Meanwhile in New York: A "Normal" 22-Year-Old Female Buys a $250,000 Apartment (With Pictures)

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Young_Chitlin
Young_Chitlin Members Posts: 23,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
By: Hamilton Nolan

Polly Mosendz is a 22-year-old recent college graduate. She's also the proud new buyer of a quarter-million dollar Manhattan apartment. "I am a normal 20-something," she writes.

Not so long ago, that sentence, in a New York Observer story about a 22-year-old buying a quarter-million dollar Manhattan apartment, would have been delivered with a knowing wink. Or it would have been used as a deadpan "let them hang themselves with their own words" quote, to indicate just how out of touch with economic reality the speaker was. It would have been written with awareness. Now, though—with the Observer fully in thrall to its wealthy real estate scion owner— that sentence is meant to be taken literally. Just a normal 20-something, buying a quarter-million dollar Manhattan apartment, as all normal 20-somethings can.

Before the purchase, I was shelling out over $2,000 a month for a four flight walk-up, a glorified attic in the not-yet-chic part of Alphabet City. The building was home exclusively to 20-somethings who assumed this is how we should be living. For us, that’s what Manhattan housing is: terrible walk-up apartments in trendy neighborhoods or luxury apartments with three or more roommates.
"For us"— for normal 20-somethings, average ones, the absolute median of all 22-year-olds, unexceptional in all ways—"that's what Manhattan housing is." It's a $2,100 per month apartment rental, at age 22. But:
After calculating my purchase price based on a monthly payment of $2,000, I realized a small purchase was feasible and a sound investment. With some $50,000 in the bank—a nest egg from my family augmented by savings that I’d stashed away by working in retail since the age of 14—I settled on a budget of approximately $250,000 and began searching listings and seeking real estate agencies and brokers.
(Spoiler: she found one.)

The word that best sums up this little tale: "Normal." A normal story of a normal 22-year-old, in this big city of ours, Manhattan, "where dreams are made of," as they say in the song. All of you 22-year-olds should be able to relate to this apartment-purchasing experience, lest you be considered abnormal.

We sincerely congratulate Polly Mosendz on her success, even as we weep over the decline of the newspaper that edited and published her story.



polly.jpeg?w=240&h=320


pollybed.jpeg?w=320&h=240


pollykitch.jpeg?w=320&h=240


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Comments

  • Young_Chitlin
    Young_Chitlin Members Posts: 23,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
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  • Sour-Cream
    Sour-Cream Members Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    ? probably turns into a rocket ship.
  • Trollio
    Trollio Members Posts: 25,815 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    but the building next to it had a ac hanging out the window, that doesn't scream luxury living
  • Crude_
    Crude_ Members Posts: 19,964 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    The whole damn apartment looks about the size of my den and dinning room.

    Seems like she got beat paying a quarter mil for that.

    Glad I live in rural suburbia America where the cost of living is relatively cheap.
  • tha bause
    tha bause Members Posts: 1,586 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Reply
    Class Privilege:A Reasoned Discussion in Which I Say "? " A Lot

    By: Ubertrout

    So, this article is on Gawker about a 22-year-old who just purchased a $250,000 apartment in Manhattan, and I am about to put on my Ragin' Boots and head down to the ? You Rodeo.

    It (along with the comments about it) are the most privilege-blind thing I have ever ? seen. First, she was spending $2100 a month on rent, which...I mean, you're spending that much on rent (even in NY), you've got better than a craptacular minimum-wage job. Second, she had $50,000 saved up, and she very quickly glosses over the fact that it was primarily a gift from her family (my mom gave me $100 last year and I was so shocked I literally thought I was dreaming) to focus on that it was supplemented by retail income she'd been earning for years (which means she worked a part-time job and had no expenses because her family was paying for everything, so she's doubly privilege-blind). Throughout the article she keeps referring to herself as "normal."

    No, you ? ? , you are NOT "normal." Your family having money does NOT make you "normal" in America, it makes you Really ? Lucky (and also Probably White). We live in a country where the vast majority of wealth is now entrenched wealth, and social mobility barely even exists, and yet these young rich fuckhats have the GALL to act like they weren't born on third base and think they hit a triple? ? you. ? you ? you ? you ? you, and ? anyone who doesn't understand that poor |= lazy.

    This is why I ? hate children of privilege who cannot acknowledge their own privilege. Does being rich or growing up rich make you a bad person? Of course not! But growing up rich and then refusing to acknowledge that your success in life is at least partially (read: mostly) due to EXTREMELY good fortune makes you a ? idiot.

    Admitting that you drew a straight flush when the cards were handed out in life doesn't make you lesser for it. Plenty of people start from that point of success and then actually do something to contribute to society. Many of them also realize that other people weren't so lucky and don't go to the "well, poor people must be poor because IT'S THEIR OWN FAULT" class-privileged horseshit well every time someone mentions that maybe we shouldn't try to take from people who have so little as it is. Anyone who says the words "if you work hard, you WILL be successful in life" makes me want to slam my head in a door until I can't feel feelings any more.

    I just can't with these people any more. I just ? can't. This is what the French aristocracy looked and acted like before the peasants beheaded them all. I'm not saying that's a viable route for us (it isn't), but Jesus, the American wealthy class are the most insufferable ? human beings this side of MRA's and Ravens fans.


    GOATed for his shot at ravens fans...flacco is wack as ?
  • Copper
    Copper Members Posts: 49,532 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    _DUB_ wrote: »
    but the building next to it had a ac hanging out the window, that doesn't scream luxury living

    Plus a scenic view of a posh firescape
  • 7figz
    7figz Members Posts: 15,294 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2013
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    Why didn't that dumb/smart ? buy a house instead?

    In NYC ? 250K wouldn't have cut it. I hate to say it, but relatively speaking (for that market), she probably got a good deal.
  • StillFaggyAF
    StillFaggyAF Members Posts: 40,358 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    ok but where in manhattan?
  • Bussy_Getta
    Bussy_Getta Members Posts: 37,679 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    7figz wrote: »
    Why didn't that dumb/smart ? buy a house instead?

    In NYC ? 250K wouldn't have cut it. I hate to say it, but relatively speaking (for that market), she probably got a good deal.

    She coulda took her ass on somewhere else and lived good doggie.
  • CP203
    CP203 Members Posts: 10,421 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    ? hipster living, lol at Manhattan being prime real estate
  • Recaptimus_Prime360
    Recaptimus_Prime360 Members Posts: 64,801 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    250k for that?? The hefa could've bought a house.
  • Will Munny
    Will Munny Members Posts: 30,199 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I remember bein in this big ass house once at a house party and I remember the girl who's parents owned the house saying "we are a middle class family" ? was ? up like bish no you ain't like the rest of us.
  • B_A
    B_A Members Posts: 2,405 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    that entire condo looks smaller than my kitchen
  • Slim85
    Slim85 Members Posts: 459 ✭✭✭✭
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    has a wonderful view!
  • KingFreeman
    KingFreeman Members Posts: 13,731 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Sion wrote: »
    Congrats but no diss to homegirl in the article I don't see how this is newsworthy. I bought my first condo when I was 19, I seen a lot of young people cop cribs in their early 20s, it's dope but I don't think it's a big deal to where you should land a spot in the paper.

    Got dayum @ the price and size tho, yall think that's crazy ? In Toronto their trying to get you to pay 250k for a bachelors (450-550 sq.ft.) SMMFH x10 just unbelievable. I know NY is on some ? but got dayum. For that price she could have gotten a big ass house, maybe not in NY but other places. I don't know her story or where she work so I can't call it but yeah....

    Cs I bought a 2 bdrm condo at 23. Toronto ? up on that ? .
  • VIBE
    VIBE Members Posts: 54,384 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    $200k ?

    ? , my apartment kitchen is bigger than that ? .
  • bkkbully
    bkkbully Members Posts: 2,221 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    LOL @ paying 250 K for that. ? need to move down south and buy a house with some land...