Potential Buyers and Sellers in the Market - Kip Lenoir - Kristin Carbone and Michael St. John

In the Market

(Photo: Jack Louth)

NO. 3: THE ANXIOUS BUYERS
Kristin Hart, 38, a librarian and writer, currently rents in Manhattan with her partner, Stephen Murphy, 51, a musician, and their son, Caleb, 5. She’s thinking it may be time to swoop in and grab a deal—Stephen’s not so sure.

“We’re trying to bottom-feed, to get into the cheapest possible apartment you can buy in Manhattan. We’ve been looking maybe four months. We don’t want to spend more than $300,000 for a two-bedroom apartment. It’s sort of revealing differences within our relationship—what we think we deserve and what we think we can afford, what we could do in terms of a renovation. You look at what you can get for that money, and it’s a dump. It’s like, who’s going to build those cabinets? Where’s the money going to come from? Does it make sense? With the maintenance and the taxes, are you really going to save money every month? And will the market go down?

“Maybe we should wait. I don’t think it’s going to go down much further, personally. I want to go for it, but Stephen thinks we can do better. I feel like there’s been a slight downturn or flattening in prices, especially at the very bottom, and that it’s eventually gonna start going up again. He thinks the places we could afford are dumps, and that we should keep looking until we find something better. I’m more nervous that an opportunity is slipping away. That this is a last chance to get in.”