Homeowners who bought in 2007 should be celebrating, not crying over spilled milk

Condo and co-op sales (source: Prudential Douglas Elliman via the Real Deal)

Note: With my break drawing to a close, alas, normal frequency of posts resumes Monday.

Let’s say you bought a new home five years ago, a year before Manhattan’s residential market nosedived.

And let’s assume you coughed up $1 million for the privilege of living in your modest 870-sf apartment with two small bedrooms plus one and a half baths on the Upper West Side.

The third set of assumptions might be monthly mortgage payments of $3,500, maintenance of $1,400 and other ownership expenses such as insurance and maintenance of $100 a month.

Do you wish that you had waited until now to have made the purchase?

If you are like many other former homebuyers,

Out and About: You can’t always get what you want

Staged living room of a mid-level apartment at 535 West End Avenue.

Brokers are no different from you in an important way.  Given the opportunity to view exceptionally costly properties, especially when lunch is served on a broker tour, they’re bound to show up.

I was one of those brokers yesterday, when open houses were held for several units at 535 West End Avenue,