What Makes New York City Amazing! The Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade!

So a few days ago I decided I wanted to go see the Macy's Day Parade for the first time. Living in New York City I called the parade hotline wanting to know the logistics of what time the parade started, finished and most importantly what time do people start lining up to see it. The gentlemen said that people start lining up around 5am for a 9am start and about an 11am finish. I didn't know how I was going to convince my girlfriend to wake up that early to see that parade. Luckily we live in the Upper West Side about two blocks from Central Park West, where the parade begins, and it wouldn't be much more than a five minute walk over to the parade route.


So starting yesterday afternoon the floats and balloons start to get blown up and organized outside of the Museum of Natural History. We walked up there around 5pm and it was already a mad-house. The streets were crowded; the police were already directing traffic, people lining up to see the balloons inflated. At that point I knew we would have to get to the parade route early to get a good spot.


So we arrived around 6:15am and already people had staked out most of the spots right next to the police barricades on the street. We found a great spot right at the corner of 68th and Central Park West, a prime spot as far as I was concerned. By 7am there was at least two rows of people lined up and by 8am it was officially packed. The stragglers start showing up and try to squirm their way in front of you, one of my pet peeves. Luckily the weather was great, a clear sunny morning, cold probably in the low 40s.
The parade started at 9am and the floats and balloons started coming down. The marching bands were terrific, saw a few celebrities, and watching the balloons navigate the streets was entertaining. I was entertained the whole way; it was worth waking up so early, and putting up with the cold and huge crowds. Definitely a lot more fun in person than on TV. Can't wait to see it again next year!

I hope you enjoy some of the pictures, Let me know which ones are your favorite!
The Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade definitely makes New York City an amazing city to live in!

What Makes New York City Amazing, $801,000 for a Storage Room!

A basement storage room sold for $801,000 in the renowned Dakota apartment building. The Dakota, located on Central Park West, is most well known as the home of John Lennon and still is the current residence of Yoko Ono. The apartments sell for upwards of 10-20 million dollars.Now this was no ordinary damp tiny storage room. The room was about 800 square feet had 20-foot-high ceilings and two windows. There is a bathroom and electricity wired already into the unit. Despite The Dakota being one of New York City’s most expensive and desired buildings there is no common exercise room for the building residents. The new owner of the storage unit was planning on converting the room into a small gymnasium and opening it up to the buildings residents. How altruistic of him!!
Space is at such a premium in New York City that I not really that surprised by this sale. First is the fact that if you can afford a $20 million dollar apartment, an $800,000 storage unit is probably not too much of a stretch in your budget. If you look at the price per square foot it really is not that much in New York City standards. It’s just at $1,000 a sq/ft, some condominium buildings have been selling at $3,000+ sq/ft recently.

I live in the Upper West Side and I walk by the Dakota to go to Central Park. It is an extraordinary building. The location is perfect right at 72nd and Central Park West. The architecture is absolutely eye-catching. You can’t help but check out the building. I’ve never been in any of the apartments in The Dakota, but when I do I will make sure to ask if a basement storage room comes with the unit knowing what one could sell for.

What makes New York City Amazing!

About two weeks ago I was reading an article about Donut Plant. Donut Plant is the promise land for the doughnut lover in all of us. Donut Plant has been featured on the Throwdown with Bobby Flay which Donut Plant won, and has gone global opening stores in Tokyo, Seoul and has plans for shops in New Orleans, Toronto, and Washington D.C. The biggest problem with Donut Plant is its proximity to where I live in Manhattan. I live on the Upper West Side and it’s located in the Lower East Side. So I can’t exactly just stop by and check it out, I have to make a decent size effort to go down there and what happens if I make it down there and the donuts are disappointing. This could make for a disastrous Saturday afternoon.

After a few hours I convinced my girlfriend to make the hike down to the Donut Plant which was exactly easier than I thought it would be. We took the subway and had to walk about 8 blocks, and about 30 minutes later we were there. I had a coconut glazed/coconut filled square shaped donut and she had some sort of chocolate cake donut with chocolate cream injected inside the donut and five dollars ready we were ready to see if the donuts were as all they were cracked up to be from this article. I would say that I was impressed with the donut. It wasn’t as much of a life changing experience as some of the people made it out to be in the article I read, but I was very satisfied. The donut had a unique taste and was very fresh and warm. About ten minutes after we started it was all over and we left the small donut shop.

The 8 block walk back to the subway station took us through Chinatown. What’s amazing about New York City is that just in the matter of a few blocks you can enter a different world. Walking through the neighborhood you see the food vendors, the ethnic grocery stores, all the signs, billboards, newspapers are in Chinese. I went from eating a donut to watching people buy fresh tofu from a street vendor and walking past restaurants with the upside down ducks hanging in the windows. It’s a lively part of town with so much energy running through it.

And then all of a sudden I’m in Little Italy. The neighborhood completely changes 180 degrees and I have a whole new set of cuisines to stare out and set of community to watch. This type of diversity in such close quarters is what makes New York City amazing. My day started out looking to eat a donut, but it turned into a tour of Chinatown and Little Italy.

Buying your first apartment in New York City

Knowledge, Understanding, and Experience

Whether you are brand new or a life long resident, buying your first apartment in New York City is going to be an experience. Hopefully that experience is filled with excitement, guidance, and anticipation of owning your own piece of the Big Apple.

When I begin working with somebody who is thinking or has decided to buy their first apartment the first thing I do is walk them through why buying a New York City apartment is going to be different than anywhere else. Educating the buyer about the difference between a condominium and co-op, board packages, walk-ups, and the jargon used to describe apartments. What’s a junior 4, classic 6, EIK, or a Pullman kitchen? I have a step by step process that will walk them through the first day all the way to the day of closing. Having an understanding of the pros and cons of buying a condominium or co-op is important to understand what the right type of apartment is for them. We have created a workbook for our buyers that acts as a guide to the entire process from A-Z in buying an apartment in New York City. It includes the time line guide for purchasing, questions to ask before purchasing, facts you want to know before looking and purchasing a Co-op, and the services we provide as a buyer’s broker.

I understand what its like to relocate to New York City. The first thing I had to figure out was what neighborhood I wanted to live in. For those relocating to Manhattan that can be a difficult decision. Each neighborhood has a lot to offer, has its drawbacks and its reasons why people love living there. The only way to choose a neighborhood is to go experience it firsthand; go walk the streets, try getting to your work from that neighborhood, go there on the weekends.

We continuously and successfully work with first time home buyers in Manhattan. We understand the importance of educating and guidance. We walk you through the entire process before you step foot into your first apartment. Buying an apartment can be scary and nerve racking; we understand that feeling because we have been there too. We have the resources and knowledge to make your experience a memorable one.

Its Official...The New York City Real Estate Downturn Begins

According to the New York Times, a crack in New York City Real Estate’s mighty armor has finally showed its ugly face. On the front page of the New York Times real estate section states, “ Even though the average price for a Manhattan apartment, at $1.5 million, is higher than it was a year ago, some New York neighborhoods have already started to feel the downward tug that has wrenched the housing market elsewhere in the nation.”

Though this is the first major article stating that a downturn has begun, we have been seeing this for awhile now. Since the credit crisis began about a year ago a lack of buyer confidence has started to grab hold and the once piping hot market began to cool off.

These outer neighborhoods or fringe neighborhoods have showed the first signs of the downturn. Harlem, East Harlem, Midtown West, and Hell’s Kitchen, have showed the biggest year over year decreases.

While the rest of the country has been facing a continued real estate downturn New York City has been the shining beacon of hope seeing appreciation that seemed like it would never end. This run up occurred because of a perfect combination of forces, a few including an easy source of credit from banks, a weak US dollar brought in oversea investors buying condominiums at significant discounts, Wall Streeters were buying properties with their huge bonuses, and the psychological impact that prices were never going to stop going up.

A credit crunch has made mortgages harder to obtain, the Wall Street meltdown is in full effect, and buyers are now watching from the sidelines to see what happens in the short term.

As always, buying Real Estate should be a long term investment, so unless you are selling, you will not know the true value of your apartment. For those people who have a strong need for a New York City apartment, you have entered a buyer’s market. The tables are turned and now you are in the drivers seat. The opportunity to buy fantastic apartments that were once financially out of reach or sold during the first open house will be ripe for the picking.

To view more information about buying in New York City:

www.nycaptinfo.com

The Tide is Turning for New York City Rentals

"Why is it so hard to rent an apartment in New York City?" I had a young woman relocating from San Francisco ask me this question just a few weeks ago after we found her an apartment in the Upper West Side. The other statement I usually here is, "I'm so sick of looking for an apartment!" Despite the difficult nature of finding an apartment in Manhattan things might be getting a little bit easier.

As the Manhattan real estate market turns into a buyer's market, many buyers are becoming renters to wait out and see what happens to the market. Typically the summer market for rentals is very hot and properties get snatched up very quickly. Not so much this summer, properly priced units still rented quickly but more inventory sat until the prices adjusted. Now that we are into the fall season the rental market has started to slow down and the holidays now are just around the corner. Landlord are beginning to ease up on rents and offering more room to negotiate.

Many of the major management companies are offering one and sometimes two months free rent for 12-16 month long leases, offering built in gym memberships, and negotiating prices. I find that landlords would rather offer incentives, such as one months free rent, a free gym membership, compared to significantly reducing the rents because when it is time to renegotiate the rents when the leases are up they will be in a better position because the base monthly rents will be inflated. The net effective rent during the life of the lease was considerably less and when the leases are up they will expire in January to March when the rental market is seasonally stronger and the landlord will be in a better position to negotiate a new lease.

Overall this is a good time to be in the market for a rental apartment. Whether you are looking for a walk-up building in the Upper East Side, a full service doorman condominium in Union Square, or a prewar Upper West Side co-op there are plenty of opportunities to negotiate favorable terms and find the perfect apartment.

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