Thursday, June 02, 2005
Reminder of a Housing Bubble from Ages Past
Yesterday, I was walking home from through Central Park. I exited on 72nd Street and walked up Central Park West. I passed by one of NYC's most beautiful Jazz Age apartment buildings, the San Remo when I noticed that it had the year 1930 engraved in big numbers.
The 1920's had been the decade where more of NYC's housing stock was built than any other decade. The San Remo was a product of this housing boom. Unfortunately, the San Remo also had the misfortune of opening up during the year of the Great Depression year. It and many other real estate ventures went south quickly. The San Remo was sold in 1940, along with the Beresford, another architectural gem on CPW from the Jazz Age, for $25,000 above the existing mortgage.
The main lesson from this is that real estate can also go down, way down. Even those who own nice properties on Central Park can lose their shirts.
The 1920's had been the decade where more of NYC's housing stock was built than any other decade. The San Remo was a product of this housing boom. Unfortunately, the San Remo also had the misfortune of opening up during the year of the Great Depression year. It and many other real estate ventures went south quickly. The San Remo was sold in 1940, along with the Beresford, another architectural gem on CPW from the Jazz Age, for $25,000 above the existing mortgage.
The main lesson from this is that real estate can also go down, way down. Even those who own nice properties on Central Park can lose their shirts.
# posted by Dan @ 10:26 PM 
