Sunnyside Real Estate: Not so Sunny

Paul and I took a jaunt to an open house being held down the block from us. Not that we're really looking to buy a place, but as we are the types who love walking the dog through the gardens at night simply to get glimpses of people's living rooms, walking through someone else's home is like invited voyeurism!

From the front the place isn't one of the houses in the gardens that seems particularly great, nor is it on one of the prime blocks. It is a house with two, two bedroom apartments, a garden and a large terrace off the second floor. However, the place looks like it hasn't been touched since it was built. And I don't mean that in a retro-cool-all-original-details kinda way. The kitchens looked barely functional, with floors as grimy as the 7 train during a rain storm. There was peeling paint and wallpaper on the walls, water damage on the ceilings, and hard wood floors that looked like they might collapse. The garden hadn't been tended to in ages, and the basement seemed like a good setting for Hostel part 3.

Now in an age when all you hear on the news is about foreclosures and watch shows about how people across the country put in stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and throw in flat screen TVs to attract buyers, it amazed me how many folks were trolling this place with intense interest. It particularly amazed me because the sellers were asking 729K for this little moneypit of theirs! 729K!!!

Paul and I left shaking our heads, further cherishing our rent stabilized gardens apartment, and realizing now more than ever "the Manhattanites are coming!!" and that the only home we could probably afford sits somewhere in Cleveland!