While the median size of new U.S. homes has risen to an all-time high, a study says the average size of new apartments has fallen by 8% in the past decade. You can have a tiny apartment in a cool place, a huge house in a boring place, or, more likely, the backseat of a 1982 VW Rabbit in the Walmart parking lot.
Has the Luxury Apartment Boom Peaked?
During the furious stock market boom of the past several years, the only apartments you could find anywhere were exclusively glass-walled luxury penthouses, priced at $85 million. It seems, however, that we may be waking up from our cash-induced fancy apartment haze at last.
90,000 New Yorkers Apply to Live In Poor Door High-Rise
When it was announced last July that NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development approved a high-rise building with separate entrances for low-income and wealthy tenants, outrage dutifully followed. But now that applications for the building are open, the city’s housing problem appears to be worse than…
Brooklyn Landlords Arrested For Allegedly Making Apartments Unlivable
The Brooklyn District Attorney's office has arrested two landlords for allegedly attempting to make a building in the borough uninhabitable for its current tenants. The DA's office claims that the landlords wanted to push the building's tenants out and charge higher prices for the available units. Prosecutors have not…
Roomies for Married Couples: NYC Real Estate's Latest Assault on Dignity
Just when you think living in New York can't get any dumber, the New York Times' Real Estate section arrives. This Sunday New Yorkers were treated to a story on married couples who've taken roommates into their already too-small apartments. Because money's already tight and you can't afford a place just for the two of…
Russell Brand Is Not Here to Talk About His Rent, Mate
The latest battlefront in Russell Brand's Revolution™ is the New Era housing estate, a choice piece of London property currently occupied by 93 families. The estate's new owner, U.S. firm Westbrook, intends to evict them so it can fetch "fair market rates"—an insane $3,000 a month—for the apartments. Brand has made…
Squeaky, "Very Old" Sex Swing Leads to Man's Eviction
In Germany, a tenant was evicted from his apartment for making "sexual, athletic and squeaking noises" on a "very old" sex swing, the Associated Press reports.
NYC Dept. of Buildings: Leave Your Shitty Loft Now
The McKibbin Lofts, long a home (squat?) to the many artists, musicians, and vagrants who tumble through the crazy ol' Big Apple, has been issued a partial vacate order, slapped coldly on its front door by the Department of Buildings last Friday.
Everything Is a Rental Now
The idea of "buying" a home in this economy is reserved for people who are richer, more responsible, and luckier than you. For you, the average American, the only choice is to rent. Which is good, because they're building rentals faster than you can say "But will you allow my dog, Baxter?"
Fancy Glass Apartment Towers Could Bake Their Wealthy Owners
The skyline of "The Big Apple" is festooned with soaring, glass-sheathed condo high rises, where the world's wealthy shelter in altitudinous luxury, away from the teeming masses. With a little luck, all of those people will die in a heat wave.
Your Tiny Apartment Will Seem Huge After These Korean "Prison Cells"
Think your little one-bedroom is small? Imagine living in one of these work-study "prison cells" occupied by Korean students.
The average American's rent is 3% higher than it was a year ago. "You just can't have double-digit rent growth every year or rents would be a million bucks," one realtor tells the Wall Street Journal. (Except in New York, where rents are a million bucks.)
New York City Too Expensive for Anyone
The average rent of an apartment in America is just over $1,000 per month. But do you know how much the average rent is in New York City. Do you? DO YOU? TOO MUCH.
Here's What Chelsea Clinton's $10.3 Million Apartment Looks Like
Rich celebukid Chelsea Clinton and her other side of the tracks husband Marc Mezvinsky will move into a 5,000 square-foot prewar apartment with expectedly high ceilings, shiny hardwood floors, and park views. The Whitman, a 1924 building by Madison Square Park in NoMad, is very close to their loft in Gramercy where…
Amanda Bynes Decorated Her Apartment Like a Parlor Room in Hell
Have you ever had a casual acquaintance who seemed totally normal and nice and the first time you went to their house they were like, "I can't believe you've never seen my house!" and you were like "I can't believe I've never seen your house!" and then you stepped inside and the floor was littered with mutilated doll…
Can You Afford the Rent in Manhattan? (No)
How did you do financially last year? Very well, I hope, because rent in Manhattan, where all the breathless American dreamers yearn to live and "make something of themselves," rose 10% last year. The median rent in Manhattan is $3,200.
Obama's Old Upper West Side Apartment Is Available for Rent
For just $2,400 a month, you can live the high-class presidential lifestyle Barack Obama lived back when he was a broke college student.
Roommate Offers to Help Cover Rent in Creepiest Way Possible
Everyone loves a good roommate horror story. This one is a classic in the genre. What would you do if you got an email from your new roommate offering to cover some of your rent? Don't answer until you've read the whole email.
George Soros Made His Gal Pal Sit at the Kids' Table
A "friend" of George Soros says the 81-year-old Hungarian mogul used to make his Brazilian ex-girlfriend Adriana Ferreyr sit at the children's table during his Sunday brunches in the Hamptons—ostensibly because she's 28, which is very young.
