Tim Geithner, Unable to Sell House and Just a Smidge Colorblind Too

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Most of us know by now that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is famously having trouble selling his own damn house out in Westchester County, which he bought for $1.6 million in 2004 and is trying to unload for a slightly higher price now. The Daily Show picked up on this in the hilarious clip above, which features Case-Shiller's Robert Shiller helping the Timster pick out new bathroom tiles among other wonders.

Dosvidanya! Gary Shteyngart's LES 1BR Finally Goes Into Contract

After sitting on the market for more than three months and seeing just a single 6% price decline, The Russian Debutante's Handbook author Gary Shteyngart's LES 1 BR fell into contract today. The apartment (#E607 at 575 Grand Street), which we visited and reviewed back in April was most recently priced at $425,000 and was called a 'good deal' by the New York Times last month.

Ah, well - spasiba Gary, nam ochen panravilas vasha kvartira (good luck dude, we liked your digs).

As if the Meatpacking District Wasn't Gross Enough...Mickey Rourke Moves In To 400 West 14th Street

The neighborhood that brought you touristy Gansevoort Hotel, overpriced Pastis and too cool for you Kiss 'N Fly is now adding another legend to its repertoire...the venerable Mickey Rourke.

Although his exact address is not revealed in this WSJ article, we did a little poking around and figured out that the Wrestler will be residing at 400 West 14th Street, which is an all-rental building (we think) on the corner of 8th and 14th.

Check out the pics of the pad above from the Elliman listing - pretty sweeeeet - although what? No outdoor space? Guess he'll just have to go to Gansevoort...

New York Times, Is Gary Shteyngart's Apartment Really a "Good Deal" ?

We read with curiosity today the headline article from the New York Times Real Estate Section advising readers on "How to Spot a Good Deal". Although the article is certainly umm...sorry! simplistic (basing whether an apartment is a good deal primarily on average asking prices in the neighborhood and ignoring oh say, comps from prior years), it does advocate the position that The Russian Debutante's Handbook author Gary Shteyngart's co-op village 1 bedroom is a "Good Deal". Is it?

When we saw this unit back in April (it's #E607 at 575 Grand Street, the East Village Co-op Building), we thought it was an "ok" deal. Priced at just $425,000 for 800 sq ft (not including a good-sized balcony), the well-maintained unit certainly seems reasonably priced, especially when compared with similar units on sale at any of the four Co-op Village buildings and certainly when compared with the rest of lower Manhattan. If you poke around a little though, you may notice that Gary purchased his 1BR unit in 2004 for just $350,000, a price that does not seem unreasonable today given that housing prices on average in the US are at mid-2003 levels. Add to that the recent discussion on Streeteasy regarding the impending financial problems at the Co-op Village boards, including the recent decision to raise the "rental tax" (the amount apartment owners must pay to the board if they sublet their units), to a shocking 150% of maintenance per month. Still a deal? Looks less so, no?

Sonia Sotomayor's Apartment at 3 Bedford St. #5B - 999 sq ft

In a cool post on a blog devoted to Manhattan Kids (cute, but why are you guys following Sonia Sotomayor around?), we discovered that the future Supreme Court justice and former Bronx dweller, owns her own pad at 3 Bedford St, #5B, a tiny 12 unit condo building riiiiight on the border between the West Village and the Central Village. Judge Sotomayor bought the 999 sq ft apartment back in 1998 for the choke on our milk price of $360,000. Although the judge has paid off her original mortgage of $324,000, freeing her up to sell at a huge profit (a similar unit sold in that building for $1.2 million in 2006) and move on out to DC, for some reason the judge has been mortgaging her apartment repeatedly since 2007 and now looks to be carrying a fresh $533k in loans on #5B.

According to Streeteasy, there are no units currently on the market at 3 Bedford Street (we guess the judge isn't counting her chickens yet) and there have only been three sales in the building (two of them for the same unit) since 2004. There is one apartment for rent at 3 Bedford, a $1750 per month the living room is a walk-in closet"3 room railroad" apartment, however we're thinking that Judge Sotomayor is in a different unit.

If Tom Colicchio lives in a parquet floor rental with a tiny kitchen and a spiral staircase, how are we ever going to afford to buy in Manhattan?

We were really surprised today by this article in the New York Times magazine which profiles (among other things) the rental apartment of our favorite underseasoned chef extraordinaire Tom Colicchio.

It turns out that the Top Chef host and overpriced Craft founder lives in some sort of spiral staircase, parquet floor duplex because he "can't afford to buy the space and the view" that he can rent. Are you kidding us? In addition to wishing that he would run off with Padma Lakshmi already, we kind of hoped that at least this guy could afford a gourmet kitchen.

How Absurd(istan)! Does Gary Need to Sell Fast?

In a plot twist reminiscent of the venerable Absurdistan, we were surpised to see that New York Times' bestselling author Gary Shteyngart has lowered the asking price of his Lower East Side 1 BR just two weeks after listing the apartment. Click here for our take on his apartment.

The 800 sq ft apartment, located in the Communist abode of Coop Village, can now be had for a mere $425,000 (or 6% less than the early April ask).

Let's Go See the "Mystery Writer" Apartment!

We were so intrigued by this Curbed article commenting on the listing of Gary Shteyngart's LES apartment that we decided to pop by the New York Times' bestselling author's 1BR located in the Soviet-esque co-op wonderland on the East River about which we have always been curious.

In addition to Gary's apartment, we ended up seeing several 1BRs in this complex, which is actually a Moscow suburb three separate co-op communities . There is the "East River" Coop (close to...well, you get it folks), the Hillman Coop (which is sliiiightly further west), and the much better located Seward community which is priced higher but is somewhat closer to hipster-filled laundromats the subway. Overall, these coop apartments are all attractively priced (listings currently run at around $621 per sq ft but many are priced lower) albeit the apartments themselves are not particularly attractive. Although we did see a couple of renovated units, most units needed a major overhaul (including some really simple basics like cleaning the windows), new floors and appliance updates.

Still, we couldn't help but be drawn into the Cold War aura of these enormous stark buildings and can imagine how the area (maybe in the winter? maybe with fur?) can make you feel part of the landscape of the charming Russian Debutante's Handbook or the wild ride that is Absurdistan.

As far as Gary's actual 1BR, it's quite well-maintained and spartan (duh) although we did enjoy some well-placed Soviet irony such as the picture in the kitchen of a Communist building exterior and a cosmonaut (what?) candy bar.

We also loved peeking into the reading life of Gary Shteyngart (one entire wall of the living room is taken up by books) and are pleased to note that he loves Absurdistan as much as we do, having approximately 10 copies of just that title on his shelves (see the porntastic, "we're just checking our email and not taking photos on our Blackberry" image above). Unfortunately, we were shooed away by the agent before we could find "R" for Russian Debutante's Handbook, but we know it's there somewhere in every language too.