Not-So-Bitter Renters Embrace Brooklyn
Brownstone living is no great shakes, say people profiled in this week’s Times’ real estate section cover story. The premise of the article is that there’s a new crop of Brooklynites who go ga-ga over our borough’s condos-turned-rentals because they’re much cheaper than similar full-service buildings in Manhattan. These renters say they’re not interested in…
Brownstone living is no great shakes, say people profiled in this week’s Times’ real estate section cover story. The premise of the article is that there’s a new crop of Brooklynites who go ga-ga over our borough’s condos-turned-rentals because they’re much cheaper than similar full-service buildings in Manhattan. These renters say they’re not interested in trad brownstone living because it lacks newfangled amenities, and they don’t want to buy a condo in today’s market. My peers who have their M.B.A.’s and their new master’s degrees and new jobs, they’re looking for new condos; they’re not into the traditional houses or brownstones, says a guy who rents a $2,550-a-month pad at Bed-Stuy’s The Mynt, above. This is the lifestyle we like. You cannot put a fitness center in a brownstone. You don’t have a doorman in a brownstone. Rentals are increasingly in demand, according to stats from StreetEasy that show Brooklyn rents rising 6 percent over the past year and sales prices falling 4 percent. If this is indeed a trend, one wonders how long-lived it’ll be. If more new buildings are planned as rentals rather than condos, how many developers are going to outfit their buildings with pricey condo-style trappings?
They Love (the New) Brooklyn [NY Times]
2:35,
LOL–you sound like my mother complaining about our first Park Slope garden floor apartment in 1970 or, as she put it the “filthy basement slum”. She was equally impressed by the house we bought 4-1/2 years later [“it’s SO old fashioned!”].
Pride of ownership goes a long way. People who say it’s renting from the bank, etc. don’t really have many aspirations or pride in themselves. They also probably don’t care too much about family, making memories or future generations.
There is something special about raising a family in a house you own. You have the opportunity to make it yours and to share it with others.
Some are fine to rent a box for their lifetime, but I don’t consider those people very goal oriented.
bob marvin — keep waiting. the bubble took 8 years up and it’ll take 10 years down. by the end, middle class people will once again be able to live in decrepit houses in marginal neighborhoods.
I plan to leave my brownstone to my children.
What do you plan to leave them, 2:03? Besides the debt you will likely accrue in old age from having to rent…?
By then a 1 bedroom rental should average around $8,000 a month here in NYC. Hope you’re saving well…
Dave: mostly people who view their real estate as an investment.
“As for Bob Marvin saying he did it so others should do it, as I understand it from what you’ve described before, Bob you were married in your late 20’s not single. You also weren’t in a corporate job with long hours. Huge huge difference. Nothing to compare”.
Not exactly 1:16–the second part of your statement is correct [married, not single, no long hours] but I was basically lamenting that few others like me can buy brownstones now–Everett Ortner’s “school teachers’ coup” has been an historical curiosity for at least twenty years.
I’m always amazed when I hear that line “owning is just renting from the bank.” I wonder what kind of people say that????
I was just in Berlin last week and met a few people out at the bars who were talking about their trip to NYC last month and all they could talk about was Park Slope.
It was nuts.
A well-designed brownstone garden duplex? Yeah, and a railroad flat with extreme light. Doesn’t exist.