Apartment Rentals in New York City – what you need to know.
Monthly Archives: March 2008
Do you have a garbage truck in your neighborhood that awakens you too early in the morning? How about a barking dog next door who won’t shut up? Is there a loose manhole on your street that bangs every time a car rolls over it? Even though city living is not quiet, you don’t have to live with that kind…
If you think renting in NYC is hard, you\’re right. There\’s a lot of competition for very few vacancies. According to a New York Times article from May 2007, Property and Portfolio Research estimated the vacancy rate for Manhattan rentals at 3.7% which was expected to shrink to 3.3% by the end of 2007 and to 2.9% by 2011. The…
Queens, more than any of NYC\’s boroughs, has a lot of basement apartments but if the apartment is in the cellar, it\’s not legal. In our city, no one is allowed to live in the cellar. A cellar has less than 1/2 of its space above ground as measured by the curb level. In this photo of a yellow house,…
I think this is a funny video. Funny for real estate, anyway: The Users Guide to Williamsburg. There\’s one drug mention and two uses of f******, so please don\’t watch it if you\’re sensitive that way. I like hearing feedback from RDNY.com\’s members who have been out to Williamsburg for the first time. They are often surprised when they walk…
When you\’re walking through an apartment and thinking \”Can I live here?\” it\’s easy to let your emotions make your decision. It\’s easy to be distracted and not notice the details, and you might rush into a bad relationship. My Ma always said \”Rent in haste, repent at leisure.\” RDNY.com offers this checklist to point out some clues that could…
I don\’t want to be depressing, but there\’s some bad news about the U.S. economy: The U.S. economy clearly is in a recession. The stock market is down, 63,000 jobs were lost in Feb 2008, there\’s a mortgage crisis that\’s being felt all around the world, dollar is weak against the Euro and the yen, and who knows what\’s next….
It took me awhile, but I found some street names in Bronx and Brooklyn that honor women. I found this info from a lot of different websites and books. Cooper Street, Brooklyn: Bushwick resident Hannah Cooper once owned the land through which this street was cut. Coster Street, Bronx: Named for Julia Coster who was married to Francis J. Barretto,…
March is Women\’s History Month, so I wondered how many sisters were honored with a place name in NYC. I love that there\’s a story behind every place name in NYC. This post is about names in Manhattan. All of my info in this post comes from the terrific book by Henry Moscow called The Street Book. I heartily recommend…
Much of American property law is based on English common law that can be summed up in the saying \”A woman\’s home is her castle.\” (OK, that\’s not the saying, but March is Women\’s History Month and this is my blog.) They can decide who may or may not live there based on things that are otherwise illegal under the…
I\’ve chosen to illustrate this post with photos of my sister Amy\’s cat in her sink because pictures of a cat in a sink are much cuter than pictures of cockroaches in a sink. Cockroaches love dark, cool, moist places with rotting food, so the kitchen drain is a popular hangout. Roaches also hang out in bathtub drains, but they…
I love Parker Posey. Love her in Dazed and Confused and in the Christopher Guest movies. She’s always fun to watch. Too bad about her sitcom on Fox. You might have missed two of her lesser-known movies, both set in Woodside, Queens: Henry Fool (1997) and Fay Grim (2007). These are low budget satires with a cult following, but you…
I loved the 80s: Princess Di, John Hughes movies, Simply Red . . . and Gov. Tom Kean saying \”New Jersey and you, purhfect together\” in his preppy pseudo-British accent in commercials for NJ tourism. That\’s how I kinda think about my landlord and me: purhfect together. It\’s easy when you have a lease. If you live in a rent…