On My Mind: 5 Reasons I'm Grateful To Be In NYC

Today, I'm happy to be a New Yorker. Today, the city feels open and full of possibility. So, thank you, NYC, for....

1. City Guy, my husband whom I adore. This is the city that brought us together, and without him, I would never have become as interesting a person as I am today.
   
2. Being a foodie heaven. LA has great food and a diversity of flavor, but New Yorkers just take their love of food more seriously. Food festivals, world-class chefs, world-class culinary institutes, greenmarkets....what joy!
3. Having a competitive running culture. You don't get to run along the beach, and the weather isn't cooperative most of the year, but I feel myself taking my running more seriously here. I certainly never ran so many races living in LA. And I'm so looking forward to running the legendary NYC marathon this year!
4. Bringing anything and everything here. No matter how niche my interest or desire, I know I'll find what I'm looking for somewhere in the city, and if not, it will come to NY eventually.
5. Always keeping me entertained and teaching me new things. I know I'll never get bored living here!

Real Estate: Open House Post-Mortem

Yesterday afternoon, City Guy and I spent four hours traipsing around in the hot, humid weather to visit SEVEN buildings in the FiDi. Fun, but exhausting. I have mixed feelings about buying after all this. Things I've learned:

• It's going to be hard to get everything we want. We'd ideally want a 2 bedroom or 1 bedroom with home office (that we could convert into a nursery down the road), but even in this market, we're looking at a million (maybe $800-900K if we're willing to give up certain things, like location or amenities).
  
• Based on running the numbers in a handy dandy mortgage calculator, based on what we're paying for rent right now between the two of us (on the low side), buying doesn't make financial sense, even with the tax savings. However, the minute we compare the cost of renting a two-bedroom to the cost of buying a $850K place, for instance, we can justify the expense.
  
• I feel poor. When you go to these open houses, you see the same faces over and over...there are a lot of bankers with a lot of money still buying in this market and they don't seem to blink at the prices.
  
• We're going to start considering Brooklyn. The Williamsburg waterfront developments, for instance, would satisfy my jonesing for a water-view and the units are bigger for the money. Check out The Edge.
  
• Even with the glut of condos in the area, developers are planning even more. 50 West St is scheduled to open in June 2010, for example.
  
• There's no rush. Like with everything else in life, I must be patient.
• If we buy, we might have to stay in NYC for the next 5 to 7 years.
  
• We need a good mortgage broker.
  
• We need a good real estate attorney.
• NYC real estate is no joke.
  

Real estate is vexingly on my brain. I've already scheduled three appointments for next weekend. We're going to check out The Edge, Northside Piers and the beautiful green condo development in Battery Park City, Visionaire. Wish us luck!

Real Estate: Condo Search 101

As I mentioned before, City Guy and I are new to the NYC condo market, and it's my job as the one with the more flexible hours and the greater background in real estate (my family) to do the homework.

Today, I took advantage of this stormy weather to stay indoors and get organized. I spent forever on Street Easy, looking up condos in the FiDi (Financial District for you newbies), and just by looking through all the listings and the new development listings, I feel confident that I now know all the major condo developments with available units in our price range--about 25 in all. I made a spreadsheet! I know--pretty nerdy--but I love Excel for organizing my life!

Tomorrow, we're going to try and hit up 5 or 6 open houses. Should be fun.

Other steps we've recently taken to get organized:

1. The other day, City Guy and I made a "condo wishlist" which I think was another good way to figure out our baseline expectations as a couple for our new home. It was good to know we were on the same page.
   
2. We figured out our money situation, which means now I know what to look for in terms of price, common charges and taxes.
3. We ruled out Battery Park City, which I've loved from afar for a while. I just love the waterfront and all those "green" buildings! But the common charges and taxes are ridiculous - almost $2000/month sometimes and I'd happily walk a few blocks to get to water if it means saving a chunk of change.
   
4. We agreed that our first choice in neighborhoods is FiDi. Both of us have lived in this area for many years. We've seen it evolve and we believe there's great growth potential in the next 5-7 years. I found out today that living in FiDi, our future kids would have a great school district - PS 234--and we'd be close to the waterfront parks, which I would take over Central Park any day. Plus, we believe it's our best bet for finding a place for less than $1000/square foot downtown.
   
5. We're giving ourselves a 6 month to 1 year time frame for purchase. That gives us time to really do our homework.
   
6. If we don't find a place in Manhattan, we'll start looking in Brooklyn. Williamsburg has some very nice waterfront developments, though they're a hike from the nearest subway stop. Brooklyn Heights is also very nice.
7. I got a little folder to keep all my floor plans, info sheets and other real estate stuff in one place
   

Oh, and I found a couple more condo resources (in addition to the ones I listed before):

• Wired NY Real Estate Boards
  
• The Real Deal
  

Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow so I can see how the light streams into those southern exposure units!

Word on the Street: The New York Times On Noise Canceling Headphones And The Rise Of The City

The New York Times Magazine had an article today ("The Silence Generation: Technology adapts to eliminate the clatter of city life one person at a time"by Rob Walker) on how those of us perturbed by the constant din of city life can use noise-canceling headphones to drown out the madness. Apparently, the one to get is Bose's $350 QuietComfort 3 model, which folds flat so you can stick it in your purse.

Walker opens the piece by saying "One thing that makes city life inspiring is also one thing that makes it oppressive: other people." I would definitely agree, as my experience yesterday can attest, and I am intrigued by the idea of getting a pair of overpriced headphones, esp when I think about how ear-piercing the subways have gotten lately traveling those under-oiled tracks.

Still, maybe I'd only use it on occasion b/c after all, if you block out all the noise, you'll be blocking out one whole sense and with it, the sense of being alive. It'd be like watching a movie without the soundtrack. Could get boring.

The article appears in the magazine's Architecture issue, which provides some interesting stats on NYC and the global urbanization trend:

• NYC is the fourth largest metro area in the world,with 18.7 million people, after Tokyo and Mexico City and Mumbai
• NY is the city with the most subway stations - 468
• NYC was the second richest city in 2005 (by GDP); Tokyo being first, LA second, Chicago & Paris tied for fourth
• NYC is ranked 114 in the list of cities with the highest population density, with 5,309 people per sq. mile; surprisingly, LA is no. 90, with 7068 people per square mile. I guess I figured with all the skyscrapers in Manhattan, NY would be more densely populated...but I guess the four other boroughs offset the density of the island
• 50% of the world's population will live in cities by the end of 2008; 75% in 2050

So I guess maybe it's a good thing I've lived in cities all my life, and now the Big Bad Daddy of the US. At least I'll be prepared for the future. By 2050, when the entire world looks like something out of Bladerunner, maybe I'll have grown used to and perhaps even fond of the traffic, the crowds, the noise, the communal living, lack of green and the dirt.

Happenings: Big Apple BBQ Festival

Today City Guy and I met up with some friends at the event NY carnivores look forward to all year--the Big Apple BBQ Festival in Madison Square Park. It attracts pitmasters from around the country, including some hard core pork and beef from places like:
....out of Texas, for which people were already waiting in wrap-around theme park style lines a half hour before the festival opened. Getting a taste from some of the most popular pitmasters, like this one, meant sometimes waiting for an hour in 100+ weather. Boy was it HOT! and HUMID! today.
But for $8, you could get brisket and sausage with coleslaw from Texas:
Or pulled pork shoulder from Alabama: Beef ribs from Los Angeles or more pulled pork from Mississipi or the Carolinas:Crawfish and okra hush puppies from Mississippi: And so much more! There were 16 pitmasters in all. Don't worry, City Guy and I didn't eat all this ourselves. We had lots of help. Our friends took turns standing in lines, while others of us chowed down on a picnic mat under the trees in the park. Unfortunately, the park was not only HOT! and HUMID! but teeming with people. It was a mob scene. Last year, they had 120,000 people, and I'm sure this year rivaled that number. Can you imagine? Every square foot of the park was populated with BBQ lovers These photos do not do the crowd justice:Anyhow, we loved the food - my top three choices of the day were:
1> the sausage from Salt Lick BBQ, Texas
2> the beef rib from Mr. Cecil's California Ribs, California
3> (a tie) the smoked crawfish and okra hush puppies from City Grocery, Mississippi and the pulled pork and awesome vinegary cole slaw from Big Bob Gibson BBQ in Alabama

Having a picnic with friends was also great. And how cool that in NYC, all these awesome pitmasters come to me! In how many other cities do you get to eat world class cheese one night and then world class BBQ the next day? Still, the crowds are a bit much--I always feel like an ant when I'm around thousands of New Yorkers, all my individuality squashed. And did I mention how HOT! and HUMID! it was today? In any other city, people would have run for cover on a day like today...New Yorkers are hard core, as they say.