wow. i am totally in this situation now. bought because we didn't want to get closed out, but now stuck with an apartment we don't love watching what we do love become available. ugh!

I also get a kick out of reading real estate porn...looking for DEBBIE DOES DOWNTOWN.

The claims are always SO outrageous and those smiling happy faces when real estate delivers the goods is so fake.

I wonder if they drive by their old Weehawken stoop and look with scorn at the section their $5 grand bought them.

My fave was:
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They bought for $295,000 and sold for $290,000 and they call that "no gain." Can we presume they DIDN'T pay a fee to originate their mortgage, didn't pay $15 grand to a realtor, didn't lose the $5 g's on the stoop or on all that "electrical work." And how about all those trips to Home Depot they compained about...one presumes they were BUYING stuff that they left behind.
No gain indeed.

Yep, real estate porn is a good way to describe it...just like pumping away atop old Queen Mary with the Statue of Liberty smiling her approval!

I'm glad Mr. Lecount was able to get back to wearing his 2 favorite gym outfits.

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lol

sweet, some yuppies are proud about being suckers.

AMEN!!! I TOTALLY AM WITH YOU.. OWNING IN A SMALL HISTORIC BUILDING IS A NIGHTMARE.

ha! kinda. it's the new Style section (which now sort of stinks).

aspiration plus voyeurism plus plotting and planning with a little bit of schadenfreude thrown in.

perfection.

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The Automobile section is car porn. I get sick of them describing small sedans with 250 HP as "underpowered", and glorifying the least practical. Writers like theirs are one reason we've gone off the rails in our automotive choices.

Is the same true of the RE porn, fostering bad choices?

Joey at "curbed.com" is back at it:

"...In The Hunt this week, a couple that rushed into owning ("buy now or be priced out forever" syndrome) soon grows tired of the hassles of ownership, and longs for the full service, high-rise rental life they left behind. So they sell their Weehawken condo at a slight loss, and shell out $2,120 per month for some luxury Jersey City livin' that they could never afford to buy. Suck it, Weehawken! [The Hunt/'These Apartment Hunters Are the Happy Renters']"

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/09/14 ... _renters_revenge_more.php

It's real estate porn and I, for one, love it!

But they can do away with the Sports and Automobile sections if they want.

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Exactly.

Getting pretty sick of the NYT and these articles...

Really, who gives a crap?

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Who does? There are a lot of questions you never would've dreamed of asking until you've lived in a place for a few years. Hindsight is always 20/20. And even the questions you do think of at the time, the answers tend to be glossed over. You can ask all sorts of questions about plumbing and the roof - but I'm willing to bet a stoop is not on the list of questions prospective buyers - new or experienced - typically ask of the seller.

I totally sympathize with what they went through, because I've been through a lot of the same myself. Had I known back then what owning "historic" entails in JC, I never ever would've bought my place. I will never ever again be sucked in by exposed brick or antique crown molding. All that belies infrastructure that requires costly repairs and upkeep, not to mention often-draconian historic preservation rules. Nor would I ever buy again in a small building where one or two unit owners end up doing all the work managing the building. No, there's something to be said for the carefree life of a renter, where a broken faucet or leaky roof is the landlord's problem, not yours; and where your housing cost is a fixed certainty and there are no nasty surprises like a backflow preventor costing tens of thousands of dollars; where you don't have to worry about an idiot neighbor's illegal renovation causing damage to your unit....Oh the list goes on. I think it's great that some homeowners love spending all their time at Home Depot poring over paint chips and cabinet hardware and caulk. Like the lady said, I'd rather be watching TV, or reading a book.

It kind of seems to me that maybe they didn't know the right questions to ask when they were buying their first apartment.

lol! yeah, weehawken must've really traumatized them!
welcome to the neighborhood kids! drinks @ 6 on the Lido deck!

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i lived there when it first opened and it felt a lot like living in a hotel. Big and fancy and shiny but kind of cold and impersonal (in my opinion). "Resort" feels like a bit of a stretch, but I get their point. The pool certainly felt Boca Raton-like, with people getting up at the crack of dawn to claim lounge chairs (nightmare) and single dads entertaining their kids in the pool all weekend.

Liberty Towers = like a waterfront resort?!?

These Apartment Hunters Are the Happy Renters

RIVER VIEWS Leslie and Andy LeCount enjoy coming home to their new one-bedroom apartment in Jersey City, which they liken to a waterfront resort.

The New York Times
JOYCE COHEN
Published: September 11, 2009

ENSNARED by the real estate frenzy of the early part of this decade, Leslie and Andy LeCount rushed to buy a home. Failure to do so, they feared, would mean being forever priced out of the market.

Andy and Leslie LeCount moved into their new apartment this summer.

Nearly four years ago, ?it was the height of a crazy bubble,? Ms. LeCount said. ?We just wanted to buy something. We were like fresh meat.?

But after living for three years in the condominium they bought in Weehawken, N.J., they regretted it.

They had no idea what they were getting into. ?We are not home improvement specialists,? Ms. LeCount said. ?We are not the people who should be going to Home Depot and looking at grout.?

When the couple met in 2000 at a mutual friend?s World Series party, Ms. LeCount, a Rutgers University graduate, was renting in Astoria, Queens, while Mr. LeCount, a graduate of Wittenberg University in Ohio, was renting in Jersey City.

They later enjoyed living in the Gotham, a high-rise rental building in downtown Jersey City. But after nearly two years there, shortly after their marriage, ?we felt some pressure that if we didn?t buy now, we would never be able to afford to buy,? said Mr. LeCount, a sales executive for a book publishing company. Both are in their 30s and are originally from Pennsylvania.

Weehawken, with its relatively low prices and taxes, was more affordable than Jersey City or Hoboken. So in the spring of 2006, the LeCounts gave up their rental, with its doorman, parking garage and washer-dryer. For $295,000, they bought a two-bedroom on the parlor level of a nine-unit prewar building. It was charming inside, with exposed brick, hardwood floors and many windows.

?It looked like a terrific deal,? because it was much bigger and cheaper than the alternatives, Mr. LeCount said. The couple viewed it as an investment, assuming they could make a profit of around $50,000 in two years.

Meanwhile, ?we knew we would have to sacrifice some things,? said Ms. LeCount, who works in public relations. ?So we sacrificed ? we didn?t think of the day-to-day lifestyle things we were going to miss.?

They missed them badly. Street parking was so scarce they sometimes had to park five minutes away. Their car got nicked and dinged, so they bought a bumper guard. After shopping for groceries, they often had to double-park their car in front and run their bags inside.

Without a washer-dryer, laundry consumed their weekends, even after they stopped doing it themselves at the laundromat. They scheduled weekend trips around their laundry drop-off. Mr. LeCount stocked up on gym shorts and T-shirts to ensure he would always have clean workout clothes.

Worst of all, the building required numerous upgrades. Ms. LeCount, vocal at her first condo board meeting, quickly found herself the board president. She was in charge of fixing the cracked stoop, which was in danger of collapse. It had to be demolished and reconstructed. ?Who knew a stoop would be $50,000?? she said. ?I had no idea.?

Because the building had no reserve account, the stoop project required a special assessment to each unit. The LeCounts had to take more than $5,000 from their savings.

Fixing the stoop took months. ?It totally changed the curb appeal in a positive way,? Mr. LeCount said. But ?it was a significant amount of work and very stressful. It really took its toll on us. It caused us anxiety and sleepless nights.?

The repairs consumed their free time, too. ?It was like project management,? Ms. LeCount said. ?I have friends who work for developers, and they have this as their day job. I would rather be watching TV.?

And there were other building issues. Below ground, the contractors found an oil tank requiring removal. The hall needed painting.

There was a problem with the building?s electrical work ? something about insufficient amperage. The LeCounts didn?t quite understand it, though they did understand that neglecting the problem meant a risk of fire. The improvements all cost money, causing heated disputes among the residents.

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Whenever the two went out in Jersey City, they longed for their old rental days. For not much more than their monthly outlay of around $2,200, they knew they could be back in a Jersey City high-rise, having ?all the things we sacrificed,? Ms. LeCount said.
Liberty Towers in Jersey City had a rental unit available with a balcony.

The layout of the new 70 Greene Street in Jersey City felt awkward.

The charming condo in Weehawken, N.J., needed many repairs.

In the spring, they put their condo on the market and began hunting for a one-bedroom rental in the Paulus Hook area of Jersey City. They craved a full-service building ? the kind of place they couldn?t afford to buy but could afford to rent. Because so many options had a pool, Ms. LeCount said, ?why pay a few hundred dollars less for something that doesn?t??

They checked out some new buildings, including 70 Greene Street. But the layout there was not to their liking ? they felt the kitchen island intruded on the living room. And 50 Columbus was in a busier part of the neighborhood, close to the Grove Street PATH train station.

But they loved Liberty Towers, dating from 2003, where they saw a one-bedroom with a Hudson River view. It felt like a waterfront resort. ?We could have been in Miami,? Ms. LeCount said.

They sold their condo early this summer for $290,000, fretting for a few weeks when their buyer was rejected for a mortgage. ?He had great credit and a great job ? it was ridiculous,? Ms. LeCount said. ?I started pounding the pavement myself? to locate a different mortgage lender.

Under the circumstances, the LeCounts were glad to forgo the elusive profit that once seemed a given. ?Ultimately, it came down to a no gain, which in our minds was perfectly fine,? Mr. LeCount said.

Back at Liberty Towers, another one-bedroom unit came available, this one with a balcony. They rented it for $2,120 a month, which included a rent concession of $425. Parking is $150 a month. The building?s mandatory amenity fee, which includes use of the gym and pool, is $450 per lease term.

When the LeCounts moved in this summer, they felt a huge weight lifted. If anything goes wrong, ?we don?t have to shell out more money to have it repaired,? Mr. LeCount said. They no longer worry about parking, but drive right to their door. If they have many grocery bags, they wheel them up in a cart provided by the building.

Doing laundry in their unit?s washer-dryer is a special joy. Mr. LeCount now sticks to his two favorite gym outfits, washing them often.

Though a balcony was not on their must-have list, ?now I can?t imagine not having it,? Ms. LeCount said. ?Living in this building is like being on permanent vacation. The only time we?ve ever had a balcony was on vacation. This apartment has completely transformed our lives for the better.?

Others were puzzled by their decision, believing a move from owning to renting was a downgrade. ?I don?t think they had the same frame of reference we had,? Mr. LeCount said. ?For the past three years, it was always, ?What?s going on with the apartment?? ?

If they ever buy again, it will be a detached home, with ?a lot fewer cooks in the kitchen,? Ms. LeCount said. ?Having to deal with other people to get things done was really sobering.? And a purchase won?t be for an investment either, she said. ?It will be a place where we want to live.?