"[NEW YORK] Zaarath and Christopher Prokop -- and their two cats -- live in the smallest apartment in the city, a 175-square-foot "microstudio" in Morningside Heights the couple bought three months ago for $150,000 [$857/sq ft]."
Wow. The amount of money they piss away on restaurants must be epic. They could probably afford a "real" apt. if they actually cooked their food instead of eating all meals out. Their "maintenance fee" is more than my mortgage payment AND my taxes, yet their entire apartment would fit in my living room. And my house is only 1800 sq ft. I think keeping two cats in a space that small amounts to animal cruelty. Those people are nuts.
Well...as long as they dump the litter and replace it with fresh every single day (or scoop it several times a day) it should be fine. I prefer 1.5 cats per box (two boxes for every three cats), but 2 cats to one box is ok. Hell, they don't have room for more than one box. And they have to feed the cats ON the counter? I guess that's ok, since they never have any food there. Again, those people are crazy.
So they live in a 'house' that is smaller than either one of my 'garden sheds'. But. . . upper Manhattan for $150K ain't bad. People pay a lot more than that for a parking space.
"The couple will pay off their mortgage in two years, . . . . They will then be saddled only with their maintenance fee, which is just over $700 a month.
Don't know which is more beyond my comprehension - that they only will have a 2 yr mortgage-- or that their 'rent' will still be $700. Do you still have property taxes in a co-op- or is that part of the maintenance fees?
Agreed. But IMHO, anybody who voluntarily lives in Manhattan is insane by definition. (Of course, maybe they have never been off the island and simply don't know any better. They did a survey once, and a surprising percentage of 20-somethings had never been elsewhere. It just never came up, and since they live at the center of the known universe, they had no reason to be curious.)
reading the article, they started in the south, moved to jersey, moved to a new apt in ny, then here. downsizing every time. pretty soon they'll be in a cardboard box.
Property taxes: Because condos are owned individually, they appear in the property tax rolls as separate entities and, accordingly, individual owners are taxed separately.
The entire property co-op is owned by the corporation, so it appears on the tax rolls as a single piece of property. The corporation pays the property taxes and passes along the cost to the tenant- shareholders, usually as part of the monthly maintenance fee.
Didn't The City of New York try some of those hi-tech automated restrooms at one time? Two legged critters took up residence in them and turned the program into an expensive boondoggle, that experience could give you an idea of the cost of upkeep of a tiny abode in Manhattan. *snicker*
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