Opinion of this article from the NYT property section

[Tetro Kornbluth]

It's here and is ridiculous. Some samples:

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...

Can people so lacking in self-awareness really exist*?

* - rhetorical question

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

They will pay in due time.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

[Hatman 🍁]

Their house would make a lovely apartment complex for the homeless.

[Cassius]

They look like jolly nice people with a jolly nice apartment. FF's.

[Хahar 🤔]

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

[bedstuy]

NYT property articles are universally cringe inducing.

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

It's a great neighborhood, especially if you're rich.  It's near everything and not as hectic and overbuilt as most of Manhattan.

[Simfan34]

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

I don't know. Being painfully hip, I suppose. Although there are some absolutely beautiful townhouses in the neighborhood.

[angus]

Opinion of this article from the NYT property section

I'm too lazy to read the article, but I did go through the slideshow.  I especially like 60-year-old guy with 38-year-old trophy wife.  I sort of like it.  The apartment, I mean, not the trophy wife.  Well, there are things I'd do differently.  I'd go for a racquetball court instead of basketball court, and the furniture on the rooftop terrace is absolutely hideous, but there's nice graphic art and floral decor, and the floor plan is open and inviting.  I love the dining room.

I'll choose one of the warm'n'fuzzy poll options after I post this, but generally I like it.

[angus]

Damn.  You don't have any warm'n'fuzzy options.

Okay, then, I'll go with hahaha, because it reminds me of Eva Gabor in Green Acres, dahling.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I can't really comment, since if wanted to plunk down the kind of money they obviously did into it, I wouldn't have gone for a five-story townhouse.  Altho, if one were to build one, I agree that an elevator is a must.

[bedstuy]

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

I don't know. Being painfully hip, I suppose. Although there are some absolutely beautiful townhouses in the neighborhood.

Is the West Village really a "hip" neighborhood?  Maybe 20 years ago.  It's so expensive that the only hip people who can afford to live there are gay trustafarians. 

Plus, the townhomes pale in comparison to the UWS, Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope. 

[King]

This isn't the most excessive story I've ever heard.

[Indy Texas]

I especially like 60-year-old guy with 38-year-old trophy wife.

Hey, if you want to live a non-proletarian life in NYC before you're too old to actually enjoy it, you gotta marry rich. (Making millions as an 80 hour a week bankster doesn't leave much time for enjoyment.) And that generally means marrying old unless you want some inbred, horsefaced-looking heir(ess) to a fraction of a Gilded Age fortune.

[Simfan34]

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

I don't know. Being painfully hip, I suppose. Although there are some absolutely beautiful townhouses in the neighborhood.

Is the West Village really a "hip" neighborhood?  Maybe 20 years ago.  It's so expensive that the only hip people who can afford to live there are gay trustafarians. 

Plus, the townhomes pale in comparison to the UWS, Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope. 

It's hip enough but also full of those things rich people like.

[DC Al Fine]

I especially like 60-year-old guy with 38-year-old trophy wife.

Hey, if you want to live a non-proletarian life in NYC before you're too old to actually enjoy it, you gotta marry rich. (Making millions as an 80 hour a week bankster doesn't leave much time for enjoyment.) And that generally means marrying old unless you want some inbred, horsefaced-looking heir(ess) to a fraction of a Gilded Age fortune.

This is why NYC doesn't appeal to me. What kind of lifestyle does $100k get you in NYC? A shared studio in Queens? No thanks.

[bedstuy]

I especially like 60-year-old guy with 38-year-old trophy wife.

Hey, if you want to live a non-proletarian life in NYC before you're too old to actually enjoy it, you gotta marry rich. (Making millions as an 80 hour a week bankster doesn't leave much time for enjoyment.) And that generally means marrying old unless you want some inbred, horsefaced-looking heir(ess) to a fraction of a Gilded Age fortune.

This is why NYC doesn't appeal to me. What kind of lifestyle does $100k get you in NYC? A shared studio in Queens? No thanks.

That's really overblown.  I have my own apartment in NYC and I could easily afford my rent if I made half of that. 

[Simfan34]

100k translates into something just under 3k a month, which can get you a nice 1 be in most nicer places in Manhattan.

[King]

If you guys want to see extravagance, you should see some of the fall homes the elites build here on the hills. We even have Danny Granger's Batcave.

[Хahar 🤔]

NYT property articles are universally cringe inducing.

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

It's a great neighborhood, especially if you're rich.  It's near everything and not as hectic and overbuilt as most of Manhattan.

Granted, I haven't been to New York in a decade, but my understanding was that it was a bohemian area (or at least that's what its appeal was), which does not exactly translate to that kind of house.

[bedstuy]

NYT property articles are universally cringe inducing.

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

It's a great neighborhood, especially if you're rich.  It's near everything and not as hectic and overbuilt as most of Manhattan.

Granted, I haven't been to New York in a decade, but my understanding was that it was a bohemian area (or at least that's what its appeal was), which does not exactly translate to that kind of house.

That's what the West Village was like in the 1960s and 1970s.  Now, it's probably the most expensive neighborhood per sq. ft in the United States.

[traininthedistance]

NYT property articles are universally cringe inducing.

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

It's a great neighborhood, especially if you're rich.  It's near everything and not as hectic and overbuilt as most of Manhattan.

Granted, I haven't been to New York in a decade, but my understanding was that it was a bohemian area (or at least that's what its appeal was), which does not exactly translate to that kind of house.

That's what the West Village was like in the 1960s and 1970s.  Now, it's probably the most expensive neighborhood per sq. ft in the United States.

I thought that was Tribeca?  Not that there's a whole lot of space between the two, and yes the West Village has thoroughly priced out not just the bohemians but even the yuppies and the merely well-off.

[bedstuy]

NYT property articles are universally cringe inducing.

What exactly about the West Village is appealing to these people?

It's a great neighborhood, especially if you're rich.  It's near everything and not as hectic and overbuilt as most of Manhattan.

Granted, I haven't been to New York in a decade, but my understanding was that it was a bohemian area (or at least that's what its appeal was), which does not exactly translate to that kind of house.

That's what the West Village was like in the 1960s and 1970s.  Now, it's probably the most expensive neighborhood per sq. ft in the United States.

I thought that was Tribeca?  Not that there's a whole lot of space between the two, and yes the West Village has thoroughly priced out not just the bohemians but even the yuppies and the merely well-off.

That may be true.  But, if it is, it's only because Tribeca has a larger supply of ultra-high end doorman buildings.   I think if you look really apples to apples, the West Village is slightly more expensive.  In other words, if you put the exact same apartment on the market in both neighborhoods, the West Village one would be more expensive. 

[angus]

That's really overblown.  I have my own apartment in NYC and I could easily afford my rent if I made half of that. 

I don't think it's overblown.  Well, $100 thousand only getting you a shared apartment in Queens is a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. 

When we lived in Manhattan our apartment was a tiny one-bedroom unit.  No separate dining room, a kitchen so small that it was hard for two people to work in it at the same time, and a bathroom so small that if I wanted to close the door while I shat I had to turn sideways (i.e., the major axis of the oval of the toilet seat parallel to a line segment drawn from my left shoulder to my right shoulder.)  That apartment was 3000 per month. 

We had friends who were married and who were both successful lawyers, and their space was small as well.  Of course, it was bigger than ours, but it was very small compared to what two married lawyers might live in outside Manhattan. 

I think there may be other advantages of living in the city, but getting a big space on a middle-class salary isn't one of them.  I think those who live in New York City understand that they will not have three thousand square feet of finished house to roam around in, like the rest of us do out here in the far unlit unknown, unless they're fabulously wealthy.  They still choose to live there, which is fine, but DC does make a fair (albeit exaggerated) point.

[Simfan34]

That may be true.  But, if it is, it's only because Tribeca has a larger supply of ultra-high end doorman buildings.   I think if you look really apples to apples, the West Village is slightly more expensive.  In other words, if you put the exact same apartment on the market in both neighborhoods, the West Village one would be more expensive. 

I thought it was SoHo. I recall reading an article in the Observer (which is really the best paper in the city) over the summer detailing how expensive high-end restaurants and such were being priced out of SoHo due to rent rises for luxury boutiques.

It's mildly self-fueling. Or entirely so. But Tribeca vs. the West Village is not a contest... it's Tribeca. And it certainly isn't a Bohemian area unless you want to maybe talk about the north-eastern bits of the West Village and Eastern parts of Chelsea which seem to have a gay presence (as far I can discern walking on 7th uptown). I think the new development at the old St. Vincent's hospital is going to be a game-changer for that area.

I mean, Williamsburg, even, I think, is changing. The word brings different things to mind than it did 3-5 years ago. Maybe Bed-Stuy, but I've never been there and my conception of the place is primarily derived from watching Everybody Hates Chris. In fact, I've only been to Brooklyn once. Went to Williamsburg and walked across McCarren Park. The area which I ended up seemed very... ethnic. Polish, to be exact.