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March 15, 2005
To Buy or Not To Buy
We knew it was coming. Sort of. The dreaded news that our landlord is selling our place when our lease is up. I LOVE this apartment. The location is perfect, the neighborhood feels like home. But the damn real estate market is a joke. We could buy it, but there's some kind of catch that involves not eating at restaurants or traveling to foreign countries for the next ten years. For some perspective: We could have bought my grandmother's (falling apart but gorgeous and huge) house, including indoor tennis court, bungalow (read: other house), barn, pool, and 12 acres for less than our tiny 2 bedroom in Park Slope would cost us.
Funny how a real estate crisis can rearrange your perspective in the space of a day. D and I have to decide if a) we want to stay together for the next ten years and b) we want to live in NYC for the next ten years. We are also painfully aware of our exact net worth and the average cost of a Park Slope two bedroom. (And a Prospect Heights one, a Ditmas Park one, a Windsor Terrance one, etc.) Whatever Mexican disease I contracted is NOTHING compared to the dilemma we're facing now. We've been renting for ages -- we should be buying, but have you LOOKED at Corcoran lately? Where the hell do people dig up that kind of money? Do all the harmless-looking couples walking around have secret lives as hitmen? Are they trust fund kids? Are they all just really smart people who bought a decade ago? What's the secret?
Before the CRISIS arrived I was going to write a glowing entry about how nice it was to be home. Every weekend, I usually walk from our end of 7th Avenue to the Food Coop on Union Street, stopping at various favorite spots along the way -- the used bookstore, the kitchen store, the flea market, La Bagel Delight, etc. It never fails to cheer me up (or make Derek go mad with impatience and frustration). I have all of these casual acquaintances with people who work at stores -- I know my pharmacist's name and he knows mine, Adam at Urban Optical knows who I am, there's a chance I'll run into someone I know at the coop. On top of that, there's a huge community of writers in Park Slope. Take this conversation at 7th Avenue books, for instance. I had promised D I would NOT BROWSE in the bookstore for 3 hours (he was waiting outside, hands in pockets, starting at me) so I asked for Murakami's Norwegian Wood (I really liked The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle).
Store guy: "Did you look under 'M'"
Me (looking again): "Yeah, don't see it there."
Other browser: "It's really hard to find Murakami in second-hand stores."
Me (surprised): "Oh. Too bad. [to Store Guy] How about Jonathan Safran Foer's new book?"
Story guy: "Sure, it's right here ... [points to large empty spot on shelf] ... oh, wow, I guess we sold out."
Me: "Shoot, maybe it's cuz he was just written up somewhere ... can't remember where ..."
Other browser: "He was written up everywhere."
Me: "Yeah, but I really liked his last book."
Other browser: "I didn't really like it."
Me: "I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me."
Other browser: "Well maybe I'm just bitter that he was written up everywhere at 25 years old."
Interpretation: O.B. is a 30-something writer who's still making peanuts while J.S.F. is the publishing industry's golden child from Brooklyn, just because he wrote a clever novel that has mass appeal. The entire community probably resents him. How can I possibly leave a community made up of jealous writers who shop at the food coop and frequent secondhand bookstores? This is obviously where I'm meant to stay.
Posted by csageday at March 15, 2005 10:43 PM
Comments
Do you get a grandfathered deal or anything? Do you mind if I ask how much they want for it?
Posted by: melissa at March 16, 2005 05:58 PM
540k. No grandfathered deal so far, but we might be able to swing something. Stats: 700 square feet, 2 BR, 1.5 bath, w/d/dw, working fireplace. Great location. Steps from Prospect Park and public transportation. (I'm getting good at this real estate stuff...)
Posted by: cindy at March 16, 2005 10:34 PM
Now if you don't mind Mom and Dad moving in, we can pool resources and buy a palatial residence - just imagine - built-in baby sitter, live-in housekeeper nag, sometime laundress, '60's hors d'oeuvres (cream cheese and chutney), mechanic/electrician/plumber/computer repair guy, crossword puzzle addict & forgotten psychologist. Who could refuse? Time to move back to the city anyway. Isn't that picture of you at the top of the Goodenough Mountain lookout tower?
Posted by: Mom at March 17, 2005 11:07 PM
yeah, you should be buying. get mom and dad and mom and dad to help chip in on the down payment. you only need 20% - 100K - haha, walking around money. btw, this is what our man jf did and what i'd like to do if i ever attain a salaried position again.
Posted by: r at March 17, 2005 11:50 PM
Mom -- will you be making breakfast for us every day? I expect slow-cooking oatmeal with blueberries from our garden (dad can do the gardening). And no cleaning my room!
Yes -- photo is from Goodnow Mt -- the "easy climb for young children" that challenged you so... :) I actually have more photos from that hike that I'll post one of these days...
Posted by: cindy at March 18, 2005 11:46 AM
Wasn't Gooden(whatever) the Adirondack pimple we stepped over in our haste to jog up Mt. Marcy?
Posted by: Mom at March 18, 2005 12:35 PM