real estate prices in

MemeFirst: New York real-estate prices explained -- MemeFirst December 01, 2005 New York real-estate prices explained The 2.2 million jobs in Manhattan pay, on average, $2,025 per week . (You know that feeling you get when you find out you're below average? I've been having that for years.) Manhattan is 22 square miles, which means that the island of Manhattan pays, on average, $378 per square foot per year . And that includes Washington Heights. Posted by Felix at 02:54 PM GMT All proceeds go to MSF -- Comments #1 Pity we can't all work for Goldman Sachs. Posted by: Gherimiah on December 1, 2005 03:28 PM #2 I'll happily defer to someone with a firmer grasp of stats on this, but in the meantime, I wonder, does that average income number tell you very much? Given the massive disparity in Manhattan incomes, between, say, the dishwasher and the hedge-fund owner, which surely are among the widest in the country, wouldn't you also need to know the distribution of the data points? At a minium, wouldn't you want also to know the median income? Also, is this net or gross? Article talked about paychecks, which could probably mean either. Posted by: Matthew on December 1, 2005 04:36 PM #3 Oh, and also, Felix, presumably the 2.2 million people with jobs in Manhattan don't all live there, so your extrapolation doesn't wash. Posted by: Matthew on December 1, 2005 04:38 PM #4 Obvs mean incomemedian income, and I'd be surprised if more than 40% of Manhattanites made above average. Probably less. But even so. And actually, the fact that there are 2.2 million jobs to 1.5 million people in Manhattan actually only serves to exacerbate the demand-supply imbalance when it comes to real estate. Posted by: Felix on December 1, 2005 04:53 PM #5 I hate to be the one to break this to you, Felix, but nearly all residential housing in Manhattan consists of multi-story buildings. The salary range you describe explains real estate prices in Westchester County, NY and Bergen County, NJ to about the same degree as prices in Manhattan. Posted by: Sterling on December 1, 2005 07:05 PM #6 How delightful that the discussion of property prices one is sometimes unable to defuse at dinner parties just carries on here - almost as if taunting one with its dreary ineluctability. And how nice that Felix should bring along his no doubt expert appreciation of statistical lore. The one thing I am missing is the crucial evaluation of bedbug incidence as it affects property prices in Manhattan. In another thread, Betty has said this bedbug malarkey is all a plan of Bush's. For myself, I prefer to recall that bedbugs tend to originate in Belgium. Schtumm for now. More on this later. Posted by: Claude de Bigny on December 1, 2005 08:40 PM #7 Also, this seems to imply that everyone pays all of their income for housing, which is hopefully not the case. To be more realistic (ignoring the issues rightly brought up by the other commentators, including whether all of those people actually live in Manhattan and whether you can just take the sq ftge of Manhattan as the residential sq ftge), say people on average spend 40% of their income on housing. That gets your income for housing per sq ft to around $151. Posted by: Susan on December 1, 2005 09:14 PM #8 Susan and Sterling, you are embarassingly confused. What percentage of real estate in Manhattan is used for housing? According to this http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/landusefacts/landuse_tables.pdf (in case you are confused by the graph, the percents sum together veritcally and the land area sum horizontally). And even assuming that all "Mixed Residential and Commercial" was used for housing, less than 38% of the land in Manhattan is for housing. These data certainly allow for the idea that much of rent paid in Manhattan is for commercial use, and even then, a considerable percent is used for public space (Central Park alone is 10% of the area of Manhattan). Anyway, the amount people earn in a particular location is not directly related to the amount the people who live there earn, or the amount the people live there pay for rent. Look at this site: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/index.html The direct link is unavailable, but the Median household income for New York County was 43,573. Nassau County on the other hand is more than 71,000. In which place is it cheaper to rent by the foot? Posted by: Andrew on December 2, 2005 07:22 AM #9 I don't think I'm confused. My points are: a) there is actually quite a bit more than 22 square miles of residential floor space in Manhattan because of vertical construction b) a lot of upper-income Manhattan workers live outside Manhattan, and their buying power lifts prices in tony bedroom communities Posted by: Sterling on December 3, 2005 03:38 PM #10 OK, Sterling, let's do it your way. Assume that each of the 1.5 million residents of Manhattan has 400 square feet to call their own: that works out to 1200 square feet for the average family of three and 1600 square feet for the average family of four. Generous, I'd say. That comes out to 600 million square feet of residential real estate in Manhattan. Using that figure, my calculation actually comes out slightly higher : $386 per square foot per year, rather than $378. What makes you think that there's more than 22 square miles of residential floor space in Manhattan? As for your point b, I fail to see how it is in any way germane. Posted by: Felix on December 3, 2005 11:09 PM #11 OK, 22 square miles equals about 613,324,800 square feet. That would leave each of Manhattan's 1.5 million residents with 409 square feet of living space. But I don't believe that most Manhattan residents are actually so deprived, especially when you take into account common areas in apartment buildings such as laundry facilities, hallways, lobbies, etc. I'd be surprised if the average wasn't at least 600, and it's probably more than 800. And besides, that's not what you originally meant - you were dividing Manhattan's land footprint and not taking into account its vertical expansion. As for the second point, I suspect there's a strong tendency among $100,000 - $1,000,000 per annum Manhattan earners - which is well-off to wealthy-on-a-budget - to live in places like Valhalla and Ho-Ho-Kus, especially if they're married with kids. Family-flight in turn increases the average per-capita-square-footage of the Manhattan residential footprint through bleed-off of children. Posted by: Sterling on December 4, 2005 02:29 AM #12 Sterling jumped the shark so long ago it's probably not surprising, but for those of you keeping score at home, he really did just say that the average Manhattanite has 800 square feet of their own. So if you're an average person living with 2 roommates, that means you're in a 2400 square foot apartment. In Manhattan. Yeah. Oh, and that 350 square foot apartment you've got? It's not 350 square feet at all, it's probably more than 4000 square feet. You're just not including the lobby and all the hallways. Posted by: Felix on December 4, 2005 02:43 AM #13 My claim is that the amount of residential-zoned floor space in Manhattan probably works out to between 600 and 800 square feet per resident of Manhattan. You're not only challenging this, but asserting that my claim is absurd. Sure you wanna do that? Posted by: Sterling on December 4, 2005 02:59 AM #14 I've tried to find the statistic, but to no avail. It seems that while office space inventor is measured in square footage, residential space is simply measured, in all documents, by units. But we can work with that. So far I've learned that 82% of zoned lots in Manhattan are residential, making up about 280,000,000 square feet, which includes permanently undeveloped spaces like yards and gardens. If the average height of development across all that land is four stories, then, we're looking at about 750 square feet per person. I've also learned that in 1999 there were about 727,000 residential units in Manhattan , which means that the average unit houses two people. So those three-roomies crammed into one 800-square-foot-tenement-with-the-bathtub-in-the-kitchen examples are mostly fiction. Which is a shame because I get a tingle from the mental picture of Manhattan twenty- and thirty-somethings living in cramped, dingy conditions. If we divide the total residential land area by the total number of units, we get 385 square feet, which works out to 192.5 square feet per person, assuming no dwellings above one story in height and no unimproved/vacant land. If the average height is assumed to be four stories, in this scenario we get about 770 square feet per person. Here's a report from Prudential Douglas Elliman that details its 1Q 2005 sales. Units sold averaged 1,334 square feet, which divided by two yields 767 square feet per person. Breaking it down further we find co-ops averaging 1,197 square feet, condos at 1,496 square feet, luxury at 2,921 and loft at 2,145. So that's 598.5 square feet per person at the low end all the way up to 1,460.5 at the top. There's three separate analytical models for you Felix, all of which yield per-person square footage of 750 or better. I admit they're not all that fleshed out, but I'm stuck inside with a cold watching The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three on DVD, and I'm disinclined to dig deeper. But you're welcome to. Posted by: Sterling on December 4, 2005 04:04 AM #15 Sterling: do your calculations include infrastructure or is the 280MM number a percentage of raw space? Building density is higher here than anywhere else in America, but 15% to circulation (in buildings and streets themeselves) would be an easily defended metric. Counting hallways in urban residential structures is like counting sidewalks as part of sf for suburban homes. As much Sterling does sound like a set designer for Friends, Felix, I gotta say, of the 25 or so apartments of people that I can definitely make an estimate of size, we average 500 sf easy. Most everyone is a half a standard tenement lot (25 x 25), with a couple of lofts and post-war, large-scale developments thrown in. This is skewed because many of them are single (I live in a 2bd alone) or have rent-controlled apartments from way back. Posted by: 99 on December 4, 2005 07:19 PM #16 Where does your 280m sq ft number come from? Your first two calculations are based on it, so I'd like to know. (They're also based on a multiplier of 4, which as far as I can tell came pretty much out of thin air.) As for apartment sales, in Manhattan individual condos and coops tend to be much larger than the apartments inside rental buildings. So if you look just at sold apartments as opposed to rented apartments, you're going to get a skewed figure. What's more, if a 3800-square-foot brownstone in Harlem, say, is sold and then the downstairs floor is rented out, that still counts as a 3800 square foot deal under these figures. Posted by: Felix on December 4, 2005 09:21 PM #17 The multiplier of 4 was back-of-envelope guess. The 280,000,000 number came from this PDF . Sorry, thought I'd linked to it initially. As for rental apartments being smaller than privately owned condos or co-ops...not sure I buy that. But even if it's true, how much smaller could they be? 10%? Doesn't really matter. You can apologize any time now. Posted by: Sterling on December 4, 2005 10:06 PM #18 if anyone is real curious why not pony up the $250 to get a list of every tax lot in the city? http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtml in the meantime, simply because i am tired of having to read sterlings pontifications about things he knows anything about, i downloaded a list of all the residential tax lots from 14th street and below from propertyshark. only 14th street and below, because after 6000+ entries, i became bored. 14th street down is a good representative sample of the 99000+ residential tax lots in manhattan. it includes spacious luxury lofts of tribeca, tenements of the les, projects on the eastside, high rise high density battery park and half building condo conversions of downtown (note that a rental bldg with multiple units counts as a single tax lot with the number of units listed as a seperate data field). the average unit size works out to 1100sf with 590sf per person (based 2000 census population stats for 14th st & below). this includes all common space in a building as it is based on total building size for single tax lot (rental) buildings and counts common space tax lots for condo buildings (read lobbies, circ, etc.) multiplying back out by the 2000 census population numbers for manhattan of 1,537,195... we get 906,945,050sf of residential space in manhattan. let's call that an even 9Bsf since the city lists 3800 acres of lot area in manhattan (165,500,000sf), that gives a rough overbuild factor of 5.5. this will obviously skew higher with the ues & uws densities without actually affecting the sf/person. summary- -590sf of residential per person (inclusive of common areas). close to sterlings low estimate of 600, but nowhere near the 800sf -1100sf average size per unit (inclusive of common areas). again close to sterlings guess based on broker mumbojumbo, but still below the stated average. -9Bsf of residential space in manhattan sterling- close on your numbers, but not nearly close enough to be quite so pompously smug. stick to things you know about, like why bush is a foreign policy genius. felix- remind me what this related to? Posted by: geoff on December 5, 2005 12:34 AM #19 Geoff - The only reason I was pompously snug is because Felix had reacted to to my estimates with such comedic outrage. Also, I don't think 14th St. and below is a good representative sample. Newer and I suspect more spacious high-rises make up a much larger proportion of housing from the 30s up through the low 100s. So I'm sticking with 600+. I suspect the actual number is around 750, as stated above. As for your justification of your work - "simply because i am tired of having to read sterlings pontifications about things he knows anything about" - I'm not sure what it means. Perhaps you meant to write "nothing" instead of "anything"? I'm not claiming to be right all the time - I am not right all the time. I am, however, pretty much always right whenever Felix gets all worked up and tells me I have no idea what I'm talking about. Thanks for your small role in marking off another example for me to throw back at him at some future date. Posted by: Sterling on December 5, 2005 06:19 AM #20 Renter-occupied apartments are much smaller than owner-occupied apartments. And as the PDF you yourself linked to shows (see page 24), the vast majority of apartments in Manhattan are renter-occupied. Think about it: one needs maybe 350 sq ft per person to live in some reasonable comfort. Beyond that, you're shelling out extra cash for extra space. Owners are happy doing that because they have 100% equity in that space: everyone has heard the advice that they should buy the biggest apartment they can afford. Renters, on the other hand, are simply giving away thousands of dollars in rent every month, with nothing at all to show for it. So they tend to go not for the biggest apartment they can afford, but rather the cheapest apartment they find adequate. Put it this way: Manhattan is full of individuals spending an enormous proportion of their income on outsize mortgage payments. Almost everyone, when they move from renting to buying, sees their monthly housing costs rise substantially. If you move to Manhattan and have a relatively low income, then you might spend a crazy amount of it on rent, it's true. But if your income is average or higher (and remember that average is $2,025 per week), I very much doubt that your rent is making nearly as much of a dent in your paycheck as it would if you owned your own apartment. You reach a standard of living you're comfortable with, and you stop. Anything beyond that is money which you could otherwise spend on clothes, or travel, or restaurants. Whereas if you buy , you're not spending so much as investing. The only money which you're really spending is the interest on your mortgage -- and even that comes with a tax deduction. Or let's put it another way. That Elliman report you linked to has an average sales price of $1.21 million. A typical rental yield in Manhattan these days is 4%, so if rentals were functionally identical to owner-occupied apartments, which you seem to assume, then the average rent in Manhattan would be over $4,000 a month. In fact, of course, it's nowhere near that. Posted by: Felix on December 5, 2005 06:55 AM #21 There's the shark, and then there's the A train. Sterling's Manhattan clearly stops at 96th street. Sterling, dear, north of that bright white line, the housing stock is incredibly stable and consistent in terms of size and layout. Harlem is just now getting it's first 'luxury' apartment building in a half century. Any larger apartment complexes are housing projects, which have smaller units by definition, and, allowing for the dispersal of the towers in some International Style fantasy also insures that the density does not increase much. Posted by: 99 on December 5, 2005 04:03 PM #22 Felix, just because apartments are currently going for $1.21 million a pop doesn't mean that everyone who owns an apartment paid that much. Rent prices move in sympathy with real estate prices but are less prone to bubbles. What you're missing here, and you've missed the same thing when we've talked about the stock market in the past, is the difference between speculative investors and income investors. Speculators don't buy an apartment (or apartment building) primarily for the benefit of the rent; their main motivation is the hope of flipping the property at some later date for a larger sum than they paid for it. The current Manhattan real estate bubble is the product of speculators. Real estate income investors view rent collection as their goal - most apartment buildings in any town or city in the U.S. are owned by income investors. They get less press than speculators, but they also tend to go bankrupt less often. The market value of a rental property can be determined by the amount of rent it generates for the owner, not the other way around. Manhattan rents are high - probably even ludicrously high - but that is a function of large demand chasing relatively low supply, and is only weakly related to current real estate prices. I do acknowledge your point about space not being a priority for Manhattan renters, there is some truth in that. People who do see space as a necessity tend to wind up in rental units in Brooklyn, Queens or Hudson County. But that's not exclusively the case. Posted by: Sterling on December 5, 2005 04:59 PM #23 This thread is hilarious and sad, although a good example of how the same statistics can be applied to support any and all political positions. Posted by: sac on December 5, 2005 06:39 PM #24 Sterling, Manhattan is the one real-estate market in the US where there are, to all intents and purposes, zero speculators under your definition. No one buys Manhattan property in order to flip it. For one thing, co-op boards (and even condo boards, for that matter) hate flippers, and are likely to punish them. There's flip taxes, brokers' fees of 6% for the seller, and a luxury tax of 1% on any apartment over $1m for the buyer. Prices are so high that the carrying costs are enormous -- and you can't rent out the apartment in the meantime, because that makes it pretty much unsaleable. There are, of course, lots of buildings owned by income investors in New York. Most of the East Village, where I live, is comprised of such buildings: they normally have 20 or so apartments (say 5 floors, 4 apartments per floor), and they've been going up in price almost as much as individual apartments have -- the only reason they haven't gone up just as much is because many of the tenants are rent-controlled or rent-stabilised below market. These are typical New York apartments, from a renter's point of view -- but I can tell you, as someone who was apartment hunting in the East Village for almost a year, they're much less typical from an owner's point of view. Also, there's a strong incentive for for-sale apartments to be as large as possible: price per square foot is positively correlated with size. That's not the case in the rental market: it's easier to rent out a 650sqft apartment for $2500 than it is to rent out a 1300sqft apartment for $5000. Posted by: Felix on December 5, 2005 09:14 PM #25 "Manhattan is the one real-estate market in the US where there are, to all intents and purposes, zero speculators under your definition. No one buys Manhattan property in order to flip it." Felix, of course people speculate on property in Manhattan. Just because the barriers to entry are high doesn't mean some won't jump them. How else do you think a modest apartment winds up costing as much as a dozen Mercedes-Benz CL500s? Who do you imagine is providing demand at that level? You know banks are not issuing $1,000,000 mortgages to households with joint incomes of $200,000. It's trust fund kiddies - who are often divorced from fiscal reality - and speculators. As for your point about different-sized apartments being suitable for rent versus sale, I might agree with you except for the fact that every rental apartment IS OWNED by someone. It IS PART of the for sale market. I'd be surprised if fewer than half of the condos in Manhattan are rented out by their owners. Posted by: Sterling on December 6, 2005 01:51 AM #26 Sterling, I'm afraid the factors leading to high apartment prices are much more mundane than your feverish mind would like to imagine. Lots of global liquidity, driving down interest rates and banks' credit tests. Lots of demand, due to Manhattan's status as the center of the universe and high Wall Street bonuses. And very limited supply. The market for flippers is Miami, not NYC -- where a condo can be bought and sold three or four times before it is even built. As for your point about rental apartments being owned by someone, it sounds clever until you stop to think about what I've already said. Rental buildings are owned by landlords; the vast majority of condos and co-ops are owner-occupied. For one thing, co-ops vastly outnumber condos, and they're hard to rent. And as for condos, they generally get rented out when they're not the place their owner really wants to live. Given how valuable they are, few owners who don't want to live here would rather rent out their condos rather than simply sell them. Take my East Village condo building, for instance: when it went condo in 1983, only one owner lived here. Today, all the units bar one are owner-occupied. I haven't done my homework on this, but I'll happily accept your wager: I'll bet the standard bottle of vintage champagne that more than half the condos in Manhattan are owner-occupied. Deal? Posted by: Felix on December 6, 2005 02:43 AM #27 If you go double or nothing on the proposition that the amount of existing residential floor space in Manhattan divided by the number of residents of Manhattan is equal to or greater than 600 sq. ft., then it's a bet. How are we going to research this? FWIW, I am descended from a man who is reputed to be the first person to negotiate a real estate deal in New York: Wessel Wesselse (ten Broek). He may have been the man to offer 60 guilders (often misreported as $24) as the purchase price of Manhattan from the Canarsies. (Technically the Canarsies didn't own Manhattan Island - it's not for nothing that "Canarsie" is in Brooklyn. Also technically the Dutch West India Company didn't care which tribe owned it. It just needed some bunch of natives to smile and sign off on the deal to keep the English away.) This of course conveys no special knowledge upon me, but it certainly adds a humorous subtext to our disagreement. Posted by: Sterling on December 6, 2005 04:14 AM #28 I'm not sure about the terms of the wager: we seem to be betting on two different things at the same time. But spell it out, and I'll be amenable. I do want to ensure, of course, that hallways and elevator shafts and the like do not count as residential floor space. And please also ensure that if one of the propositions can be determined while the other one can't, then the other wager still stands. Posted by: Felix on December 6, 2005 05:55 AM #29 I'm not sure how we could specify the terms to exclude elevators if they are included in filings. However, it occurs to me that Manhattan Borough probably requires a statement of total dwelling space for its Certificate of Occupancy, so that would work for me. And no, I think double or nothing sounds good to me, especially since we will be attempting to falsify two of my estimations, rather than either of yours. Posted by: Sterling on December 6, 2005 06:20 AM #30 You've lost me, I'm afraid. When you say "double or nothing", are you proposing a 2BVC bet on the residential floor space, and no bet at all on the proportion of condos which are rented out? Or what? It makes no sense to me: "double or nothing" normally happens after A has lost a bet and B has won it. Then going double or nothing means that either B wins double the original amount, or he wins nothing. You essentially run the bet over again. Are you maybe trying to propose something whereby if I lose I lose 2BVCs, and if I win I win nothing? Posted by: Felix on December 6, 2005 07:44 AM #31 Are you trying to squirm out of it? Posted by: Sterling on December 6, 2005 06:03 PM #32 Sterling, will you propose your bet already? I've already said that I'm likely to accept. Just tell me the terms! Posted by: Felix on December 6, 2005 06:12 PM #33 I did! Posted by: Sterling on December 6, 2005 06:25 PM #34 OK, have a few moments now, I had to get someplace before 2pm and the roads are crap with snow and slush. Um, OK. My terms for the bet is those two things specified, avg. sq. footage = 600 and = 50% of condos. Either side has to get both right to collect. gotta run Posted by: Sterling on December 6, 2005 06:51 PM #35 So if one of us gets both right, he wins 1BVC or 2BVCs? And if one of the two turns out to be unverifiable, then it's a wash? Posted by: Felix on December 6, 2005 07:22 PM #36 Honestly, Felix, I doubt either number is verifiable. Like I wrote above, the city appears to track residential rental inventory by units, rather than by square footage. Also, most owners of condominium units who rent them out do so through agents - even the tenant may be only vaguely aware of the legal status of the unit. In NJ I don't think an individual condo owner even needs to report the unit as a rental property if it's in a building that's already inspected under multi-family housing regulations (or if it's a standalone unit or duplex). The rent revenue has to be reported as taxable income, naturallly, but not to any entity with housing oversight. So make it for one bottle and yes both figures have to be verifiable. That said, if either of us can show a grouping of not-completely-conclusive figures from multiple sources that seem reasonable and fall long or short of my guesses by ten percent or more, then I think we should accept them. (Of course, I have arguably already met this condition with my square footage prediction, and Geoff's calculations don't contradict it under the 10% rule I suggest.) Posted by: Sterling on December 6, 2005 10:05 PM #37 as i mentioned earlier, you can get the sf and unit count for every residential tax lot in the city from the cities web site... google 'bytes of the big apple' and look at the 'pluto' product. the license fee is $250 or you can get the info from propertyshark.com. there are 99000+ listings for manhattan. at 100 listings per page, thats a lot of cutting and pasting into excel. both of these will give you tax lot sizes (whole buildings/unit count or condo unit), which will be inclusive of common area. 10-15% is considered a fairly standard deduction for circulation. mechanical space is not included in the floor area count. happy dueling Posted by: geoff on December 6, 2005 10:29 PM Post a comment Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Yes No Anti-spam question: Share four cupcakes equally among four people. How many does each person get (in digits)? 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(7) Comments 06/12: geoff: as i mentioned earlier, you can get the sf and unit count for every residential tax lot in the ci 06/12: Sterling: Honestly, Felix, I doubt either number is verifiable. Like I wrote above, the city appears to tr 06/12: Felix: So if one of us gets both right, he wins 1BVC or 2BVCs? And if one of the two turns out to be unv 06/12: Sterling: OK, have a few moments now, I had to get someplace before 2pm and the roads are crap with snow an 06/12: Sterling: I did! 06/12: Felix: Sterling, will you propose your bet already? I've already said that I'm likely to accept. Just te 06/12: Sterling: Are you trying to squirm out of it? 06/12: Felix: You've lost me, I'm afraid. When you say "double or nothing", are you proposing a 2BVC bet on the 06/12: Sterling: I'm not sure how we could specify the terms to exclude elevators if they are included in filings. 06/12: Felix: I'm not sure about the terms of the wager: we seem to be betting on two different things at the s 06/12: Sterling: If you go double or nothing on the proposition that the amount of existing residential floor spac 06/12: Felix: Sterling, I'm afraid the factors leading to high apartment prices are much more mundane than your 06/12: Sterling: "Manhattan is the one real-estate market in the US where there are, to all intents and purposes, 05/12: Felix: Sterling, Manhattan is the one real-estate market in the US where there are, to all intents and p 05/12: sac: This thread is hilarious and sad, although a good example of how the same statistics can be appli 05/12: Sterling: Felix, just because apartments are currently going for $1.21 million a pop doesn't mean that ever 05/12: 99: There's the shark, and then there's the A train. Sterling's Manhattan clearly stops at 96th stree 05/12: Felix: Renter-occupied apartments are much smaller than owner-occupied apartments. And as the < 05/12: Sterling: Geoff - The only reason I was pompously snug is because Felix had reacted to to my estimates with 05/12: geoff: if anyone is real curious why not pony up the $250 to get a list of every tax lot in the city?<br 04/12: Sterling: The multiplier of 4 was back-of-envelope guess. The 280,000,000 number came from <a href 04/12: Felix: Where does your 280m sq ft number come from? Your first two calculations are based on it, so I'd 04/12: 99: Sterling: do your calculations include infrastructure or is the 280MM number a percentage of raw 04/12: Sterling: I've tried to find the statistic, but to no avail. It seems that while office space inventor is 04/12: Sterling: My claim is that the amount of residential-zoned floor space in Manhattan probably works out to b 04/12: Felix: Sterling jumped the shark so long ago it's probably not surprising, but for those of you keeping 04/12: Sterling: OK, 22 square miles equals about 613,324,800 square feet. That would leave each of Manhattan's 1 03/12: Felix: OK, Sterling, let's do it your way. Assume that each of the 1.5 million residents of Manhattan ha 03/12: Sterling: I don't think I'm confused. My points are: a) there is actually quite a bit more than 22 02/12: Andrew: Susan and Sterling, you are embarassingly confused. What percentage of real estate in Manhattan i Trackbacks

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Buying a Home - HUD HUD News Newsroom Priorities About HUD Homes Buying Owning Selling Renting Homeless Home improvements HUD homes Fair housing FHA refunds Foreclosure Consumer info Communities About communities Volunteering Organizing Economic development Working with HUD Grants Programs Contracts Work online HUD jobs Complaints Resources Library Handbooks/ forms Common questions Tools Webcasts Mailing lists Contact us Help Buying a Home Information by State Esta página en español Print version Email this to a friend Counseling and Education Housing counseling agencies can give you advice about buying a home. Find a housing counselor near you. Common questions Homeownership videos More from HUD Mortgage glossary FHA mortgage limits HUD approved lenders HUD approved condos Healthy homes Environmental maps Energy info About appraisals Links Rural housing loan programs Loan programs for veterans Freddie Mac Fannie Mae US Postal Service Mover's Guide The homebuying process can seem complicated, but if you take things step-by-step, you will soon be holding the keys to your own home! Nine steps to buying a home Figure out how much you can afford Know your rights Shop for a loan Learn about homebuying programs Shop for a home Make an offer Get a home inspection Shop for homeowners insurance Sign papers Step 1: Figure out how much you can afford What you can afford depends on your income, credit rating, current monthly expenses, downpayment and the interest rate. The calculators below can help, but it is best to visit a lender to find out for sure. How much home can you afford? Buying vs. Renting Need help with your downpayment and/or closing costs? Homebuying programs in your state A housing counselor can help you figure out how to manage and pay off your debt, and start saving for that downpayment! Find a housing counselor near you Step 2: Know your rights Fair Housing: Equal Opportunity for All - brochure Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) Borrower's rights Predatory lending Back to Top Step 3: Shop for a loan Save money by doing your homework. Talk to several lenders, compare costs and interest rates, negotiate to get a better deal. Consider getting pre-approved for a loan. Looking for the best mortgage: shop, compare, negotiate - brochure Let FHA help you Step 4: Learn about homebuying programs Homebuying programs in your state FHA loan programs offer lower downpayments and are a good option for first-time homebuyers. Let FHA help you HUD's special homebuying programs Good Neighbor Next Door Program - for police officers, teachers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians Homeownership for public housing residents Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program (Section 184) Step 5: Shop for a home Choose a real estate agent Wish list - what features do you want? Home-shopping checklist take this list with you when comparing homes Homes for sale (including HUD homes) " Fixer-uppers " - home purchase and repair programs Manufactured (mobile) homes Build a home If you choose a home in a neighborhood with a Home Owners Association (HOA), be sure to request a copy of the HOA packet, so you can review before closing. Back to Top Step 6: Make an offer Discuss the process with your real estate agent. If the seller counters your offer, you may need to negotiate until you both agree to the terms of the sale. Making an offer Step 7: Get a home inspection Make your offer contingent on a home inspection. An inspection will tell you about the condition of the home, and can help you avoid buying a home that needs major repairs. For Your Protection Get a Home Inspection Step 8: Shop for homeowners insurance Lenders require that you have homeowners insurance. Be sure to shop around. Homeowners insurance 12 ways to lower your homeowners insurance costs Step 9: Sign papers You're finally ready to go to "settlement" or "closing." Be sure to read everything before you sign! Settlement Costs and Helpful Information Content updated December 1, 2005 Back to Top FOIA Privacy Web Policies and Important Links Home U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC 20410 Telephone: (202) 708-1112 TTY: (202) 708-1455 Find the address of a HUD office near you

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Amazon.co.uk: The "Which?" Guide to Buying Property Abroad ("Which?" Consumer Guides): Books BOOK SEARCH BROWSE CATEGORIES SPECIAL OFFERS TOP SELLERS AUDIO BOOKS Paperbacks 3 for £12 NEW & USED TEXTBOOKS HARRY POTTER SELL YOUR BOOKS All Products -Books -Used Books -Collectable Books All Subjects -Art, Architecture & Photography -Audio Cassettes -Audio CDs -Biography -Business, Finance & Law -Children's Books -Comics & Graphic Novels -Computers & Internet -Crime, Thrillers & Mystery -Fiction -Food & Drink -Gay & Lesbian -Health, Family & Lifestyle -History -Home & Garden -Horror -Humour -Mind, Body & Spirit -Music, Stage & Screen -Poetry, Drama & Criticism -Reference & Languages -Religion & Spirituality -Romance -Science & Nature -Science Fiction & Fantasy -Scientific, Technical & Medical -Society, Politics & Philosophy -Sports, Hobbies & Games -Travel & Holiday -Young Adult All Subjects Art, Architecture & Photography Audio Cassettes Audio CDs Biography Business, Finance & Law Children's Books Comics & Graphic Novels Computers & Internet Crime, Thrillers & Mystery Education & Languages Fiction Food & Drink Gay & Lesbian Health, Family & Lifestyle History Home & Garden Horror Humour Mind, Body & Spirit Music, Stage & Screen Poetry, Drama & Criticism Reference Religion & Spirituality Romance Science & Nature Science Fiction & Fantasy Scientific, Technical & Medical Society, Politics & Philosophy Sports, Hobbies & Games Travel & Holiday Young Adult BOOKS INFO At A Glance Reviews Customer Reviews See more by this author E-mail a Friend About This Item Recommendations If you already own this, rate it and improve your recommendations , Not Rated Visit the Music shop X&Y ~ Coldplay Find a huge selection of books at 30% off Become an Associate Join our Associates Programme and make money from your website! The "Which?" Guide to Buying Property Abroad ("Which?" Consumer Guides) Jeremy Davies Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book. List Price: £10.99 Our Price: £6.26 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £15 with Super Saver Delivery. See details & conditions . You Save: £4.73 (43%) Availability: usually dispatched within 24 hours. 28 Used & New from £6.18 See larger photo Edition: Paperback Get up to 50% off more great New Year, New You titles. More Product Details Perfect Partner Buy The "Which?" Guide to Buying Property Abroad... with A Place in the Sun: Buying Your Dream Home Abroad today! Total List Price: £23.98 Buy Together Today: £15.35 Customers who bought this item also bought: Buying Property Abroad ("Sunday Times" Buying a Property S.) ;Paperback~Ben West The Complete Guide to Buying Property Abroad ;Paperback~Liz Hodgkinson A Place in the Sun: Dream Homes Within Your Reach ;Paperback~Fanny Blake Buying a Property in Eastern Europe 2005 (Red Guides) ;Paperback~Katy Pownall (Editor) Buying a Property: Turkey ;Paperback~John Howell Explore similar items ... Product Details: Paperback 256 pages(March 1, 2004) Publisher: Which? Books Language: English ISBN: 0852029705 Category(ies): Reference , Home & Garden , Travel & Holiday Average Customer Review: | Write a review Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10,285 (Publishers and authors: improve your sales ) sign in to turn on 1-Click™ ordering. 24 New from 6.18 4 used from 7.33 Have one to sell? (We'll set one up for you) View my Wish List . Customers interested in this title may also be interested in: What's this? ( What's this? ) Feedback Which ? Online Latest Credit Check Info Up- to -date credit check guide . Expert assessment, test results, tips and buying advice to help you choose products and services. The premium Internet-only consumer research and advice site. trial.which.co.uk Reviews Synopsis For recreation, retirement, or investment buying property abroad has never been more popular. Over a million British owners now have homes in another country. Unfortunately, buying abroad is fraught with difficulties. Different cultures, languages, currencies and laws make expert advice essential. The Which? Guide to Buying Property Abroad takes an in-depth look at France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Florida and Greece. The book outlines the sort of property you are likely to encounter, looks at local taxes and how much you'll have to pay, examines local law and how this relates to matters such as inheritance, insurance, liability and land searches, and considers the true cost of holiday homes - assessing estate agents, building societies, euro-mortgages, lawyers, local officials, maintenance charges, utility bills, management fees and the commission charged by letting agencies. Finally, the book looks at the financial and legal implications of long-term residency, with particular reference to retirement, taxation, inheritance and health-care. Customer Reviews Avg. Customer Review: Write an online review and share your thoughts with other shoppers! 20 of 20 people found the following review helpful: The best of the bunch , August 25, 2004 Reviewer: James Parker from Brighton I've been thinking of buying a place abroad as a holiday home and for rental income but wasn't tied to the idea of a particular country. Not knowing anyone who'd done it, I thought I should read up before going any further and had a look in a couple of bookshops. As far as I can see most of the books on buying abroad are either really superficial and normally linked to one of the TV shows, or focus just on one country - which is no good if you're not sure where to buy. This one gives you the best of both worlds - it gives plenty of detail but covers most of the countries you're likely to want to buy in as well. I've now found a lawyer to advise me, and am on my way out to Italy to have a look at places in September Was this review helpful to you? 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful: A useful guide , August 17, 2004 Reviewer: prunella_mortimer_harvey from Manchester I had always wanted to buy a property abroad and a couple of months ago I embarked on a trip to France with the intention of finding a cottage in the countryside (Dordogne). Before going I bought this book- and it proved to be an excellent companion with plenty of useful information - epecially about taxation and banking/finances. I would thoroughly recommend it to everybody Was this review helpful to you? 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: Buying property abroad- an excellent guide , August 5, 2004 Reviewer: lorenza_ponzoni from Manchester, Manchester United Kingdom The book is an informative practical guide to buying property abroad..it is easy to read,well written and clearly explained. It is packed with essential information- and it even contains details that you would not think you needed until you got there! I would recommend it to anybody who is considering buying property In Europe .... do not attempt anything before you read this book!! Was this review helpful to you? 14 of 15 people found the following review helpful: A MUST HAVE , March 25, 2004 Reviewer: A reader from United Kingdom This book is a very comprehensive guide to buying a house abroad. If you are interesting in this subject you would do much better to buy this than the country specific guides because here you get detailed stuff about all the different country. the overall message of the book is that you can make a success of buying somewhere to live in, use for holidays or rent out but it takes you through all the possible pitfall, and is very readable. Was this review helpful to you? Customers who bought books by Jeremy Davies also bought books by these authors: Fanny Blake Katy Pownall Liz Hodgkinson Ben West John Howell Look for similar books by subject: Browse for Books in: Subjects > Reference > Consumer Guides > Housing & Property Subjects > Reference > Consumer Guides > Publisher > Which? Books Subjects > Travel & Holiday > General Subjects > Reference > Consumer Guides > General Subjects > Travel & Holiday > Speciality Travel > Living & Working Abroad Subjects > Home & Garden > Buying & Developing Property > Property Guides Search for books by subject: Consumer guides & advice Household Management Housing & property for the individual Living & working abroad i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ... Comment on this title I have read this book and I want to review it. I am the author and I want to comment on my book. I am the publisher and I want to comment on this book. Correct errors and omissions in this listing. Where's My Stuff? • track your recent orders • view or change your orders in Your Account Delivery and Returns • see our delivery rates and policies • thinking of returning an item ? (See our Returns Policy ) Need Help? • forgot your password? Click here • redeem or buy a gift certificate • still have questions? Visit our Help Pages Search our shops All Products Books Used Books Collectable Books Electronics & Photo Popular Music Classical Music DVD Rental DVDs Video Software PC & Video Games Software & Games DIY & Tools Garden & Outdoors Kitchen & Home Personal Care Toys Auctions zShops for Text Only Top of Page : The "Which?" Guide to Buying Property Abroad ("Which?" Consumer Guides) International Sites:  United States | Germany | France | Japan | Canada | China Join Associates | Join our staff | About Amazon.co.uk | Help pages | Contact us Our Privacy Notice , Conditions of Use & Sale © 1996-2005, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates

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Texas Land Trust Directory Listing Maincontent Local Navigation print friendly search Regulations Publications Outdoor Learning Kids Game Warden Grants Get Involved Shop FAQ Calendar Español Experience Texas Fishing & Boating State Parks & Destinations Hunting & Wildlife Land & Water Doing Business Home Land & Water Land Private Tltc Dir List Texas Land Trusts About Texas Land Trusts Starting a Land Trust Texas Land Trust Directory Foreword Listing Regional Index About the Texas Land Trust Council ( TLTC ) TLTC Board of Directors and Honorary Council News 2004 TLTC Conference Speech Bulletin Board TLTC Publications Land Trust Resources Texas Land Trusts Top 1-Million Mark in Acres Conserved Texas Land Trust Directory Listing Land Trusts are listed below. Each title is a link to additional information about the Land Trust. American Farmland Trust (413) 586-4593 or (800) 370-4879 http://www.farmland.org Archaeological Conservancy (505) 266-1540 http://www.americanarchaeology.org Audubon Texas (512) 306-0225 http://www.tx.audubon.org/ Bat Conservation International (512) 327-9721 http://www.batcon.org Bexar Land Trust (210) 222-8430 http://www.bexarlandtrust.org Big Thicket Natural Heritage Trust (903) 566-8939 or (903) 566-0535 http://www.btatx.org Brazos Valley Land Conservancy (979) 764-3844 Cactus Conservation Institute (432) 364-2620 Cibolo Conservancy (210) 699-9290 Coastal Bend Land Trust (361) 882-5624 http://www.coastalbendlandtrust.org Connemara Conservancy (214) 351-0990 http://www.connemaraconservancy.org Conservation Fund (512) 477-1712 http://www.conservationfund.org Cradle of Texas Conservancy (979) 238-5001 Ducks Unlimited (832) 595-0663 http://www.ducks.org Frontera Land Alliance (915) 545-5214 Galveston Bay Foundation (281) 332-3381 http://www.galvbay.org Guadalupe-Blanco River Trust (830) 372-5077 http://www.gbrtrust.org Gulf Coast Bird Observatory (979) 480-0999 http://www.gcbo.org Hill Country Conservancy (512) 328-2481 http://www.hillcountryconservancy.org Hill Country Land Trust (830) 997-0027 Houston Audubon Society (713) 932-1639 http://www.houstonaudubon.org Hudspeth Directive for Conservation (505) 531-7246 Humane Society of the United States Wildlife Land Trust (301) 548-7735 http://www.hsus.org Katy Prairie Conservancy (713) 523-6135 http://www.katyprairie.org Legacy Land Trust (713) 524-2100 http://www.llt.org National Wild Turkey Federation (803) 637-3106 http://www.nwtf.org Native Prairies Association of Texas (254) 897-3646 http://www.texasprairie.org Natural Area Preservation Association (512) 804-1981 or (972) 234-5768 http://www.napa-texas.org Nature Conservancy of Texas (East Texas) (409) 941-9114 Nature Conservancy of Texas (Headquarters) (210) 224-8774 http://www.nature.org Nature Conservancy of Texas (North Texas) (903) 568-4139 Nature Conservancy of Texas (South Texas) (361) 882-3584 or (361) 887-9487 Nature Conservancy of Texas (West Texas) (432) 426-2390 Panhandle Land Trust (806) 374-5317 Pines and Prairies Land Trust (512) 308-1911 Rock Art Foundation (210) 525-9907 http://www.rockart.org Texas Cave Conservancy (512) 249-2283 Texas Cave Management Association (210) 699-1388 or (512) 832-1965 http://www.tcmacaves.org Texas Land Trust Council (512) 389-4779 or (512) 389-4961 http:..www.tpwd.state.tx.us/conserve/tltc/ Texas Ornithological Society (713) 743-0590 http://www.texasbirds.org Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation (972) 744-4595 Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation (214) 720-1478 http://www.tpwf.org Trees For Houston (713) 840-8733 http://www.treesforhouston.org Trust for Public Land (Austin) (512) 478-4644 http://www.tpl.org Trust for Public Land (Dallas) (214) 741-3600 http://www.tpl.org Trust for Public Land (Houston/Galveston) (713) 226-7200 or (713) 703-1123 Valley Land Fund (956) 971-8550 http://www.valleylandfund.com Westcave Preserve (830) 825-3442 http://www.westcave.org Wetland Habitat Alliance of Texas (936) 569-9428 http://www.whatduck.org Wimberley Valley Watershed Association (512) 847-1582 http://www.visitwimberley.org/water/ Contact Us | Help | Accessibility | Media | Site Policies | Complaints | Intranet | State of Texas | TRAILS Search | TexasOnline | Compact with Texans Texas Parks and Wildlife Department , 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744 Toll Free: (800) 792-1112, Austin: (512) 389-4800 Content of this site © Texas Parks and Wildlife Department unless otherwise noted. Last modified: July 29, 2005, 3:56 pm

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Sustainable Sources - Sustainably-Built Home Classifieds Sustainable Building Sustainable Building Sourcebook Sustainable Building Calendar Conferences Green Building Links Green Builder News -- Case Studies --Sustainable Reading Sustainable Sources Bookstore Articles Sustainable Tourism Eco Travel in Latin America Our Services Search Greenbuilder.com: Results should match with: all the words any words Go to Advanced Search Related Sites Austin and Texas Environmental Groups Catalogs & Commercial Sites Translate these pages Contact Our Webmaster Buy or Sell your Sustainably Built Home! Buy the home you have always dreamed of or sell your green home for theprice it's worth. Search The Listings List Your Property Confirm or Modify a Listing How it works: 1) List Your Property . Enter detailed information about your property. Upload a picture if you have one. Realtors are welcome. 2) Keep it current . Each month we'll send you a reminder email. Log in, find your listing, and confirm that it's still for sale. Make changes to your listing at any time. 3) What does it cost? Right now, just $10.00 per listing! 4) Tell everyone! Tell your friends, your business partners, and any other potential Green Building fans you know about your listing here. Tell your realtor, too. Put pointers to your listing on your own web site and in your email signature. It's easy to remember - www.greenbuilder.com/realestate/ Why a property listing service? Sustainably built homes are the wave of the future, and some have technologyso new that realtors may not yet be up to speed. Help your realtor getmoving fast by listing in Sustainable Sources. Your ad will be seen bypeople who know green building. As a long time leader in green building information, Sustainable Sources is uniquely positioned to connect buyers with sellers. Since we don't have the space constraints of print publications, we can allow full descriptions of your property at far less cost. A 30-word classified ad run once in one well known print quarterly would cost more than an unlimited-word ad at Sustainable Sources for a $50,000 home which will run until the property sells. Let us know when you are successful in selling or buying a sustainably built home. We love good news! Realtors - Lenders - Builders - Architects Ask us about advertising on this site!