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The New York Times describes a trend towards families with multiple children and a lot of money opting out of moving to large houses in the suburbs like Westchester. Instead, they are buying multiple adjacent residences in Manhattan highrises and shaping their own 4,000 to 8,500 square foot homes in the city. The Times dubs them Mansions in the Sky. The floorplan above is the "after" portion from the Times graphic of a man who combined five apartments and a studio into one very large four-bedroom home.
With few apartments that large available, many buyers are resorting to buying five or six adjacent apartments to create homes of a suitable size. Developers are taking notice, however, and Gary Barnett, the head of Extell Development Corp., said that he was planning on incorporating apartments sized from 4,500 to 8,500 square feet in future buildings to accomadate buyers like another family featured in the article, which just purchased a six bedroom duplex on the Upper West Side in a 31-story building.
Behind the trend is the growth of married couples choosing to have (and being able to afford) more children and wanting to remain in the city. Brokers also attribute the growing number of mega-residences in the city as an element of 'keeping up with the Joneses' at a time when some people have accumulated an enormous amount of wealth.
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With an apartment that big, the kitchen isn't that great. That much I know from watching a lot of HGTV.
That was truly an awful article by the Times. 3 pages of repeating the same information over and over again.
A rich-ass family is looking for a big place. Decided to stay in the city! Needed room for their three kids, Chad, Brad, and Jackson! Some broker gives a quote on how it's all the rage these days. "People want space! I've sold all my huge shit!"
repeat, repeat, repeat.
So now this makes me feel like such a looser because I got into a profession that produces things (engineering) instead of one that involves moving around huge amounts of money while keeping quite a lot of that for for myself.
The Real Estate editors and hense the Real Estate industry is obviously grasping at straws if they need to focus on the mega wealthy in order to keep the la la spin going. Short term: Wonder what the lede will be next week. Long term: it's going to be an interesting few years watching how they handle the decline/crash and burn of the market.
If this is what New York is coming to, a haven for only the super wealthy, buying out apartments and driving up prices so that average, middle class people can barely afford to live here without living in a shoebox (worse than it is now), then I surely do not want to live here any more.
this is old news, people have been doing that for decades. it's not just the super rich but also working people like college professors.
though, it's mostly the super rich who could afford to do it now. my college professor anecdote happened over 20 years ago.
I've noticed a show on TLC had a broker from France recommending a client do this so it's not just NYC.
lovely, isn't it?
What is more obscene...that this is actually happening or that the Times devoted an article to this travesty?
That's it. We need to make NYC really unsafe for children, ASAP.
Can't wait till the trend of dividing these mongo apt spaces back up after the divorces in a few years.
How dare the wealthy live as if they're wealthy. How dare they!
Ive been saying it for the last couple of years, what NYC needs is a big crime wave, either real or hyped to get these assholes and kiddies back to the suburbs where they belong!
you may get your wish with the new Deathwish type movie Jodie foster will be in.
why did they have to film that in NYC? and, why does hollywood make crap movies?
It took 5 commenters for someone to say "driving out the middle class"? What's the Gothamist coming to?
yet another reason to end rent control
that jodie foster movie looks hilarious.
the subway scene is going to be a winner.
Now's the time to pick up a McMansion in the burbs on the cheap since they don't want them anymore!