Gawker
25-year-old Natasha Agrawal has a problem. Her parents have just helped her buy a $900,000 two-bedroom penthouse in Williamsburg, and now they are being such jerks—they don't want her to move her "thrift-store" couches in there, even though they blend with the "deep greens, yellows and oranges that she plans as the color themes for the new apartment." Sadly, Natasha likely isn't the only Williamsburger who having to deal with with this kind of misfortune. According to the broker who sold her parents the apartment, "parents or children with trust funds are buying about 25 percent of the inventory in Williamsburg. In Ms. Agrawal's new building, parents bought about 10 percent of the 36 units." We only hope that these parents are less fascistic when it comes to decor, for the sake of the children!
Williamsburg is made for kids whose parents are paying—few nasty co-op boards! But those controlling, check-writing parents! They fuck you up, it seems:
More buyers are turning to therapists to help them work through how they feel about depending financially on their parents when they have carved out independent careers and lives. Dr. Richard Shadick, a Manhattan psychologist who works mainly with 20- and 30-something New Yorkers, said that "a good portion" of his cases focus on the problems of seeking financial help from parents to pay for housing.But who's paying for the therapy?Parents who lend money to help their adult children can make demands that include becoming engaged to the person they are living with, he said, or signing prenuptial agreements allowing them to keep the real estate in their names. He finds that no matter how generous parents may be, their children can feel embarrassed that they can't afford to pay for their own housing.
