From the West Village to Fort Greene, With Few Regrets
This weekend’s real estate section in the Times has a story that’s likely to resonate with many ex-Manhattanites who’ve moved to Brooklyn and find the living across the East River a whole lot easier. The article is about Hali Lee and Peter von Ziegesar, a couple with three kids who uprooted from the West Village,…
This weekend’s real estate section in the Times has a story that’s likely to resonate with many ex-Manhattanites who’ve moved to Brooklyn and find the living across the East River a whole lot easier. The article is about Hali Lee and Peter von Ziegesar, a couple with three kids who uprooted from the West Village, where they’d lived for 15 years, to Fort Greene. The pair bought a house (a former crack den, actually) on South Portland Avenue in late ’05 and say that while they miss a few things about the city (chief among them their old proximity to the Village Community School on West 10th Street, which their kids still attend), Brooklyn has presented a number of quality-of-life advantages. The perks, according to Ms. Lee, include an environment that doesn’t feel like a high-end mall, as the Village did; a space where their brood’s noise doesn’t disturb the neighbors; their new borough’s down-to-earth population (There are mixed-race couples, and black people here who aren’t nannies); and the fact that their kids can now go play on the sidewalk and in the backyard.
In a House, You Can Make All the Noise You Want [NY Times]
Photo by lunalaguna.
2:05,
My parents are gracious enough to feed me and I do not pay for utilities either only because they saw that I really made drastic lifestyle changes and was serious about saving. I am truly fortunate to have such parents. I have friends who don’t have parents in NYC who are sacrificing in other ways. Three are sharing an apartment in Staten Island as opposed to renting in a trendy neighborhood and two got second jobs bartending. I have done the math and I am certain that I will be able to afford my favorite Brownstone neighborhood (not Park Slope) more so in today’s market than when I first committed to savings. I have budgeted money for only necessary reno’s. Granite countertops and stainless steel appliances can wait. My family said that they will throw one hell of a house warming for the little things. I am certainly no trust fund baby but my situation is better than most. My point is that with determination it can be done. Whining does not equal determination.
Well it certainly isn’t about QUEENS, 2:53.
Learn to read.
That was my point.
2:51…
a couple with a child does not need 4000 square feet.
it is wasteful, shameful and down right disgusting in my book.
sorry my measly 1000 sf bothers you so much.
i enjoy having a small footprint on the earth.
i prefer to invest money in actual investments that produce more than 4% a year.
real estate is over. get on with your life, please.
2:48 good point.
So a shell of a building today on S. P would go for 2.8? Like, total gut renovation required?
Crazy crazy crazy.
“This is a blog called BROWNSTONER. Most people here like living in beautiful old Victorian homes.”
Then why all the postings on condos and other matters.
This website, intended or not, is also about the change (and loss) of Brooklyn. And the future of Brownstone Brooklyn isn’t so pretty: terrible bankers and lawyers (and assorted others) from Manhattan are the future buying demographic of all your precious ‘beautiful old Victorian homes.’
They’re REALLY going to make a score 10 years from now when they sell that place and move to Queens.
2:35 — not being illiterate gave me a leg up though. How’d you make it? Oh wait, I know — the same reason the economy’s crashing now, the great real estate scam. Glad to know we’re all paying for your success.
2:24 – that 2 bedroom in an established neighborhood MAY make you a few hundred thousand, a whole house in a “crappy” neighborhood MAY make you a few million.
With your investment strategy you will be stuck in an apartment your whole life.
Also the biggest thing wrong with living in “established” neighborhoods is that most of the people living their are like you – idiots with their heads up their asses not inspiring, and no fun to be around.
Good luck and please stay out of our fun “crappy” neighborhoods.
did you mean jealousy, 2:48?