1st Year Analyst Buying a $150k Coop in Manhattan

The reason those apts are 150k in nyc is because nobody wants to live there if they don’t have to. Do you really want to be coming home late at night to a rougher area, looking over your shoulder as you open the door to your place?

Harlem is like a third world country if you’ve ever walked along 125th

NYC native here — terrible idea. You don’t actually know you will want to stay in the city that long and Harlem is a hike from your office (likely Midtown) and where your friends will want to hang out (lower Manhattan).

Factoring in transaction / realtor fees on both ends and then HOA/maintenance, taxes, etc. it’s unlikely you will actually build any material amount of equity worth the sacrifice of living in a bad neighborhood far from what you’ll be doing.

It’s in Harlem dude.

Life is too short to live in crappy areas and become tied to once place when young.

If you’re truly in banking, you’ll make plenty of money that a few years rent at the start of your career is no big deal. And if your grandad really cared about you, he would help you buy a proper place and not just give out advice with no backing.

Saw the $150k thought no brainer then saw the location. Maybe if it was 150k in summer of 2021 but you probably would want to move after 2-3 years. I’d suggest passing on this

Don't do it please.

Even in the unlikely event that this investment pans out for you in 5 years because you had the magic touch of picking the next Williamsburg, this is not worth it purely for the mobility sacrifice you have to make so early in your career. This property is undoubtedly in a very dumpy part of Harlem. You "expect" to be in NYC for 5 years, but what if you got a partner track offer for your dream firm in year 3 in LA? What if your future gf needs to go to grad school in Boston? You will almost certainly lose money to transaction costs flipping out of the property and you will not be able to rent this out profitably (not to mention this is not a good use of your time to be managing a shitty little rental). What is a better risk-adjusted investment to park your $150K (which is not insignificant for a 1st year analyst) - liquid index fund or this co-op? Do you understand the intricacies of how NYC co-ops are managed and what that means for your unit btw?

Even if you stay rooted in NYC, there are so many neighborhoods that you don't know about yet that you will want to try out in the future. Your life stage will evolve (friend group shift, SO, marriage, pets, kids) so quickly that this apartment will be useless to you in about 2-3 years if all goes to plan. Even if the value doubles, you made like less than half a year's work for a mediocre VP (which you presumably should be in 5-6 years).

Bro you’d be safer commuting from Sudan or the DRC. Would you buy an apartment in Compton on Grove street or in Chicago near O-Block?


Get roommates and spend 2-3k on rent in a nicer part of Manhattan closer to your office and you’ll actually live long enough to see your first bonus check, which you can save for a down payment on a unit in a marketable area.

Bro boutta get robbed 🤣🤣

Just carry pepper spray. You’ll be fine.

You should never ever buy real estate, especially in NYC if you don't know the area of the apartment. Do you know the difference between coop and condominium? Do you know what a coop is? A board of people create rules in your building and you must follow them to the letter. Do you know the rules of the coop? What are the conditions of selling? Conditions of renovating? Conditions of renting? 

So what if you buy a coop if it is impossible to rent it, or overly difficult to sell. You have to have your board approve of you selling to a specific person. They can choose to reject for  sale for any reason. And there are a lot more questions to be asked before buying.

Take your time to save money to buy a decent place. There is a very good reason why that place is 150k in Manhattan. Additionally, all economic factors suggest we're in for a crazy time in real estate. Take the next few years to get to know the city and see what happens

I lived in Harlem during my sophomore summer and a man was killed in front of my doorsteps two weeks in.

When I was interning in NYC, someone told me, "If you find yourself above 96th street, turn around, but if you find yourself above 125th, run for your life." I took that advice to heart and did not venture past 96th. you should do the same

As a NYC co-op owner (UES, if it makes a difference), my answer would be a resounding "no"

As others have pointed out, location is the most important thing in real estate (and Harlem is an undesirable location, sorry), but the second most important thing in real estate is minimizing headaches/stress, and I cannot tell you how much brain damage I have suffered at the hands of the sociopaths that populate my co-op's board. Also remember that monthly maintenance fees at co-ops only go up (never down) and you will be constantly nickel-and-dimed for various "assessments" (extortions)

If you absolutely have to buy, try for a condo instead. Probably unrealistic in Manhattan, but you might be able to find something in one of the other boroughs or even Jersey City

Living in Harlem is stupid as fuck. I was born and raised in the city and even I wouldn’t feel safe living in that shit hole. Also the HOA fees and Co-op fees are gonna hit you like a truck. Just rent for now.

These comments are exaggerating about Harlem. Large pockets of the neighborhood are gentrified. There will be certain streets where locals don't even want to cross however. 125th overall is decent, except for the east side. East 125th (where the 4,5, 6 stops) is crackhead central. Do not go there. Central and west is alright.

Considering you found a place that's around $150k is suspicious. I never found a listing that cheap and I'm a local. You could PM me if you have questions about certain neighborhoods in the northern part of Manhattan or in the outer boroughs. 

Bro why would you even pursue a career in high finance if ur gonna b this level of cheap? Let alone the fact that ur risking it all in a place like that when you have shit goin for u.

Check the income limits - almost any remotely affordable apartment in NY has income limits that are really small- like even analysts make too much to qualify.

Total noob comment from me here. But 10 years ago I put my wife up in Spanish Harlem while she was doing summer school in NYC.  Seemed pretty safe and flavorful. Did NYC spiral down in the last decade? Or is Spanish Harlem just totally different than the more upper parts of Harlem? I ask because all the above comments made Harlem seem scary, but Spanish Harlem seemed relatively safe to me - back in 2012 anyway. 

banker guy in a suit coming home to his house in harlem lol youre gonna come back to your door busted down and all your property robbed

Some parts of Harlem are quite nice. Morningside park is gentrifying pretty rapidly and if it’s close enough to Columbia University you could rent it to students.

However, the last time I went to an apartment showing there was a homeless dude sharpening a pocket knife on a brick less than 20 yards from the building and I bet this apartment would have been going for a lot more than 150k.

New York is a lot more than lower Manhattan and the upper East side but I highly recommend you do your due diligence (ie actually visit the area) before you start buying cheap ass apartments.

There’s a Whole Foods on 125th and Malcom X. Go there for research during the day and report back

Not an investment banker, but work in finance and have lived in East Harlem 4 years now. Like others have said, the specific area of Harlem will make a difference, but at the same time not really. Let me explain. As I said I live in East Harlem and live between the area of 110th and 125th. What do you picture when you think of that area? While I have never had a serious issue living there, that does not mean it is not a problem area. 

So to the question of what do you picture - let me fill in the blanks. Every day I go for a morning walk with my girlfriend for 30 - 45 mins and in that time we will see at least 15+ homeless individuals. This is the earlier part of the morning ~8am. It gets worse as the morning goes on with homeless people lining the street to sell random, stolen goods (their soaps and potions) in order to buy more drugs. While I WFH most days, if I come home from the office, without fail there is people with suitcases on the ends of the subway platform who are doing drugs. In Christmas Eve my local bodega was robbed right in front of me. 

This is not an area you should casually walk through. I think that many in NYC actually aren't very aware of their surroundings and normalize crazy people around them all the time. If you do that here, you will be a target. Now as I have said I have not had a serious problem, but that doesn't mean I have not had moments where things could have escalated. For example, I walked into my local coffee shop and someone followed me in there and then said "you following me? I see you following me." If you could not guess I did not know who this individual is, but the cashier ended up pulling out a hammer and I squared up for a fight because I am always going to protect myself and for sure my gf who was with me.

I don't say the above to sound cool or tough. There is nothing cool or tough about living in this area. I am moving soon and cannot wait. The only reason I am here is because I randomly found a 1 bd / 1bath newly renovated that is rent stabilized (<$1.8k month). You are going to be an investment banker. Get a roommate or a studio somewhere nicer and enjoy. 

Harlem has gone down significantly form when I moved here so please do yourself the favor and avoid if you can.