Buying a pied-a-terre in NYC…good or bad idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Buying a pied-a-terre is not an investment (for me). It’s to ensure I have my own place where I can go anytime as I please. I have many friends and family who live in NYC with whom I can stay. But I really want my own place (and I can afford it). I’m tired of imposing on others.

OP again. The person who told me buying a pied-à-terre is a bad idea is a family member with whom I stay often in NYC. You’d think she’d encourage me to get my own place 😀

Maybe she is lonely and wants company? If you want to make it your own place and keep it forever or at least foreseeable future, it's not a terrible idea. It really is all about costs. And you have to count costs like maintenance and taxes increasing and the situations where you may not be able to sell for the same price as you bought should you need to sell. If you counted this in, how would it be a bad idea? Can you first elaborate on what scenario you are afraid of that can make it a bad idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Financially, it depends on whether you think it will appreciate faster than alternative investments. No one knows, but an average, real estate has done worse than stocks.

But it also seems just wrong to me to let an apartment sit empty 90 percent of the time. What an insane waste of space.

It's a luxury. People buy luxury all the time. Like huge homes where most of the space is unused.. No difference here. Whether this square footage is in your primary residence and you barely use it or in a second home is irrelevant if you can afford it and maintenance is not a hassle. Also this situation is no different than any second home ownership (like beach or mountain or rural places). People use their places very limited amount of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financially, it depends on whether you think it will appreciate faster than alternative investments. No one knows, but an average, real estate has done worse than stocks.

But it also seems just wrong to me to let an apartment sit empty 90 percent of the time. What an insane waste of space.

It's a luxury. People buy luxury all the time. Like huge homes where most of the space is unused.. No difference here. Whether this square footage is in your primary residence and you barely use it or in a second home is irrelevant if you can afford it and maintenance is not a hassle. Also this situation is no different than any second home ownership (like beach or mountain or rural places). People use their places very limited amount of time.

Also. if her house here is paid off and it's modest the total square footage she occupies iwth a small NYC apartment can be less than an average home in DMV. I don't know OP's life's circumstances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Buying a pied-a-terre is not an investment (for me). It’s to ensure I have my own place where I can go anytime as I please. I have many friends and family who live in NYC with whom I can stay. But I really want my own place (and I can afford it). I’m tired of imposing on others.

OP again. The person who told me buying a pied-à-terre is a bad idea is a family member with whom I stay often in NYC. You’d think she’d encourage me to get my own place 😀

Maybe she is lonely and wants company? If you want to make it your own place and keep it forever or at least foreseeable future, it's not a terrible idea. It really is all about costs. And you have to count costs like maintenance and taxes increasing and the situations where you may not be able to sell for the same price as you bought should you need to sell. If you counted this in, how would it be a bad idea? Can you first elaborate on what scenario you are afraid of that can make it a bad idea?

OP here. I think PPs have pointed out the typical scenarios that could arise. Things like emergencies (flooding from the neighbors above, etc…). Of course I would get homeowners insurance but there is the hassle factor of dealing with emergencies from a distance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Buying a pied-a-terre is not an investment (for me). It’s to ensure I have my own place where I can go anytime as I please. I have many friends and family who live in NYC with whom I can stay. But I really want my own place (and I can afford it). I’m tired of imposing on others.

OP again. The person who told me buying a pied-à-terre is a bad idea is a family member with whom I stay often in NYC. You’d think she’d encourage me to get my own place 😀

Maybe she is lonely and wants company? If you want to make it your own place and keep it forever or at least foreseeable future, it's not a terrible idea. It really is all about costs. And you have to count costs like maintenance and taxes increasing and the situations where you may not be able to sell for the same price as you bought should you need to sell. If you counted this in, how would it be a bad idea? Can you first elaborate on what scenario you are afraid of that can make it a bad idea?

OP here. I think PPs have pointed out the typical scenarios that could arise. Things like emergencies (flooding from the neighbors above, etc…). Of course I would get homeowners insurance but there is the hassle factor of dealing with emergencies from a distance.

I’ve lived in a NYC coop for 25 years. I’ve never had a true emergency come up, although one time my neighbor upstairs had a small leak and my ceiling had some water marks. We were both away when it happened.

I left for a year during COVID and only came back once or twice. I had mice but that’s all.

Buildings have supers and maintenance people to help- you can pay someone to check in occasionally if you’re worried- and you only need to worry about the inside of your unit obviously. I also have a house and it is night and day in terms of emergencies to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financially, it depends on whether you think it will appreciate faster than alternative investments. No one knows, but an average, real estate has done worse than stocks.

But it also seems just wrong to me to let an apartment sit empty 90 percent of the time. What an insane waste of space.

It's a luxury. People buy luxury all the time. Like huge homes where most of the space is unused.. No difference here. Whether this square footage is in your primary residence and you barely use it or in a second home is irrelevant if you can afford it and maintenance is not a hassle. Also this situation is no different than any second home ownership (like beach or mountain or rural places). People use their places very limited amount of time.

It's also insanely wasteful to have a house with lots of rooms you never go into.

But more practically, if money wasn't an issue for me, I wouldn't want the fuss of owning a second home. I'd just pay for a hotel (or Airbnb) as needed and then not have to think about it when I wasn't there.

[Anonymous]

We have a large 1 bedroom co-op apt in manhattan in a 24/7 doorman building (no gym and no pool). The maintenance fee (including property taxes) has gone up from $1700/month in 2018 to $2200/month now. It will keep going up. That’s a pretty standard cost for any buildings with doormen. Holidays are about $1500-2000 in tips for the doormen and super. Obviously if things break etc that’s on you too.

We are allowed to have guests when we are not there 2 nights per month. No subletting.

I think if you are spending more than 5 nights a month in NYC, it’s probably worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financially, it depends on whether you think it will appreciate faster than alternative investments. No one knows, but an average, real estate has done worse than stocks.

But it also seems just wrong to me to let an apartment sit empty 90 percent of the time. What an insane waste of space.

It's a luxury. People buy luxury all the time. Like huge homes where most of the space is unused.. No difference here. Whether this square footage is in your primary residence and you barely use it or in a second home is irrelevant if you can afford it and maintenance is not a hassle. Also this situation is no different than any second home ownership (like beach or mountain or rural places). People use their places very limited amount of time.

It's also insanely wasteful to have a house with lots of rooms you never go into.

But more practically, if money wasn't an issue for me, I wouldn't want the fuss of owning a second home. I'd just pay for a hotel (or Airbnb) as needed and then not have to think about it when I wasn't there.

Airbnb are outlawed in NYC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on what you like. For me, hotels would be more luxurious, even crummy ones, even weekly. I would resent every moment spent on ownership headaches. I don’t want to coordinate a housekeeper. I love hotels.

But for some people, having their own space and keeping things there would be totally worth the extra cost and hassle.

I wouldn’t do this unless I was already employing a house manager who could do the nyc stuff too. And honestly that’s not true, I would just use nicer hotels. Pick one and become a regular.

I feel like there are bored trolls on here who like to cosplay being ‘wealthy’ women who love to post these sniffy little retorts like ‘worth the cost for me’ for a ‘house manager’ and ‘housekeeper’ etc.

No one who has any sense of the world would think you need a ‘house manager’ and ‘housekeeper’ for the sort of apartment OP is considering.

I just assume if you have a pied a terre in nyc, you want to have a housekeeper come in between visits. Housecleaner. Cleaning lady. Whatever.

For me, I don’t want to manage that person from afar. I don’t want to deal with the broken dishwasher, or the burst pipe, or the meeting to get permission to change my window unit, or anything like that. I’m saying even if I were wealthy enough to have a house manager or personal assistant or something who could theoretically do that for me, I still would prefer hotels. I just don’t see what you get out of having your own small apartment except the ability to leave some stuff there. But other people can disagree, that was the point.

[Anonymous]

I am considering buying a place like this when I retire. If you assume 7% opportunity cost of not investing the $500K plus the maintenance, it works out to about $4,200 a month- that is likely more than I would spend on a hotel but because I owned I would use it more and enjoy it.


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