The Hunt
Pandemic-Era Newlyweds Consider an Age-Old Question: To Buy or Not to Buy?
With their lease on a Lower East Side apartment expiring, two software engineers wondered if buying made more sense than renting, now that the housing market wasn’t quite so frenzied. Here’s what they found.
Kathleen Li and Matthew Molnar met online in September 2019, and before they knew it, they were pandemic sweethearts.
“Otherwise, I don’t know that I would have seen another living soul during the first year of the pandemic,” said Ms. Li, 36, who grew up in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and moved to the city in 2010 for a job at Google, where she works as a software engineer.
Three years later, she and Mr. Molnar, also a software engineer, became pandemic-era newlyweds. And in late 2023, as their lease on a small Lower East Side two-bedroom was about to expire, they considered the age-old question: Was it better to buy or to go on renting?
As they perused Zillow, the numbers came together quickly. They saw apartments listed for not much more than they had sold for 10 or 15 years earlier. Some sellers were even dropping their prices to lure buyers after the feeding frenzy during the early years of the pandemic.
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“The stock market was doing fairly well, and we had some investments that we could utilize,” said Mr. Molnar, 39, who grew up in Ohio and bought a house there before moving to New York for a job in 2017. The house, which he kept, was generating rental income.
Almost immediately, a spacious Flatiron loft caught Ms. Li’s eye. “The renovation was really beautiful,” she said.
When the couple asked to see it, Zillow matched them with Eric Zollinger, an associate broker at Elegran Forbes Global Properties, and the three instantly clicked.
“They were by far the best buyers I’ve ever worked with,” Mr. Zollinger said, adding that the pair did their homework and came to every showing with a positive attitude and an open mind. “It was the easiest deal from start to finish, mainly because they did everything I asked them to.”
The couple set a budget of $1.7 million, and their wish list included enough space to start a family, the need for only minimal renovations and minimal noise. With both doing hybrid remote work, they wanted home-office spaces and the shortest possible commutes to her office in Chelsea and the co-working sites used by his employer, Button.
Among their options:
No. 1
Flatiron Loft
This two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,600-square-foot loft had an open floor plan and a kitchen with marble countertops, funky industrial light fixtures and a breakfast bar. The bathrooms were big, and one had a claw-foot tub. There was a home-office nook and ample closet space. The apartment was at the back of the building, so it didn’t get much sun, but it was cool and quiet, and had a new central air-conditioning system. And the 1905 building was close to several subway lines and Google’s headquarters. The asking price was $1.695 million, with monthly maintenance of about $3,300.
No. 2
Garment District Co-op
This 2,000-square-foot co-op was in an updated 1910 building in the garment district. The railroad-style apartment had its original wood windows and open living, office, dining and kitchen spaces in the front; two bedrooms, two bathrooms (one recently renovated) and a home-office space (or possible third bedroom) were in the back. There were multiple subways nearby, and the building was within walking distance of Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. The asking price was $1.695 million, with monthly maintenance of about $2,900.
No. 3
Kips Bay Co-op
This renovated 1,600-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom co-op had a tiled foyer, a large living-and-dining area, a bonus space that could be used as an office or bedroom, ample storage and heated bathroom floors. The updated kitchen had Caesarstone countertops, a breakfast bar and a pantry. The postwar building was a 10-minute walk from the subway, and several rooms were painted very bright colors, but the views from the bedrooms made up for that. The asking price was $1.795 million, with monthly maintenance of about $3,230.
Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:
Which Would You Choose?
Flatiron Loft
Garment District Co-op
Kips Bay Co-op
Which Did They Buy?
Flatiron Loft
Garment District Co-op
Kips Bay Co-op