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For your daily dose of amusement/ outrage/ disbelief at the city we live in, the NY Times has an article about apartment buildings selling private parking spaces for as much as $225,000. Seriously.
If parking at the Onyx Chelsea, a new 52-unit condo at 28th Street and Eighth Avenue, is any indication, there is plenty of demand. The first two spots sold for $165,000, the third for $175,000 and the last two for $195,000. Each space will include about $50 in monthly maintenance costs. Still, there are three buyers on a waiting list.Hmm, on the high end for that neighborhood, parking spaces cost around $300-325 a month for indoor parking (a little less for outdoor) according to AutoParking.com, but let's assume $350 a month for $4200 in yearly fees, and then double it, to factor in having three kids...that's about $8400 annually in parking costs. Oh, hell, maybe someone better at math and real estate can explain why buying a nearly $200,000 parking spot is a good choice, arguments about convenience aside. Is paying a mortgage on a parking space better? Or is it just a status symbol, much more so than a FreshDirect fridge? Some wise people snatch up parking spaces, looking to sell them later (is there a parking space bubble?) or to rent them out. Which means next thing you know, we'll be hearing about the worst "parking space landlords" in the city.Cynthia Habberstad is at the top of that list. She chose not to buy a spot when they were selling for $165,000, but changed her mind only to learn that all the spaces had been taken.
“At first, I was getting overwhelmed and didn’t want to spend the money,” Ms. Habberstad said. “I’m kicking myself now, believe me.”
She and her three children, ages 7, 9 and 11, live on Long Island, but the children’s modeling schedules bring them into the city at least twice a week, and the apartment they bought in the building will be a pied-à-terre.
“If we’re coming in late from dinner or we have a lot of stuff in the car, do we really want to have to walk a few blocks to get home?” Ms. Habberstad said. “It all makes sense now that I don’t have it.”
Here's the city's guide to parking spaces around the city. We want to know what Calvin Trillin thinks about this.
Photograph of a parking garage sign in Queens by Vidiot on Flickr
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That's all pretty disgusting. How could someone justify paying over a hundred thousand dollars just to not walk a few blocks? Think of all the better uses for that money.
Why do people like Cynthia Habberstad give quotes to the press?
Maybe I can buy one of those parking spaces, erect a nice shanty and live there. Oh, yeah, I can't even afford to buy a parking space in Manhattan anymore. This is madness.
Stuff like this is why I really think New York City is kind of a real-life absurdity as portrayed in shows like the O.C. Things like 500,000 dollar studios, lines in front of nightclubs (Pacha etc.) at 7am and the omnipresent elitism towards anything non-manhattan just makes this place seem like some kind of surreal zoo.
She doesn't care about the cost because she's just spending the money her kids make through modeling, im sure..
it's a status symbol- if you can afford it, and your fancy building has spaces, why wouldn't you purchase one--- plus, there is a perceived resale value on having a space, which can later either be sold with or without the apartment. if congestion pricing happens, parking is only going to get worse, so this investment will probably pay off... (not that i'm justifying it or anything)
An article like this is race-baiting. I now want to exterminate white people.
Get used to this idea: New York, the city we knew and loved, is almost dead and gone. This city will be the West's equivalent of Dubai in about 10 - 15 years.
The only people who will actually live here will be the wealthiest of the wealthy (and their kids going to college). Service professionals (from doctors to janitors, so basically everyone else) who won't be able to afford the city's lowest rent of about $5000/mo for a 700sqf studio will have to commute in over longer and longer distances to their jobs in Manhattan.
After all, these ultra elite city dwellers will need lots and lots of help. They aren't dumb, they know that to get your broke ass in to work from Long Island and the Bronx on time every day, you're going to need a kick ass public transportation system. They just haven't figured out how to make YOU pay for it though. That shit ain't cheap.
Amen, emilydickinson. Amen.
[6], If you could afford it, there's still no reason to buy it. The money could be used so much better elsewhere--investing it, donating it, whatever.
Could the Times have found a less sympathetic figure than Ms Habberstad? Takes her perfect little blond children to modeling appointments. Lives on Long Island. Has a pied a terre in Manhattan. Willing to pay more for a parking space than most people can afford for a place to live. Doesn't want to walk "a few blocks" from her precious car to her apartment???
If ever there was a poster child for congestion pricing, she is it. Tax her car addicted Long Island ass back to the stone age is what I say.
Except, [11], that (as congest pricing opponents, of which I am not one, point out) $8 or $12 or however much the congestion charge might eventually get jacked up to is not an inconvenience for someone like her. The faults, unfortunately, are more deeply rooted in the system than charging one spoiled mother $8 to drive her BMW station wagon (if I'm not mistaken) into the city can fix.
Hey #6 - I'm white and broke! I live far out in Brooklyn and pay $580 a month in rent. We ain't all bad!
No reason to buy that parking space, Ms. Habberstad. For an extra $165,000 a year, I will personally carry you, your creepy master-race kids and your assorted high-end Scandinavian goods on my back from your car to your disgusting condo twice a week.
Here's my explanation of the "math" of the whole thing: I've seen parking spots for sale for 20-50 grand, which while absurd, makes sense for a few reasons. For example, if you are paying about 400 a month anyway for parking, you're practically giving away 5 grand a year, whereas if you own the spot for 5-10 years, you'll break more than even. Mainly, though, if you buy the spot, you can sell it at market price, so in the end, even if you sell your space for what you paid, you've essentially broken even (ignoring inflation). Additionally, since its mortgage-based, and if it's being used for "business" purposes (such as shuttling your kids around to modeling gigs), it's tax-deductible, so you get a nice write-off.
That said, a $200,000+ space is pretty gross. But, think about that person who paid 165,000 - he/she can now sell it for a quick 30-50% profit in less than a 1-year time frame. That's a nice return. I can't imagine the 225,000 space will gain much value, but this is Manhattan, where insanity rules.
I want to know what kind of "monthly maintenance" is invloved on a slab of asphalt or concrete.
RIP NYC
Habberstad? From Long Island?
Lady, go back to your husband's car dealerships. Your kids don't need money from modeling to fund your ridiculous lifestyle.
if you buy the spot, you can sell it at market price, so in the end, even if you sell your space for what you paid, you've essentially broken even (ignoring inflation)
Inflation isn't the only cost of carrying property. In fact, you should really look at what you could earn on the money elsewhere. If you sell it for what you paid and you could have been earning 8 to 10% pre-tax in an investment portfolio then you are pretty deep in the hole even after five years. I also assume that parking spaces are taxed as property (I wouldn't know since I don't own a car). As for monthly maintenance on a slab of concrete, I assume the garage is attended, uses electric lighting, etc. There must be some costs.
As to whether the space will be worth more in five to ten years: Probably but I am now wondering if the boom will finally be over in ten years. I have been assuming that the run up in real estate, which has been a global phenonomon, has to slow eventually. I'm not predicting a crash in value but a much slower pace of appreciation. Globalization has lead to low interest rates which push up prices. It has also made it very easy for foreigners to buy property outside of their home market. So wealthy foreigners are buying up secondary homes in the global cities like London, New York, San Francisco, etc. The dollar's slide also makes it cheaper for foreigners to buy in the US. But at some point all of these trends have to trend back toward the mean.
Habberstad isn't Jewish, is it?
2 things -
Kids are ugly - especially the boy & girl on the left
She's stupid - Spending $200k to save $100/wk doesn't make sense
Why not just commute back and fourth from Long Island to Manhattan is it really that hard? Probably so for the miss lazy lady.
Does anyone in their right mind have any empathy towards Habberstad?
Why not take the train like the rest of Long Island and New Jersey?
Seriously, ever since I started taking NJTransit whenever I go into NYC, I've vowed to always do so as long as the trains are running.
If you're commuting from NJ or LI, there is NO reason whatsoever to drive. Everybody takes the train, from the working class to the insanely wealthy.
my parents couldn't even afford the education that would have taught me what the hell a "pied a terre" is.
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