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Ran into a friend earlier in the week who was besides herself. The rental building she lives in was sold and the new owners are basically throwing out the market rent tenants. Once their leases are up, they are gone (if not before). Only the few RS tenants aren't affected.
What is causing all this nonsense? New owners are tearing up the apartments to create "family sized" units and plan a total remake of the building to turn it into "luxury" with an eye towards going condo.
This is in Yorkville and the building is just another of the many high rises you find all over the area east of Third Avenue. Nothing fancy just what was once basic middle class rental housing.
Ran into a friend earlier in the week who was besides herself. The rental building she lives in was sold and the new owners are basically throwing out the market rent tenants. Once their leases are up, they are gone (if not before). Only the few RS tenants aren't affected.
What is causing all this nonsense? New owners are tearing up the apartments to create "family sized" units and plan a total remake of the building to turn it into "luxury" with an eye towards going condo.
This is in Yorkville and the building is just another of the many high rises you find all over the area east of Third Avenue. Nothing fancy just what was once basic middle class rental housing.
How do I know it's lost his mind? I walked up Bowery btwn Houston and spring the other day....multi million dollar condos have gone up on the street in the last few years. There were no less than 75 homeless people sprawled everywhere on those few blocks. To pay that type of money to live in such a shthole. Insane. I don't care what the inside of your apartment looks like....how can you be in a good mood when you're looking at hat every single time you are leaving / coming your home?
How do I know it's lost his mind? I walked up Bowery btwn Houston and spring the other day....multi million dollar condos have gone up on the street in the last few years. There were no less than 75 homeless people sprawled everywhere on those few blocks. To pay that type of money to live in such a shthole. Insane. I don't care what the inside of your apartment looks like....how can you be in a good mood when you're looking at hat every single time you are leaving / coming your home?
I know it's not fashionable anymore, but I'll take my house in the suburbs on a 60 x 100 lot over living just about anywhere in Manhattan any day. Nice place to visit, but there's something to be said about peace and quiet and privacy.
I can think of a few reasons why just from looking into that area by reading older and current threads on this forum when I thought my husband and I might move there for his work. From reading on here that whole area is changing in the UES, Yorkville and lower East Harlem.
I started looking for a place to rent in that area because it was recommended that we live between the 80s - 105th St and to not go above that as it gets more dicey, even though my husband's work would have been in the South Bronx at Lincoln Hospital. After comparison shopping several rental and real estate sites I realized unless we were lucky we'd have to live above E 104th St if we wanted to be in that area. However, while walking the pegman on google street view in this area I could see the difference. So I kept my eye on the 80s and 90s for a few months and on the rare occurrence something would pop up but it would be snatched up in a few days.
I found that on a single income medical resident's salary the 40 times income rule for rent left us with very few one bedrooms we could afford in this area, and we wouldn't get much for the money either. They'd be walk ups without dishwashers or washer and dryers in the buildings. The ones in the 80s were the rarest finds. The ones in the 90s were about a handful and less frequent than the ones in the 100s. Also the closer to lower Manhattan the higher the walk up and lack of square footage and amenities. Nearly none had elevators or a doorman or a dishwasher. I also wasn't liking the idea of hiking up and down 5-6 flights of stairs to go to the laundry mat down the street.
The ones in the 110s - 120s were also more along the East River where I read the rats or rodents and bugs are because it's closer to the water. Nearly all the places we could afford were in Yorkville or lower East Harlem around the newer commercial areas between 116 - 120th that have been redone on the inside. Then I read a bunch of sexual predators live in that area and it's a pocket bubble that you have to stay in because walk a block and you can get jumped or shot. That's because I also read on here that above 104th St it's known for being a little more gritty with several projects in the area along one certain Ave that I can't recall but I think it was First and/or Second Ave.
Anyways the few reasons why I think what's happening in that area the OP mentioned besides location, location, location to upper and lower Manhattan.
1. Second Avenue Subway expansion is under construction between 72nd and 96th St. It's supposed to be done by Dec. 2016, so not that far off. It's going to run from 125th St in Harlem to Hanover Sq in Lower Manhattan and there are additional track connections.
2. Carnegie Hill gentrification is on the other side of it and from what I've read on here that's pretty much done and good to go.
3. There is also newer commercial development and gentrification up to 116th currently in lower East Harlem along the East River, and on the other side of the river they're working to develop the South Bronx especially along the water front.
So in summary I suspect the big picture is the East side is being built up slowly. I'd watch the SAS for the timing of the changes because that seems to change everything. It's gradual because that project is happening in long term phases. Phase 2 is supposed to go from 96th up to 125th street but from what I've read online the Phases don't have to go in order and they will reassess at the time of Phase 1's completion in Dec. 2016. Also according to the latest news they're ahead of schedule. The SAS project was slotted to be complete by 2035 originally but now it's estimated to be done by 2029.
I know it's not fashionable anymore, but I'll take my house in the suburbs on a 60 x 100 lot over living just about anywhere in Manhattan any day. Nice place to visit, but there's something to be said about peace and quiet and privacy.
AMEN to that!
I can love the city (and the greater Downstate New York Metro Area at-large) and choose to partake of whatever aspects of it. And I have had 3 apartments of my own in Manhattan in my history. Yet I have evolved over the decades into a person who, when he goes home (i.e., the actual living space itself and then the immediate area surrounding it & nearby areas), I demand PEACE, QUIET, TRANQUILITY, AND PRIVACY. if this means that, in the end, I have to live in one of the outer boroughs instead of Manhattan or else live in the suburbs, then so be it. I have decided that I can always travel to where the action is near to me or else at a distance and then, after it is over, to retreat back to my oasis of peace, quiet, tranquility, and privacy.
Stating this obvious here: Unfortunately when one lives in the city where you can easily walk to everything and anything, if it is so very easily convenient for YOU, then it is also so very easily convenient for EVERYBODY ELSE . . . including all of society's assorted miscreants, malcontents, misfits, lowlifes, the mentally ill, the substance abusers, et al. So even if you live in a luxury building and in an upscale area, these undesirable people are just waiting outside to be in your face everywhere you turn. And then some of them even try to infiltrate your home life as well (break-ins, home invasions, laying around your building entrances and exits, making noise which infiltrates your home, engaging in vandalism of your home, littering, et al). THE POINT IS: There seems to be no escape or relief from them unless you remove yourself from that environment altogether . . . unfortunately.
Trouble with the suburbs is that for the peace and quiet you pay with CARS, CARS, CARS, GASOLINE, GOASOLINE, GASOLINE, TRAFFIC JAM, TRAFFIC JAM, TRAFFIC JAM, ACCIDENTS ACCIDENTS ACCIDENTS.
Car insurance is a pain, the dead battery in the morning is a pain the guy who scraped your fender during the night and didn't stop is a pain.
And then there's the joy of hearing: "You need a new roof," "Your septic system is shot."
You got two whole days off this weekend? First order of business: the lawn needs mowing and the leaves need raking and bagging.
The automobile culture is dying and that's why people are flocking to the cities and overcrowding them with expensive apartments. The demographic pattern has reversed: where previously an in-towner made his money and moved to the suburbs, now it is the guy who just lost his job or was priced out of the city housing market who moves "to the suburbs."
The guy who "made it" is looking for a lovely "New York apartment in the sky" like George Jefferson. <His apartment was 85th and Third.>
Nirvana for many who work hard in the top business markets in this country is NOT having to drive an hour or two to and from work every day. Work is torture enough without piling up at the Lincoln Tunnel every day and crawling out Route 3.
Trouble with the suburbs is that for the peace and quiet you pay with CARS, CARS, CARS, GASOLINE, GOASOLINE, GASOLINE, TRAFFIC JAM, TRAFFIC JAM, TRAFFIC JAM, ACCIDENTS ACCIDENTS ACCIDENTS.
Car insurance is a pain, the dead battery in the morning is a pain the guy who scraped your fender during the night and didn't stop is a pain.
And then there's the joy of hearing: "You need a new roof," "Your septic system is shot."
You got two whole days off this weekend? First order of business: the lawn needs mowing and the leaves need raking and bagging.
The automobile culture is dying and that's why people are flocking to the cities and overcrowding them with expensive apartments. The demographic pattern has reversed: where previously an in-towner made his money and moved to the suburbs, now it is the guy who just lost his job or was priced out of the city housing market who moves "to the suburbs."
The guy who "made it" is looking for a lovely "New York apartment in the sky" like George Jefferson. <His apartment was 85th and Third.>
Nirvana for many who work hard in the top business markets in this country is NOT having to drive an hour or two to and from work every day. Work is torture enough without piling up at the Lincoln Tunnel every day and crawling out Route 3.
Say it again
I have a car (paid off) and I'm happy to have it - but I do not want to be 100% dependent on it. I love having options.
__________________
"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
Trouble with the suburbs is that for the peace and quiet you pay with CARS, CARS, CARS, GASOLINE, GOASOLINE, GASOLINE, TRAFFIC JAM, TRAFFIC JAM, TRAFFIC JAM, ACCIDENTS ACCIDENTS ACCIDENTS.
Car insurance is a pain, the dead battery in the morning is a pain the guy who scraped your fender during the night and didn't stop is a pain.
And then there's the joy of hearing: "You need a new roof," "Your septic system is shot."
You got two whole days off this weekend? First order of business: the lawn needs mowing and the leaves need raking and bagging.
The automobile culture is dying and that's why people are flocking to the cities and overcrowding them with expensive apartments. The demographic pattern has reversed: where previously an in-towner made his money and moved to the suburbs, now it is the guy who just lost his job or was priced out of the city housing market who moves "to the suburbs."
The guy who "made it" is looking for a lovely "New York apartment in the sky" like George Jefferson. <His apartment was 85th and Third.>
Nirvana for many who work hard in the top business markets in this country is NOT having to drive an hour or two to and from work every day. Work is torture enough without piling up at the Lincoln Tunnel every day and crawling out Route 3.
Oh come on, stop with the generalizations.
I'm a 5 minute drive to the train station, and a 30-minute train ride to Grand Central. Everything I need (grocery stores, pharmacy, restaurants, clothing stores, bakeries, etc.) are within 1 mile.
My car is paid off and I don't need collision and comprehensive insurance.
I drive 10,000 miles a year and get 30 miles/gallon. 333 gallons x $3.85 = $1,282
I mow my own lawn. It takes 30 minutes. I also mulch my leaves, so their is no "leafing an bagging."
I got a new roof in 1999 for $7,500. Over 30 years it's $250/year.
A 3-bedroom coop in Manhattan runs over $2,000,000, with maintenance of over $3,000/month. Think most people can afford that?
And what I don't have is having to get in an elevator with people I don't want to see, no noise above me or to the side of me, no worries about the neighbors downstairs, no traffic noise, and most importantly, the ability to hop into my car, drive to wherever the hell I want to drive to (I love driving to the country), and return to my driveway where I'm five steps from my front door.
I really don't mean to put down city living. To each his own. The problem is that there are so many city people who would rather "die" than live in the suburbs. It's not that bad.
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