<p>“The Hunt” runs every week. Usually it’s a young couple with a modest (by NYC standards) budget. There’s a shortage of 3+ bedroom apartments, so it is not all that unusual for it to take years for a family who can afford a large apartment in a desirable area to find something. I know someone who ended up buying two adjacent apartments and combining them - a very time-consuming and aggravating process. </p>
<p>I was just looking at apartment rents in San Jose. Yikes. $2500 for a two bedroom apartment seems to be the going rate, and these are not great neighborhoods.</p>
<p>My kids are renting a two bedroom tiny place in Arlington VA for $3,000 a month. That’s less than the 3600 sq ft house next door with four bedrooms rents for. I don’t understand why someone would want that.</p>
<p>Median household income in. Brooklyn is less than $45,000.
People who have millions to spend and can’t find anyplace to live, aren’t trying.</p>
<p>^^^why so judgmental? They are not asking for any pity or spending anyone’s money. It was just their journey in finding their own home. </p>
<p>emeraldity4, Brooklyn is a very big place with a huge variety of neighborhoods. Its population is bigger than every city in the U.S. besides Los Angeles, Chicago, and the other 4 boroughs of NYC combined. Lots of rich people and lots of poor people, its own Chinatown, the center of immigrants to the U.S. from Russia, an important historic black neighborhood with stops from the Underground Railroad, a large and longstanding Caribbean-American neighborhood, and several distinct Hassidic Jewish enclaves. Plus an increasing concentration of very, very wealthy people, most of whom live much closer to very, very poor people than anywhere else I can think of. To state the median income doesn’t say very much.</p>
<p>The house that burned down in the article is in a very wealthy zip code, but by no means the wealthiest, and it’s a short walk to several low-income housing projects.</p>
<p>I would really like to know what they do (to make so much money) … just curious, and I wonder how they are buying the new place, ie how much down, how big of a mortgage. Also, They bought the “Cobble Hill” place for $1.7mm and then in how many years… 4? sold it for $3.75mm. That’s a pretty good gain, isn’t it? Wonder how much they spent on renovations.</p>
<p>NJres, that part of Brooklyn, that kind of house, is in a crazy bubble now. Prices are considerably higher than they were before the real estate bust in 2007.</p>
<p>I wondered where all the money is coming from, too, NJres. The husband is “in the music business.” That could mean anything. The wife is clearly not making serious money, so either the husband is in a lucrative part of “the music business” or they have family/inherited money.</p>
<p>He could be managing Beyonce, for all we know. Could be anything.</p>
<p>He’s the VP of a major record label. Maroon Five is probably their biggest success story.</p>
<p>If you just look at their process, they didn’t just buy a 4 mill place right off the bat. They sold their Battery Park 2 bedroom (~$1.5 mill) then bought a place in Brooklyn for $1.7, not exactly living beyond their means. They could comfortably afford it by making 350k+. The brownstone burned down and they got insurance pay out for the place. They sold the brownstone for $3.75 mill, that’s $2 mill gain. So I wouldn’t surprised if their current mortgage is not more than 1+ mill on their 4 mill home. </p>
<p>Well, I enjoyed the article and I’m never going to live in NYC, or in a 4 million dollar habitat for that matter. I enjoy “lifestyle” articles and magazines - I imagine I would have the same concerns as they did in looking for someplace suitable for a family. Should I not read Vogue and Architectural Digest because I can’t afford the lifestyle they promote? I don’t consider myself poor, but we are far from wealthy. I don’t get bashing people because they have money, unless they got that money by means I don’t consider ethical. </p>
<p>If it weren’t for all the rich people looking for apartments in NYC, I wouldn’t get to see inside such lovely homes on Selling New York on HGTV. Who wants to look at tiny little studios? There’s no fun in that…</p>
<p>Fun glimpse into a life I know nothing about, LOL. </p>
<p>If it was in the magazine section and not a news piece, i would object less. What is it about NY that they publish this type of article when SF or LA newspapers don’t? I’d think it’s just as hard to get a place there.</p>
<p>It was in the real estate section, not a news section.</p>
<p>It’s in the real estate section. I really don’t get the criticism except that it’s kind of a nothing story. Couldn’t you find a similar piece about high-end LA real estate? I think, yes. </p>
<p>There are articles like that about San Francisco and Bay Area housing all the time.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Happens often here, sabaray. Anytime there’s a discussion about cars, retirement plans, second homes, vacations, renovations, and, oh my goodness, weddings!, well, you’re likely to have this kind of negative comment about the way people spend their money. </p>