housing
Roommate Offers to Help Cover Rent in Creepiest Way Possible
Adrian Chen · 08/15/11 12:51PMThe Horror of Homeowners' Associations
Lauri Apple · 08/13/11 09:45AMRent Bristol Palin's House for $1400 a Month
Maureen O'Connor · 06/22/11 11:17AMBristol Palin's five-bedroom in Maricopa, Arizona—where she was supposed to live while attending Arizona State University, before she changed her mind and signed on to a Hollywood reality show—is now available as a rental. The price is $1400/month. Click on the image above to view full-size. [Realtor, photo of Bristol via Getty]
The American Dream: Now More Worthless Than Ever
Hamilton Nolan · 05/31/11 03:50PMThis Would Be a Great Time to Buy a Home If You Had Any Money
Hamilton Nolan · 02/09/11 04:59PMThanks to the Great Recession's magical cleansing powers, all of the home ownership gains of the past decade's housing boom have already been erased. But there is good news! The affordability of homes has plummeted back down to pre-boom levels in the majority of markets that Moody's surveys. Finally, a home is back in your non-imaginary price range!
Are You Ready for the Next Housing Bubble?
Adrian Chen · 05/15/10 06:34PMYou Are Breaking The Law If You Have More Than Two Roommates In New York, Apparently
Adrian Chen · 03/28/10 11:46PMNew Condos For The Poor
Hamilton Nolan · 12/08/09 11:41AMAre Any Good Williamsburg Jokes Left?
Hamilton Nolan · 08/19/09 09:57AMHow to Break Into the Real World: DCers' House
Richard Lawson · 06/18/09 02:37PMObama Moving In To Secret Hotel After Bush Snub
Ryan Tate · 12/31/08 04:16AMNo Way Bush Is Letting Obama's Narcs Shut Down His Shindigs
Hamilton Nolan · 12/13/08 09:22AMReal Estate Ads Have Soul(d)
Hamilton Nolan · 10/09/08 12:18PMJust in time for the collapse of America's housing market, a blog called Keepin' It Realtor has taken on the important job of chronicling the "best" of real estate ads—the ones consisting of desperate-looking realtors who plaster their own faces on billboards and bus stops and, apparently, write their own ad copy. How many ways are there to make awkward puns involving the word "Sold?" At least four, so far:
Even Hippie Housing Schemes are Expensive
Sheila · 05/16/08 09:25AMWhat are "co-housing enthusiasts," asks the Brooklyn Paper? They're "a group of Brooklynites who want to buy a nice building near Prospect Park and share common areas with like-minded friendly people." They are sad living alone in tiny apartments and want friends! A co-housed building is a cross between a "commune and a condo." One place starts at around $600,000 a unit. There are communal meals, but no free love. (Sure, that's what they say now; we'll check back in six months.) [Brooklyn Paper]
New York Is Full Of Poors (Like You)
Hamilton Nolan · 04/14/08 10:45AMThe United Way and the Community Service Society have just released a slew of demographic maps of New York City, which handily answer the question: Are The Poors in your hood? Pictured, the household income map (click to enlarge), which is perhaps most surprising for revealing that Williamsburg, despite its yuppie influx, is still broke, along with HOT HOT NEXT BIG THING neighborhoods like Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, et al. After the jump, neighborhood-specific maps of the city showing unemployment rates, immigrant populations, and "disconnected youth" who aren't working, in school, or concerned about you very much.
Crazy Old Bay Ridge Man Faces Tenant Revolt
Hamilton Nolan · 04/07/08 11:22AMRichard Martin, the crazy sign-posting super in Bay Ridge who enjoys insulting tenants and watching his little dog ride the mechanical pony, is back in his proper place: the newspaper. The Daily News, determined to win the Martin-related tabloid war, reports today that the crazy old coot has finally moved the garbage cans out of his lobby, where he had placed them to piss off his tenants. He clarifies that those tenants are still, however, "disgusting slobs." But one anonymous tenant has struck back by lighting one of Martin's crazy signs on fire "and scorching the wall behind it." War! Could this be the end for our hero's reign of textual terror? Heaven forbid. In remembrance, a photo of our all time favorite Richard Martin sign [via BeehiveHairdresser] after the jump. We call it "Irish Fucking Christmas."
Bin Laden Determined To Foreclose On 500,000 Homes
Pareene · 11/09/07 10:35AMThe FBI is warning that al Qaeda may be preparing to offer adjustable-rate mortgages based on the bubble-inflated value of the homes of borrowers unable to repay them, leading to upwards of $1.3 trillion in potentially non-recoupable losses, according to an intelligence report distributed to law enforcement authorities across the country this morning. The alert said al Qaeda "hoped to disrupt the U.S. economy and has been planning the attack for the past five years."
This Man Would Like To Invite You Back To His Truck
Pareene · 10/24/07 01:55PMThe 'Playground For The Prosperous' Will Never Close
Choire · 09/17/07 01:40PMNew York magazine polls "some of the brightest minds in real-estate economics" and gathers the predictions on our crazy local market from dire to sunny. It turns out their worst-case scenario is that by 2010 purchase prices for housing plummet frighteningly... to 2004 levels. Oh, how frightening! Panic! How utterly unimaginative. Couldn't they have worked global warming into this or something? Maybe little illos of million-dollar 320 square-foot studios with water pouring in the windows in the year 2020—and outside you can spy former brokers and publicists, clad only in dog fur, their botox long expired, wrestling each other in the dank rising waters for big steaming hanks of child-meat?