Real Estate
I’ve been obsessed with New York City real estate on-and-off for the past few years, as we’ve been shopping for apartments around Brooklyn. As we now struggle with the question of whether to buy or rent in this market – more and more I am thinking we rent until this whole thing shakes out in a year or two – I’ve discovered this guy Jonathan Miller. He’s very clear and insightful. Here he is speaking to some Fox news people on one of their shows. I thought this was an excellent bit, and I like that he addresses what I suspect is going to happen in the Spring: a brief uptick in Manhattan (and I assume also Brooklyn) home sales stats that will make people think this whole thing is over but will really just be seasonality. I think the downturn in home prices in this area will last much longer. I also wonder if there won’t be a reversal or at least a slowing of the gentrification that has boosted prices in the parts of Brooklyn where we’ve been looking. I’m frustrated that, nearly 3 years after moving to New York, we remain in the same lovely but overpriced one-bedroom rental. Sharing a bedroom with a nine-month-old is getting difficult. Just now, at 4 AM, I woke up Nina when I got out of bed to get water and pump, and now I’m waiting for her to stop crying and go back to sleep so that I can get back to bed myself. Can’t we just buy a bigger place already?! Jonathan’s Miller’s insights are helpful as I try to exercise patience. His insights…and the idea that a year or two from now, that Cobble Hill or at least Fort Greene townhouse may actually fall within our price range.