009 3:33 PM in response to Open Thread

Not my area, but, if this is a commercial lease, and if roommates cut back on payments or stop paying, what rights would they have if the owner just resorted to self-help and locked them out? It's bad karma and heavily frowned upon in housing court, but would that even be an available venue? Not sure there's a right here to a pro-rated share.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 4, 2009 11:36 AM in response to Sublet/Share Legal Issue

"Slight correction. In BHO's world, it's a conspirancy when the results don't match his predictions."

Yes, Benson, and people are overpaying for HOTDs just to destroy the widget. ;)

Posted by: slopefarm at November 4, 2009 10:09 AM in response to Open Thread

I know a bunch of folks who just couldn't pull the trigger for Thompson because he seemed to have nothing positive to offer in the way of skills or vision, but didn't feel like rewarding Bloomie due to the term limits thing or because of being generally fed up with the bullying. Voted either third party protest or skipped the mayoral ballot.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 4, 2009 10:00 AM in response to Election 2009: No Big Surprises in Brooklyn

This is a good job for a mortgage broker. The main referrals that keep coming up are Adam Dahill, who posts here, Al Trachtman of Trachtman and Bach (who we used and like), and Norman calvo of Universal. THey will know who is making these types of loans, if anyone.

We did this back in the boom. You borrow against the anticipated equity, so you need an appraisal that says that the renovated house will be worth what you need to meet the loan-to-value requirements. If you are putting 275k down and borrowing 825k, you need another 200k in your loan to finance the reno (assuming no overruns, and there are always overruns). That would make a mortgage of $1.025m, or a $200k line of credit. In the current climate, it may be difficult to get the appraisal you need and few, if any, banks may be doing this. Also, your contractor needs to be prepared for funding to lag behind the work because you get the construction proceeds in pieces based on a completion schedule.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 4, 2009 8:56 AM in response to Mortgage Questions

yes, bx, just the thought that there was someone out there about to go to contract on a house and then said, "uh oh, the what says not to buy," and then withdraws the offer. There must be thousands of them out there just killing the market. Gives me nightmares just thinking about it. ;)

Posted by: slopefarm at November 3, 2009 5:42 PM in response to Open Thread

It's usually the last Tuesday of the month for the 78th precinct community council. Bring a few bucks for the 50-50 raffle and be prepared for 45 min of photo ops for the cops who busted someone in the previous month. Then they open the floor and you can say something. Keep a really positive, not angry, demanor as you tell your story. They will tell you they will look into it. Stay until after the meeting. The community affairs officer and a rep from every elected official will come up to you and ask how they can help. Be prepared with specifics about what you are looking for, collect names and numbers, and ask for ideas and for someone to come to a block meeting. Also, ask to speak to a narcotics officer and tell him privately what you know about who's selling what when.

You'll get lots of attention because no one goes to these things. My block association is going to kill me for give away these trade secrets.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 3, 2009 3:04 PM in response to Illegal Dumping, Drugs, Rats

Whoever wins, I can't wait until people stop reminding me of Dick van Patten.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 3, 2009 10:27 AM in response to Open Thread

that's cold turkey, arkady. I am curious what gentler remedy they might be using in Italy to wean addicts from the web.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 3, 2009 9:38 AM in response to Open Thread

What's the internet addiction equivalent of the patch? Or methadone? Some of us may need it.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 3, 2009 9:28 AM in response to Open Thread

Wow, I never thought to try that one. Sounds far fetched, but I am not knowledgeable in this area. I imagine you'd have to contract for it, as in that you might be entitled in teh sense that you are allowed to serve as a broker due to your law shingle, but not a right to collect something no one has agreed to pay you. I wonder if you'd ahve to assert that you are representing yourself as your own broker when you go to see the place so the seller's broker knows the terms up front. Not sure sandbagging later will work. But that is my totally uninformed gut reaction.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 2, 2009 11:19 AM in response to Fee for Lawyer Acting as Broker

How long are folks going to treat each example of widget underpricing as an isolate case of a buyer overpaying? We're easily in the double digits of examples in which the sale price exceeds the widget by at least 15%, with one or two counter examples at best.

Mr. B, in light of the confusion soem have voiced, perhaps you want to clarify the question you want widgeteers to answer. Is it "how much would you pay for this house/aprtment?" or "What do you think it will sell for?" People seem to vary on what they think an "appraisal" means in this context.

Again, the debate on the widget's accuracy is not a referendum on the direction of the market. Those are two analytically distinct points. Yiou can recognize teh widget's bias without conceding whatever position you've taken on the market. Comparisons to comps, not widget, are what's relevant to the market.

Posted by: slopefarm at November 2, 2009 11:12 AM in response to Widget Falls Way Short on South Oxford

Cgar,

Skadden's in the Conde Nast building now. D&P moved into the old Skadden space in 919.

Actually the Conde Nast lobby is really funny. One security line has a bunch of dumpy grey-haired guys in suits carrying litigation bags. The other has mostly tall stylish young female models.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 4:36 PM in response to Open Thread

I'll get back to y'all later. I gotta go install a sink.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 3:18 PM in response to Open Thread

Careful how you answer benson's Q, snaps, you need the bitter renters and the overleveraged owners to get elected. Another blunt answer must be looking pretty good right now.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 3:16 PM in response to Open Thread

I like your campaign style, snap. No circumlocutions. Just blunt pronouncements.

OK, back to work.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 2:58 PM in response to Open Thread

Dibs, you are right. About everything. Except all those things we disagree on.

Benson,

Glad we agree on something. Snappy for Mayor! This is shaping up to be a big tent candidacy. (Sorry, CGar) Oh, and Snap, you don't need 8 million votes, only registered voters, and turnout will be small. You are just a few hundred thousand shy of victory. Keep at it. Things are looking up.

(If you win, do you report to Biff or does he report to you?)

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 2:57 PM in response to Open Thread

You are right Pete, sorry. We can have a guillotine in Prospect Park as long as there is enough due process to make sure it can never be used, not even on a peacock. That'll keep everyone happy except rob.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 2:31 PM in response to Open Thread

"PolPot, MaoZedong, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Castro, Tito, Franco, Milosevic or Chavez to name a few."

I doubt StevieB and his followers will be joining that list or getting any similar traction in the U.S. I just don't see your concern that anything on that level of atrocity is going to happen here. I also think there is a lot of room to discuss income disparities, the advantages of wealth and problems of poverty without being lumped in with that illustrious crowd. Would you add teddy roosevelt to that list? RFK?

Benson,

I don't see that the bills coming out of Congress have criminal provisions attached.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 2:20 PM in response to Open Thread

Legion,

I think it is a little crazy to think we're headed for a French revolution of our own based on a few over-the-top comments on the OT. But if you think something bigger is at stake in StevieB's posts, then have at it. I don't want a guillotine in Prospect park any more than you do.

Benson,

Is your soul crushed by mandated auto insurance? By Medicare (I realize you'r not actually there yet, but still . . .)? I respect our disagreements on politics and policy and I wouldn't attempt to convince you to like what's being proposed on health care. But I don't see it as a step on the road to totalitarianism.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 2:02 PM in response to Open Thread

Legion,

I know we disagree philosophically on quite a bit (besides Billie Holiday). But do you really think we are any where near a soul-crushing level of government coersion and control in our lives as existed in the former USSR? There is always room for debate in the US about what functions governmetn should or should not do itself, or regulate, but it takes more than govt size to send dissenters to teh gulag and crush their souls. Stricter regulation of the financial markets, or comprehensive health care, or progressive tax structures, whatever their merits, are not going to lead us to the gulag.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 1:43 PM in response to Open Thread

OK, now FOT, you are reposting old threads that were already recently reposted, although I can never get enough of that one. Seriously, what's your story? Multiple login? Longtime lurker? Newbie/

Biff, are you ceding soem of your presidential duties to FOT?

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 11:37 AM in response to Open Thread

FOT,

Don't wade into that thicket again. If you are a newbie and weren't around when all that went down, you're in over your head. And if you were around, you should know better.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 11:18 AM in response to Open Thread

"we are going to re take the country back."

Hmm, I might have an idea as to why StevieB's writing career hasn't taken off yet.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 29, 2009 9:48 AM in response to Open Thread

Yes, SB, if it weren't for the what, no one would have known that housing prices were declining.

Stevieb=propjoe?

Posted by: slopefarm at October 28, 2009 4:34 PM in response to Open Thread

http://www.slate.com/id/2233762/

Hey, folks, no time to chat. Just dropping in to report that Slate.com just unmasked the true identity of our own Joe the Bummer. Check out the link.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 28, 2009 3:18 PM in response to Open Thread

benson,

I'm taking a breather from politics debates and I'm gonna just walk away from our spat this morning. I appreciate your post on this thread. It is very hard for people to look at litigation from a cost-benefit perspective when their own property is involved, but they should. It's also hard to walk it back once you start. Sometimes you need to pull the trigger and sometimes you don't, but it is always worth trying to minimize the dispute if you can. I don't have sufficient knowledge to know whether I would agree or not with the ultimate decision to litigate in your case, your approach from the beginning seems more than sound.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 26, 2009 4:31 PM in response to Faulty Towers: Complaints About Condos on the Rise

DIBS -- it is not a formal house. What the seller was shaping up as an open kitchen/dining room was probably one bedroom and a bathroom. And we hadn't contracted for a period renovation. We had contracted for filed work renovated to code. He just didn't want to do it. He said we should be carrying candles up and down the stairs at night like they did back then, and he was only half kidding. As you know, we ended up in court.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 26, 2009 2:36 PM in response to Open Thread

"Actually, I agree with this. In a restored period home, there shouldn't be a visible TV in the living room and dining room areas. Find a room to devote to the TV apart from these. I've had panelled cabinets built into walls in my obsession to be able to cover that big blinking box from the 18th & 19th C furnishings."

DIBS -- Our seller's contractor once tried to convince us that electricity in the dining room wasn't appropriate in a restored period home.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 26, 2009 2:20 PM in response to Open Thread

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NYC_murders.PNG

Ok, everyone chill out a bit. Not saying Dinkins was a great mayor, but before you hold him responsible for crime, look at the linked chart. Murder rate kept going up rapidly throughout the 80s, peaked in '90 (DD's first year in office) and then immediately began declining precipitously, beginning with the final three years of DD's term. Rate of decline looks about the same under DD as under RG and MB. Note that the line on the chart does not change direction much during the RG and MB years, but follows the downward path at more or less the same angle as the final 3 years of DD. Some of that is policing and some is social factors, local and national. But DD did not create the crime wave he inherited, and he did respond to it.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 26, 2009 12:21 PM in response to Open Thread

dibs,

The good reasons include reasons that others have posted, but you disagree with them. Some people disagree with his policies on development, or take issue on term limits, etc. I don't want to get much into my views of either candidate. My larger point was that the bad old days argument is an unrealistic view.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 26, 2009 10:00 AM in response to Open Thread

Good luck, c-hell. Thankfully, our guy abandoned the job much closer to the end, so the money disparity was too small to make a fuss over. Whatever lawyer you talk to, make sure you explore the issue of recovery up front, do asset searches, etc. You could win a lawsuit only to not recover a thing. That he's out fo the country will make this mroe difficult at several levels. You have every right to be furious, but don't let that throw off your cost-benefit analysis on litigation.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 26, 2009 9:55 AM in response to ISO Construction Lawyer

All right, I think rob's had the final word on the global war on terrorism.

Meanwhile, good post, denton. We live in a very different city than we did in 1989 or 1975. NYC is far better run than it was 30+ years ago, due to the efforts of the last four mayors (and they all deserve some credit here). Bloomberg has continued to professionalize the way things are done, to his credit, but it is wrong to think that a different mayor will undermine those or the previous mayors' efforts. For example, crime, does anyone really think Thompson will lay off thousands of cops or make them stop using comstat, or that the amount of crime is solely a function of who is mayor? The 20-year decline in violent crime was a national trend on which NYC was a leader, but not an exception. There are good reasons to vote for either candidate, but let's keep things in perspective.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 26, 2009 9:48 AM in response to Open Thread

Dandel's MO seems vaguely familiar. (Scratches head to think whether the extensive cutting and pasting and obsession with hedge fund fraud brings anything to mind.) Hmm, maybe it will come to me later.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 26, 2009 9:22 AM in response to Open Thread

BHO -- I've always said that whether the widget lowballs is an analytically distinct question from what direction the market is headed and how fast. Widget is a snapshot comparison at a single point in time of where b'stoner eaders think the market for a particular house is at, with accuracy judged by the ultimate sales. It just seems logically flawed to assume widget is right and all buyers are wrong when the widget is trying to guage the market and buyers are the market. Just because market price for a house is x doesn't mean six months later the market won't be up or down another 5-10%. And if market goes down later, it doesn't make the widget right in retrospect, because the widget doesn't ask what you think the house will be worth in six months, or a year, or five, or ten, it asks what you think it is worth now. One or two buyers might have overpaid compared to market, but the argument doesn't hold for 12 out of 21. And if the market goes down 15% in six months, widget will still underprice at the new level. Widget won't match sales then any more than it does now.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 23, 2009 2:03 PM in response to 20 Clifton Place Sells, Kicks Widget's Ass

Read your owns posts, BHO. You wrote: "Yup. If enacted at brownstoner's launch, the widget average would have been overpricing." I disagree. Brownstoners, on average, always think the price is too high. True in bull and bear markets. You don't need to read them all. It was commonly said of this site in the bull market that the last thing a seller would want is to be HOTD, because brownstoner readers will trash it and say the price was too high.

Now we know from the widget that all this downgrading on brownstoner has little effect on the market. Perhaps that's what's really bugging you. The widget isn't proof of the market's direction -- it doesn't speak to that at all -- but it is proof that you can't use this site to talk down a house's price.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 23, 2009 12:45 PM in response to 20 Clifton Place Sells, Kicks Widget's Ass

I would definitely have it checked. It's better that way instead of repairing it yourself.

http://www.thehardwarecity.com/getProductDetail.html?sku=5295076

Posted by: blackeyed at November 7, 2009 4:33 AM in response to Furnace or Thermostat Issues