Condo Market: You Can't Handle the Truth!
“The truth is that people can’t take the truth,” Robert Levine, the president of RAL Cos., is quoted as saying in a Sun article about how the city’s condo market is (brace yourself!) not as healthy as it once was. The point of the article seems to be that though the press has instilled “fear”…
“The truth is that people can’t take the truth,” Robert Levine, the president of RAL Cos., is quoted as saying in a Sun article about how the city’s condo market is (brace yourself!) not as healthy as it once was. The point of the article seems to be that though the press has instilled “fear” in people (another Levine quote) about the value of real estate as an investment, condos are still worth buying because the city’s market will eventually rebound. Here’s the evidence the story gathers about condo sales slowing: financing is shaky (“As transaction volume dries up, and liquidity remains nonexistent, property values will fall, and banks will begin foreclosures,” say Kevin Comer, the president of Beck Street Capital. “The kid gloves will come off, and it won’t matter if you own property at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street or Williamsburg, the banks will be brutal as they all struggle to survive and avoid Bear Stearns fate. The busted condo deals will be the first to fall given their short term financing.”); a ton of prospective buyers are lowballing offering prices, says one developer, which means inventory isn’t moving unless a sponsor’s willing to make a deal; after buzz fades on a condo that’s just put up listings, sales are languishing, says Gary Malin, the president of Citi Habitats. So wait, what’s the truth that we can’t take? Oh, right—now (or very soon) may be the time to buy. “Now more than ever its location, location and location,” says Beck Street Capital’s Kevin Comer. “Long term, real estate remains a great place to invest capital, especially in New York City, and we are headed for one of the best buying opportunities of my lifetime.” Consider yourself truthified.
Believe It: Condo Sales Slow [NY Sun]
Still from youtube.
daveinbedstuy, your desperation and fear make a stinky cologne.
Know what I say to the notion that rents are coming down???
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
1:17 #2
i am in the exact same situation myself
renting a huge place for fair price
my landlord is renewing my lease this week for another year at the exact same rate
i am saving quite a bit of money every month
just about the same as i apy in rent
i will buy when it makes sense
another thing that makes it difficult is we have a dog so we must look harder
but renting works for us now
i will put at least 20% down on my place
and have at least a year or so expenses in liquid cash after all is said and done
1:43:
Here are a few facts, just to go against what you believe to be the case and what is ACTUALLY the case. Considering New York City’s ownership rate is not even 40%, how exactly is it that you say that Europe has a lower ownership rate???
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The first place to start is to show the range in the levels of ownership. As the chart shows there is a wide range in the levels of owner occupation. The weighted average for the EU15 countries at the end of 2003 was approximately 64%, but there are big differences. The Southern European countries have the highest levels of owner occupation. Among the EU 15 countries Spain, Greece and Italy all have owner occupation rates of 80% or more. And Germany, while a much larger economy than those countries in the South, has an ownership rate of only 42%. Hungary has the highest rate of owner occupation at 92%, France at 74% and Ireland at 69%.
Doorman buildings have been giving month free incentives for the past 5 years (at least). That’s nothing new.
I’m not using Park Slope as baseline . . . or even Brooklyn for that matter. Just NYC in general. What’s your “area” where rents are coming down?
Does anyone else on this site actually think rents are coming down? I can’t imagine anyone actually believes that
1:39, the market has been buoyed by European investors and mortgage scams. Europe is facing its own bubble at the moment, in case you don’t read the world financial papers, and when their disaster catches up to ours…watch out.
All good things must come to an end, and this is especially true of real estate bubbles. But far be it from me to try to pull your head out of the sand. I’ll happily buy a few years from now when property values are back to normal, sustainable levels.
Rents on doorman 1 bedrooms in Manhattan have gone down from $3150 average to $3133 average.
Just so you know the actual facts, 1:38.
Anyone who pays that much to rent something is an idiot.
Period.
I pay 2500 for my mortgage and maint. Not including the tax deduction.
“New York used to be a city of unashamed renters. And then the Midwest moved here en masse and brought their “buy buy buy!” mentality and susceptibility to advertising with them.”
I’ve lived in Brooklyn my entire life (44 years) and bought a house because it was cheaper and potentially more profitable and secure than renting. I wasn’t (and still am not) planning to leave the city, so it made sense to stop paying so much rent, pay a mortgage (which is less than my rent was when I rented in Park Slope and Prospect Heights) and own something after 30 years. I bought a two-family brownstone in Crown Heights historic district and haen’t looked back. There is nothing inherently wrong with renting, and I can understand why people rent in some circumstances (as I did, when I was saving for a downpayment). But if you’re sticking around for the long term in NYC, it’s hard to argue against owning if you can swing it.
1:23 here:
I grew up here. My parents rented, as did all of my friends’ parents, and nearly everyone I knew. My parents moved to the suburbs after I left for college, but it has only been in the last 8 years or so that buyers mania overtook the city as it has.
New York once followed a more European model, in which renting was commonplace and people weren’t necessarily tied to one home for decades at a time. Adventurous people don’t mind the “insecurity” of not owning property. It’s not a superior mindset but it does reflect different priorities.
Those of us who have always rented resent being told by outsiders that we are “fools” for doing what we have always done (and will continue to do, if not here). It may be wiser to buy than rent in, say, Omaha or Houston, but that’s definitely not always the case here, no matter how much buyers and realtors would like it to be.