BrickUnderground picks for 2014's best, worst, weirdest, and more
While December is unquestionably a time for holiday parties, holiday tipping, and even the occasional holiday open house, it's also a time to reflect on the 12 months past—in particular, the ups and downs of a year in real estate (that is how most people celebrate the new year, right?).
Before we plunge into 2015, we take a look back—in the form of yearbook-style superlatives—at what 2014 had in store for buyers, sellers, and renters:
This is just about the only kind of rat we could live with. (Photo credit: Ludovic Bertron)
THE STRUGGLE
Best way to make a small apartment work: Raise your baby in the bathroom (or the walk-in closet).
Best way to find roommates: Host a late night talk show in your living room with Andrew W.K. and Gilbert Gottfried.
Best new tactic for the bold and broke: Crowdsourcing your rent.
Worst pet: The rat who hung out on an Upper West Side woman's chest while she slept.
Best pet: Any dog worth carrying across the lobby to appease the building's new no-paws-on-the-floor rule.
Least accurate claim: The "world's smartest air conditioner"
Extell Development's One Riverside Park became a lightning rod for controversy because of its separate entrance for low-income renters
UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING
Most popular new affordable-housing perk: the 1 percent maximum rent increase for stabilized apartments.
Least popular new affordable-housing perk: poor doors.
Most likely to drive up prices in Yorkville: the Second Avenue Subway. (If it ever gets finished, anyway.)
Most missed alumni: Southbridge Towers, which voted to remove itself from the Mitchell-Lama program.
Turns out, Upper East Siders aren't dying for extra trash in the neighborhood, i.e. a new waste management station. (Photo credit: angela n.)
THE 'HOODS
Most heavily trend-pieced (but still affordable!) outer-borough 'hood: Ridgewood.
Fake neighborhood name least likely to catch on: Clinton.
Fake borough name least likely to catch on: Quooklyn.
Easiest way to upset an Upper East Sider: Mention the Marine Transfer Station.
Yup, these weird, translucent neighbors definitely make us want to rent here.
THE TRENDS
Best way to convince people not to move to NYC: Taylor Swift's tourism campaign.
Best apartments for college grads (or age-defying trust fund kids): the Murray Hill tenement-turned-luxury building (where one-bedrooms start at $3,000 a month).
Spookiest advertising tactic: "Ghost" people in renderings for new developments.
Spookiest new decor trend: DIY taxidermy
Most coveted accessory of 2015: Smartphone-controlled, noise-canceling earplugs.
Least likely to look back on the '90s fondly: Everyone who's getting sick of their downtown lofts.
Thanks to the guy who snuck into Gramercy Park and uploaded the shots (Photo credit: Google Maps)
THE SKETCH FACTOR
Most flagrantly criminal landlord: The guy who allegedly tried to burn down his building—with the tenants inside—to sell off the land.
Most flagrantly criminal broker: The guy who allegedly burglarized his own clients.
Most flagrantly criminal residents: Most Airbnb hosts.
Best illegal use of Airbnb: The guy who got rare Gramercy Park pics up on Google Earth.
Most flagrantly criminal house pet: Ferrets.
Related:
BrickUnderground finds: your apartment must-haves of 2014
Tipping the building staff: BrickUnderground's 2014 guide
Party etiquette 101: making nice with the neighbors, noise control, and more
