Lawyer Caught Up in Harlem’s Real Estate Bust
The plight of lawyer Craig Charie helps illustrate the real estate bust that is gripping the gentrifying Harlem neighborhood in New York.
The New York Times focuses on a single block of the neighborhood where developers snapped up town homes with plans to renovate them and sell them for a big profit. The median home price in the area jumped about 150 percent from 2004 to 2007, reaching $1.4 million. Now some homes that went for more than $1 million two years ago are selling for less than half the price, the story says.
Charie bought a property on the block for $750,000 in March 2007 and began to renovate, but about a year later he stopped the work because of fears he wouldn’t be able to sell the home. Now he has listed the property for $599,000.
On another block, Charie bought a town home in 2007 and finished renovations. The property, first priced at $1.695 million, has been on the market since last year. The new price is now $1.3 million.
