She has a great apartment, one of her better assets.

Bowsprit, we have friends on the upper west side whose pre-war coop apt does have very large rooms ( although I guess it depends on your definition of "huge").. Each of the 4 bedrooms has a closet, and there are 2 or 3 hall closets. I don't think it's that unusual.

Thanks! Good to know.

Timhawk! Did we lose you? Or are you confused with all of Fodors trying to find a working solution for ya!!

Does Fodors generally deal with finding real estate for relocations? This has been a very interesting discussion but it isn't really travel related. Just wondering, not criticizing. Would this discussion be better suited for the Lounge?

Timhawk! Did we lose you?

Maybe he did finally did research on Staten Island.

(Just another cheap joke Ryan.)

"Would this discussion be better suited for the Lounge?"

Only if the intention was for someone to blame Bush/Obama for the rents in Manhattan.

This was a welcome departure from is the ESB better than the TOTR, I need a hotel for less than $13.47 a night, and which restaurant in the theater district is best for left-handed trapeze aerialists who need to be on the train for Hoboken by 10:46.

Bowsprit, Fodor's is not like Trip Advisor. They let us discuss "relocation" on these forums along with travel.

Thanks, suze: I'm enjoying the discussion.

btw: TOTR is better. Hotel Carter in February. And is that by 10:46 a.m. or p.m.?

Where is your job located in Staten Island? Is it near the Staten Island ferry going to South Ferry in Manhattan? Also, have you actually personally checked the location where you'll be working? I'd suggest you ask your co-workers where they live to get an idea of housing.

I believe you can probably find a one-bedroom in Staten Island. Many homeowners rent out apartments to help them pay their mortgage. I have a friend who lives in Brooklyn and rents out three beautiful apartments and he lives on the top floor.

Ironically, it's still possible, though difficult, to find a 1-bedroom in Manhattan for $1800. First it would have to be rent-stabilized (New York has quirky rent laws) and the previous tenant must have lived there a long time so the landlord can only raise it so much for every year the tentant was there plus landlord then adds expenses to the rent for improvements.

Good luck and let us know any additional information you may have so we can offer you more suggestions.

"Just curious: Anyone else have 'huge rooms and lots of closets' in their pre-war apt.?"

Insomnia hit last night so I did some googling. There was another apartment in the building online for sale. The master bedroom and living room are both 18x12. That's "huge" to me, especially considering it's Manhattan. There are 5 closets in the 2br apartment, including one that is deep enough to be considered a walk-in. Others may feel differently but that's "lots of closets" to me. It's a lot more than I have in my old house :-)

Oh, I forgot - 12' ceilings

It's a nice apartment :-)

So, you moving? :)

Nope. I love it and have always felt that I will live there for at least a couple of years. Interviewed for a job years back but I'd just bought a new house and decided it wasn't the right time. I love it though. I feel as - or even more - comfortable walking down the streets of NYC as I do at home. Kind of like Colorado for me.

But if I DID move, I'd love to live in that apartment-especially at the rent-controlled price. It's pretty darn sweet ;)

You have that link, Starrs? We're in the market. Is it for sale or rent? Thanks!

You're in the market? Lucky you! Check out this listing - it sounds pretty much perfect :-)
http://www.corcoran.com/property/lis...tingID=2227572

The apartment in my friend's building has been sold but Corcoran has many available for sale AND rent. Prices are good too - compared to a couple of years ago anyway.

Rent control is long gone - it applies only to apartments that have been lived in by the same (aged) tenants since shortly after WWII. Rentstabiization is aother thingg. That applies to many new buildings whoe owners took a specific typeof tax break when bulding or renivating the building. In return the apartemtns n the building were subject to stabilization for a specific nuber of years (I think 25 but don;t hold me to it). Increases on those apartments are set by the rent stabilization board every year (although many landlords cheat on this).

Other than that - and even on those apartments once they reach the $2000 per month ceiling market rates apply.

Before I bought my first apartment I lived in a moderately sized one-bedroom in a stabilized building. If I had stayed in that apartment (at the time rent was about $750) I would be paying well over $2000 a month now. (But I bought and ended up with a much larger apartmetn with mortgage and maintenance of only around $1600 per month - much tax deductible and piling up signifiant equity) before I finally sold it for almost 4 times what I paid for it.

Renting is a loser's game long-term - but you need a substantial sum for downpayment even to get into the buyer's market.

"Rent control is long gone - it applies only to apartments that have been lived in by the same (aged) tenants..."

My friend is living in the apartment she grew up in. They considered buying the apartment a couple of years ago and decided status quo was much preferable. After looking at recent prices, I think they made a very good decision. Prices have really dropped a lot in the last couple of years. They did buy a place "out in the country" which was a very good purchase and spend their time going back and forth. It's a sweet life. :-)

Precisely - those are the only tenants still under rent control. As current tenants die off (and you can't "give" the apartment to someone - they have to be living in it for years before the siting tenant dies) the pool is becoming smaler and smaller. At the moment it is tiny. Eventually it will be gone completely.

Stabilized will be with us as long s landlords continue to take advantage of tax breaks.

Precisely :-)
And their son can inherit it as well.
Rent control is not "long gone" for them.

Yes, Starrs, I'm sure it's perfect for someone. But I guess I still prefer Gold St.

Just to be clear, apartments do not become destabilized once the rent becomes $2,000.

Only If the tenant departs and the rent exceeds $2500, can they be de-stabilized and the next tenant will pay market-rate rents.

Or, if the tenants income exceeds $200.000 annually for 2 years in a row AND the rent is more than $2500, they can be de-stabilized.

Renting is a loser's game long-term - but you need a substantial sum for downpayment even to get into the buyer's market

Not so. We owned a house for a while. The amount of money put into repairs, heating oil, improvements, property taxes, and other things let alone the mortgage and insurance we are ahead of the game. You do not het your money back from taxes and appreciation is a huge unknown.

Now we have gas and electric included and repairs are done quickly. One night the shower broke and we had be some where in the morning and soneone on the night shift fixed it at 11 PM. The cost was a tip for the guys.

It's true that you need a substantial sum - obviously much worse now - but when I bought for the first time it was only 10% down - so my down payment and closing costs were less than $25,000.

And being a co-op the costs I'm directly responsible for are limited - although I did have assessments a couple of times for elevator repair and furnace system upgrade. But if you buy and live in it and keep it (I kept my first place 12 years) you will make money. Perhaps not in a 2 or 3 or even 5 year period if it's the wrong years - but over time you always win. I paid about $160 and sold for more than $700. My parents bought their (very modest) house for about $18,000 - (granted in the 1960s) and even in this soft market it's worth more than half a million.

Agree that there can be a lot of expenses with a house but if you run the numbers carefully and have a solid inspection - it should be possible to evaluate if a deal is a good one or not is certainly possible to buy an apartment and get into a huge financial mess if 1) you don;t have a cushion to fall back on, 2) you expect maintenance to remain the same, 3) you haven;t checked the state of repair of major building systems, 4) the building has an insufficient reserve fund or a devil may care board or 5) the underlying mortgage is too high or has onerous conditions. I have 2 friends who got in major messes - but it was because of some combination of the above - which I blame them and their attorneys for not checking on.