Buying With Help From The Rental Units
The Times dishes on the New York City real estate market’s dirty little secret — that it’s being fueled in great part by the retirement-age parents of twenty- and thrity-somethings who wouldn’t otherwise have a shot in hell of owning even a studio apartment. When we bought our first apartment — a 950-square-foot prewar one-bedroom…
The Times dishes on the New York City real estate market’s dirty little secret — that it’s being fueled in great part by the retirement-age parents of twenty- and thrity-somethings who wouldn’t otherwise have a shot in hell of owning even a studio apartment. When we bought our first apartment — a 950-square-foot prewar one-bedroom in Manhattan — for $160,000 in 1996, it was still possible for a 27-year-old and his fiancee to buy something on their own. Now, though, the idea of having socked away a downpayment of $150,000 or $200,000 (instead of $30,000 or $40,000) by the age of 30 is realistic only for those in a small handful of professions. Enter Mom and Dad. In Williamsburg (where Natasha Agrawal, bottom right, got hooked up with a $900,000 penthouse by her parents), one Douglas Elliman broker estimates that one quarter of the condos are being bought by parents or the trust funds they have set up. The twist, The Times notes, is that these hand-outs often come with some (creepy) strings attached, such as extorted promises not to let a boyfriend or girlfriend move in.
Buying With Help From Mom and Dad [NY Times]
“I’m sure there are unknown neighborhoods now that you can afford.”
Problem is there are no more up-and-coming that are close to Manhattan. Any “unknown” neighborhood is going to be an hour commute and probably not next to a subway.
“Diversity my ass. You’re all at the Mall.”
Damn straight! NYC is becoming middle America. It’s also funny reading the Park Slope crowd talk about loving diversity. The Mexican delivery man dropping off your order doesn’t consistute diversity.
Tim,
Chimps eating chicken???
I never got any money from my parents, but I got everyhting else I could ask from them and was lucky enough to be able to boy a brownstone when I was 40 (my first real estate purchase). I wouldn’t have minded having things given to me, but think I’m a better person for having to make it on my own.
That said, I hope that I’ll be in the position to buy each of my daughters a house when the time come. I’d be glad to hear them accept the offer and evenmore glad to hear them tell me they’d like to make it on their own.
Either way, it’s not for anyone on this site to judge. Same applies to the young woman in The Times articlle.
gee Tim, if you hated NY so much why did you stay so long?
Granted it is the be all and end all that some may make it out to be…but not as bad as you paint…nor is rest of country as different as you seem to think it is now. Remember you’re green to the outside NY world–and in time they will grate on you too. Sounds like you are the type never happy no matter where you are.
I think the defenders miss the point. Generosity is fine. The issue is how the housing market is impacted by a trend in rich people paying ANY PRICE to live in a city that was once defined by a diverse population. “Affordable” housing is a thing of the past when the past was about interesting people who did more than compete for the right to live a decent life. I agree, NY is becoming a great big bore. Unless you’re rich or were lucky enough to score 20 years ago you’re out. A million bucks to live in Brooklyn surrounded by privledged children? Who’s the fool?
RIGHT ON!Tim! You nailed it.
my father always said, “you’ve never seen a brinks truck follow a hearse.” what he meant was that it is better to give it to you while i am alive so that i can see you enjoy it. why can’t parents help their children? i hope that i will be able to help mine as much as my parents helped/help my family and me. (i am not a trust fund baby, rather had parents who lived during wwii, knew how to save and invest)
I bailed from the city last year (after 30 years) and I miss NOTHING. Not riding filthy, packed trains with chimps eating chicken in my face, not the rude, vile treatement I received when I was trying to hand someone my money for a purchase, not the overpriced, heinous price of living like a moron in some adolescent version of what’s supposed to be a real home, not coveting someone elses home because they have a real kitchen, not the endless parade of poseurs and wanabees who talk endlessly about their clothes, their stupid ass-lick jobs, their dumb share in a crowded house on that overcrowded beach, not their latest brush with a celebrity, not trying to sit through a movie while (inevitably) some cro mag behind me has a conversation a cell phone and munches on a salad, not riding in a cab across town for 20 dollars and the pleasure of a driver that smells like he spent the weekend in Rikers, not my upstairs neighbor who insists on keeping her floors uncovered but wears high heels at all hours and disrupts my sleep, not the endless tired drone of pop culture and the hip hop slaves, not the stench of garbage, being hit in the ankles by strolllers in 50 square foot delis and on crowded streets, not dodging dog shit ignored by selfish fools who insist on having all the acoutrements of the suburbs on a tiny overcrowded island. If you have to live someplace because you think you might miss the pizza you have a problem, dude. NY is about proxomity to people more fabulous than yourself and the vicarious satisfaction that people experience via proximity, sacrificing quality of life for the sake of a shallow fantasy. And now Mommy and Daddy are fronting the dream so they can brag to their fellow boomers about how much their spawn are achieving. Soon the city will be all about the haves and have nots, Monaco on the Hudson. Bore. It’s a big world out here and NY is NOT the world. The rest of the world benefits from it’s decline. Have your cement penthouse fantasy. Diversity my ass. You’re all at the Mall.
Anon 7:37PM, not many people in their early ’30s get to own entire Park Slope brownstones, especially if you purchased rather recently. Lots of people have generous parents — you are fortunate to have rich ones. I think people here are reacting to a sense of entitlement rather than a recognition by people like yourselves that you are living a rich lifestyle subsidized by your rich parents and not your own hard work. That’s great, but lots of us have generous parents who can’t simply give us hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although many of us did benefit from a $5,000 or $10,000 gift from them, as well as college educations and the like. It’s more about acknowledging what an extraordinarily fortunate situation you have.