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

[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.

It's not the same situation OP describes. He want to live there, it's like her second home, not just a touristy place to visit several times a year. She seems to have ties to the area like family and friends and wants to establish some sort of "base" there, so that she could go there any time she wants on a whim with a small bag and all her stuff and clothes are there, and she can stay as little or as long as she wants. It's pretty awesome if you love and enjoy NYC. If you aren't that into it, then it's definitely not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.


https://streeteasy.com/building/440-east-79-street-new_york/1i?utm_campaign=sale_listing&utm_medium=share&utm_source=web&lstt=qWUxx0kslaaBalMFucP39OB5D_ppY3WiuNzs6yc0NKU3zq-pPjU1n946tZYl-pROO95w0ySrtcv6FcLn

It's not a bad deal for one person living or a couple's pied-a-terre. It costs a bit over 1K a month if you can sink 500K upfront and you won't miss it. It's a convertible 1 bedr that used to be a studio, you could try to find a studio for less and then do the conversion yourself if you desire to do this later. In the meanwhile you could just use a studio since it's not any worse than a junior suite at a hotel which would cost you a ton.

The only question would be whether you need space for guests, like older kids visiting once in a while or going with you if you have this situation. Or if your kid may want to use it to live with a roommate if they end up going to college or working there.