Upstairs Realty

06/03/2025

06/13/2024

Hello Everyone -- passing on this info about a share available in the East Village -- a BR available in a 3BR apartment. Note that I'm not the broker on this, but am simply doing a favor -- however, I have sold in the building and like the location.
Here's the text:

$1900.00 Furnished Bedroom with your own Private Bathroom / East Village

Furnished bedroom with queen sized bed available for rent. The room will be available june 28 and can be rented on a month to month term. The master bedroom has its own private bathroom inside the bedroom. The room is located in the back of the building. Very quiet and peaceful with no street noise from the outside. The room is large and has 2 closets for storage a couch and plenty of extra space to fit a bicycle. The apt is located in the heart of the east village on second avenue near 7th street. Close to trains,buses,supermarkets,shopping,yoga and nightlife. Short commute by train to midtown,soho,Fidi and downtown Brooklyn. Also very close to NYU and the NYU library. One month security deposit required. Sharer utilities. Call/ text Jerrold 212 533-8776

01/22/2024

Let's see: I helped clients buy a four-bedroom and I'm getting good at four-bedrooms (more on that later)...after today's BREAKING housing news: NYC to end community preference in housing lotteries.

The idea behind community preference had been to add a spoonful of sugar to the pill of gentrification: the city rezones Neighborhood X, which means rich people from outside will come in, but gives community preference so some of the nice new-development apartments will go to people already living in Neighborhood X.

This seems like an obvious way to help preserve the character of "majority minority" neighborhoods -- but a lawsuit argued that it actually reinforces segregation. Here's an example: doesn't everyone, including non-current residents of Neighborhood Y, want to live in Neighborhood Y if Neighborhood Y is, say, an amenity-filled wealthy neighborhood? And don't those neighborhoods (due in part to racist housing policies of the past) tend to be majority white?

Run through the scenarios in your head with, say, "Harlem" as "Neighborhood X" and "the West Village" as "Neighborhood Y" -
and then tell me where you come out on this.

And call me if you're looking for a four-bedroom.

04/20/2022

Continuing ed with Vickey Barron on tips and tricks for co-op board packages. VB: "Kind never goes out of style."

04/19/2022

Strike averted! There's a 32BJ contract!!

02/15/2022

I'm proud to be a friend of Jeff's, because I love love love this essay. (Signed, the provider of "shoe covers" to potential buyer clients.)

The Wall Street Journal essay about keeping shoes on left me aghast. As my Auntie Chih-Mei put it: ‘When you walk into my house wearing shoes, you are walking across my heart

07/01/2021

BROOKLYN CONTRACT!

Third time's the charm. Clients buying a 2 BR/ 2 BA with fantastic finishes & Statue of Liberty views. Did I mention we got a discount off list?

By popular demand here is the Dance of Joy in its purest form.

06/04/2021

I hugged a client today! That felt good. High-floor Brooklyn one-bedroom in luxury condo building, coming soon!

04/15/2021

Jon Miller's latest market update talks about how extraordinarily rate-driven the housing market has been (checkout the video around 18:20)

"I cover L.A. There's wildfires last year, and the market, you know, you could see burning trees and there's 30 people at the open house."

In larger terms, let's pull out the ideas that
a) Brooklyn behaves like a suburb (think Westchester/Fairfield)
b) Manhattan / suburbs is not all a zero-sum game (because not all of the suburban buying was people fleeing Manhattan; some of the suburban buying was suburban renters emboldened by low rates)
c) Manhattan wasn't necessarily perceived as safe but it was safe (given our low COVID rates, especially given our high density.)

What does this mean for you, if you're in the Manhattan market? It could be that the bulls are right, and Manhattan will flip fast and hard. Certainly my most recent deal (an in-contract SoHo condo) had multiple bids.

h/t UrbanDigs

Today on Talking Manhattan, rockstar appraiser Jonathan Miller, President & CEO of Miller Samuel, Inc., sits down with Noah & John to talk about today's mark...

02/17/2021

SOLD AND CLOSED! Buyer representation at the Normandy, 140 Riverside Drive. Sometimes all it takes is a 388-page board package. This is my client's new view from one of the private rooms (you can see the river from the LR). One of my favorite things about the Normandy is the way that the windows are set slightly angled one to the next to give the illusion of being set in a curve, which is added by the little stone ledge (is that a lintel? I'm a broker, not an architect) outside.

12/20/2020

Fully renovated, no-fee DOORMAN studio in Midtown West available for rent! Huge main room (~30 feet), architect-designed kitchen in an alcove, views south to Hudson Yards, separate area for dressing/desk.
Price chop to $2,000 per month.
The Geneva, 408 West 57th.
It's a co-op sublet, but the application's pretty easy and the landlord's a sweetheart; the last tenant was here six years.
Tenant brokers collect your own fee.
Sorry no dogs. Cats might be possible, case-by-case.

10/17/2020

It's Open House New York weekend, and so much of it is virtual! Real estate junkies check out: