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]
Hey, good for them. I didn’t get any money for school, expenses, real estate from my parents. It probably would have been easier but my parents wouldn’t dream of telling me how to live my life either.
Supergirl, that might be the stupidest thing I’ve read on this thread.
Little Manhattan?
sylvia’s point is acute – real estate here far outpacing salaries. even if the 25 year-old in indie record promotion has a career that really, really takes off, she is never likely to be able to afford any signficant part of the $810k mortgage, let alone maintenance/common charges. even as recently as, um, 10 years ago, people who wanted to work in high-status, low-pay jobs like music, publishing etc in nyc could live (not well) on what they made. for instance, if they were willing to move to out-of-the way nabes like parks slope or williamsburg, they could get (relatively) cheap rent. i’m committed to this city but disappointed to see it pricing out everyone but the rich and their children.
12:19:
There’s Williamsburg…and then there’s BROOKLYN.
If you can’t do Manhattan try little Manhattan (Williamsburg).
I’d say that for the most part it’s the wealthy willing to pay the high prices that are keeping levels high, not simply the wealthy parents buying for their kids.
I’m more interested in what jobs the parents do that they can but their own house, put their kids through college, build up retirement funds and buy their kids apartments. Is this the megamillions crowd?
lucy’s the boss:
It’s negative for people to buy apartments for their kids (not just “help a little with the dp”, which is pretty normal, I think) BECAUSE it drives up prices for everyone else. So the price of real estate in NYC is dictated not by local salaries, but by this weird arrangement whereby parents in NC and AZ and TX are subsidizing their kids’ lifestyles in Manhattan.
That’s unhealthy. Then again, I could just be a jealous, bitter renter with poor parents… 🙂
I think 11.56 am has a point. Acquaintances of mine and my husband’s have bought EACH of their children an apartment upon graduation from college, and 2 of these 3 kids can’t even be bothered to get a job–the parents pay their monthly maintenance on the apartments, and for all I know their living expenses as well. The kids don’t know the value of money and constantly snipe at the parents because each feels one of the other kids got a “better” apartment. It’s pretty sad. When you don’t have to work for anything, you take everything for granted. I will surely help out my child with college tuition and a downpayment, but she’ll have to pay her part, too.
Williamsburg is in Brooklyn, 12:19.
What’s your point?