Middle class need not look for housing

08/13/08 02:17 PM Filed in: Life 101
NY Street
New York is truly becoming a city for the wealthy and the wealthy only. On a visit to New York last week I was reminded of just how great the city can be but a quick review of the real estate ads made me shiver. One million dollars for an 1100 square foot apartment 2 bedrooms one bath. How many people can afford that not to mention the $1700 monthly maintenance charge. As much as I love New York I am afraid the the city is now beyond my reach forever.

I was born and raised in New York and even rented an apartment in the upper West Side when I worked at Bloomingdale’s right out of college. When I young living on the upper West side was fun as there was always someplace to go and a ton of restaurants to visit. So I started to think of how nice it would be to live in New York again and a quick review of real estate prices within the city quickly brought me back down to earth.

For a million dollars you can get an apartment that is anywhere from 900 to 1500 square feet. Even if you can afford the mortgage there is the dreaded monthly maintenance charges which can range from $1200 to well over $2,000 a month. Now even with me and my wife making a 6 figure salary that kind of payment is unreasonable and would leave us NO money for anything else. A quick look at the NY Times Magazine section indicates that there are a lot of new condo’s available for big bucks so I guess there is quite a demand regardless of the fallout on the Street.

I don’t think there is any other city within the US that is as expensive as New York now. In Chicago you can get a great apartment for $200,000 and here in LA there are lofts available for $300,000 (1700 square feet). New York is facing its worst fiscal crisis since the 70’s according to the Governor..with people buying all these condos it’s hard to see how that’s possible but then these people usually find lots and lots of shelters to hide their money.
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