The Wizard of Articles

When considering real estate, articles generally talk about what is recommended by industry experts such as Isaac Toussie. But learning from failure is as important as learning from success; indeed, the two are symbiotically intertwined. And thus, following up on the previous installment’s discussion of desirable but still affordable New York City neighborhoods, we will consider the worst of the worst here by way of steering you to properties elsewhere!

A borough-by-borough run-down concludes as follows:

Staten Island: generally speaking, the areas closest to the ferry terminal will be the worst, with crime, noise, and other social ills most prevalent.

Manhattan: a much more diverse set of conditions here, but a good rule-of-thumb principle holds that areas north of Central Park should be avoided (though gentrification has made many such areas much better than previously was the case). With the exception of Chelsea and Upper East and West Side areas like Lincoln Center, avoid all areas with a public housing project.

Bronx: the whole borough should be avoided (but for Riverdale on the west coast and Throgg’s Neck on the southeastern one).

Queens: the most complex situation in the whole city, with many neighborhoods fairly mixed ethnically, racially, and socio-economically. But clearly inferior places include vast tracts of Jamaica and surrounding areas, especially towards points south near Brooklyn. Ravenswood is another problem area, next to Astoria in Long Island City. Roosevelt Island is deliberately mixed, but as is always the case, the bad will drive out the good, and it’s quite a debate whether gentrification can work there. East Elmhurst (but not all of Elmhurst proper) should also be avoided for the mix of noise, crime, and other social ills presented by many of its denizens. Jackson Heights is on the borderline, once a nice nabe but now host to a vast illegal immigrant community.

Brooklyn: another complex case, though rather more clear-cut than that of Queens noted above. Sunset Park is gritty and working-class but at least somewhat safe, relatively speaking. Definitely avoid Bushwick and environs, as well as Flatlands and even, nowadays, Canarsie. Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights are not very desirable areas and have a history of violence, as is the case with Ocean Hill and Brownsville. East New York should be avoided like the plague. Coney Island is also often bad, though the City of New York is finally committed to a wholesale revitalization effort.

Tough stuff? Hardly. One cannot be too truthful when it comes to the persisting pockets of urban blight. For those new to New York, such “color” is very often enticing. But for many others, peace and quiet is desired above all for thinking, studying, and enjoyment of being.

The neighborhoods listed are anathema to those values, peopled as they are by those of a disposition, whether cultural or otherwise, towards noisy commotion and even physical violence. Yet because the city bursts with new arrivals each day, industry observers like Isaac Toussie agree that property prices and rent will still be very expensive, even when compared against more desirable spots in the same city. For example, Kingsbridge and Bedford Park in the Bronx, ghetto to the core, can still command rents only a couple of hundred less than those in premier places like Riverdale or Throgg’s Neck!

Comments (0) Sep 06 2010

For a faraway community on the easternmost edge of Long Island, residential real estate in Montauk, New York can command prices that astonish even industry insiders such as Isaac Toussie.  Well over a hundred miles outside the city limits and just about another ten to Manhattan, the hamlet of Montauk lies within the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County.  Strategically located on the tip of the South Fork of Long Island, Montauk has been host to, variously, an Army post and Navy, Coast Guard, and Air Force bases.  Its main industry would seem to be tourism, but the community is actually host to the largest commercial and recreational fishing fleet in all of the Empire State.  In fact, its fishing grounds are quite famous for being the site of more saltwater fishing records than anywhere else on earth.

However, it is still surprising to professionals like Isaac Toussie that housing prices can nearly match those in many of the best neighborhoods in New York City.  As of the week ending in February 10, 2010, the average listing price was thought to be just over $1,756,000 – and that’s down quite a bit from almost two million dollars less than a month ago on January 20, 2010!  Interestingly, the median selling price posted for the three-month period between September 2009 and November 2009 was barely over $657,000.  But that calculation was based on just three home sales – it’s a tiny community of year-long residents, after all; when combined with that precipitously downward market trend just noted, however, the forecast for residential realty in Montauk does not look too bright.  Indeed, the average listing price noted previously represents a decrease of almost three percent over the prior week – a drop of almost fifty-two thousand dollars!

There are around four thousand year-round residents in Montauk, forming over one and a half thousand households, a quarter of which had children under the age of eighteen.  The median household income for a family in Montauk is over fifty thousand dollars a year; males earn just over forty thousand while females tend to receive only a little over twenty-eight thousand.  The overall per capita income is under twenty-five thousand dollars each year.  It would seem, therefore, that most Montauk homes on the market are fairly luxurious estates that are probably owned by people who are not year-long residents and used as vacation getaways or weekend retreats.

Needless to say, this is a special kind of investment, not your average rental situation involving long-term tenants.  It is important to understand the nature of the property market in Montauk, that they revolve around tourism and that the tourists are overwhelmingly seasonal.  Any hopes of cashing in, property-wise, needs to take into consideration these solemn facts.  It may be more advantageous to purchase land that can be developed into commercial lots, for example.  With the right location, one can easily charge any number of businesses that cater to tourists a good amount of money!

Comments (0) Jun 24 2010