Do New Yorkers have a love-hate relationship with their outdoor spaces? Believe it or not, it seems they do. While many would put themselves in a compromising position for a few square-feet of greenery, The NY Times reports on a few who find their outdoor space a burden.
Many patio-privelaged are allegedly "turning their backs on their balconies" -- blasphemy! One Chelsea resident, Vera Sampson, sees her open space as "a magnet for dust and dirt." Others find the process of fixing up an urban outdoor space a costly and timely matter, with apparently little payback.
It is difficult to give an average dollar value of outdoor space, because if it is a terrace, which is open to the sky and occupies a building’s setback, it’s worth more than a balcony, which is typically smaller and projects outward from the facade. But outdoor space is generally agreed to be worth about half as much per square foot as the square footage inside an apartment.
So what's a tenant to do with their high maintainance outdoor space? Senior VP of Corcoran, Sherry Matays, bolted her terrace up 30 years ago and never returned! Others quietly suffer what has been dubbed "terrace guilt." And you thought you had problems.
Photo via Stewie D's Flickr.
