愛貓的人，運氣不會太差

Wanted: A View, Preferably of Birds

愛貓的人，運氣不會太差

In 1991, Rachel Klingberg moved to New York as a Pace University student. After a few rental apartments elsewhere, she landed in the heart of Greenwich Village.

1991年，瑞秋·克林伯格(Rachel Klingberg)作為佩斯大學(Pace University)的一名學生，搬到了紐約市生活。她在別處租住過幾套公寓，之后便搬到了格林威治村(Greenwich Village)的中心地帶。

Her 325-square-foot studio had a wood-burning fireplace but no real closet, and a sink so small that “every time I washed a cookie sheet, I would be drenched,” Ms. Klingberg said.

她那套325平方英尺(約合30平方米)的單間公寓里有一座燃木壁爐，但沒有可用的壁櫥。而且盥洗池太小了，以至于“每次我清洗烤餅干的托盤，都會把自己弄得渾身是水。”克林伯格說。

Her stabilized rent rose from around $1,250 a month in 2001 to almost $2,000. One increase had been for a major capital improvement, or M.C.I., “which I protested because they replaced the boiler,” Ms. Klingberg said. She maintained that hot water was a necessity, not an improvement, even though she knew that state law permits such an increase.

她所需支付的管控租金從2001年的每月大約1250美元(約合人民幣7723元)，漲到了現(xiàn)在的每月大約2000美元(約合人民幣12357 元)。租金上漲的一個原因，是有重大設施改良建設，又稱MCI(major capital improvement)，“我曾經(jīng)抗議過，因為他們是把鍋爐換了，”克林伯格說。盡管她很清楚，該州的法律是允許在這種情況下漲租的，但她始終認為熱水是一項必備設施，而算不得什么改良。

“That is not a cross that should be borne by the tenants,” she said.

“可那不應該是租戶背上的十字架，”她說。

New boiler notwithstanding, it took many minutes for the hot water to heat up, if it heated up at all.

盡管換了新的鍋爐，但把熱水燒開仍然要花很長時間，如果真的要燒開的話。

Ms. Klingberg, 42, who is from Long Island, was eager to buy a place, and her mother was in a position to give her the down payment.

今年42歲的克林伯格來自長島(Long Island)，她很想買一個屬于自己的住處，她的母親也很愿意幫她交首付款。

Ms. Klingberg was determined to buy in a prewar walk-up co-op building. She had heard that during Hurricane Sandy, toilets in some high-rises did not flush. “I felt, to survive the zombie apocalypse, a prewar building is better,” she said.

克林伯格決定在戰(zhàn)前無電梯的合作公寓樓里買一套房子。她曾聽說，在颶風桑迪肆虐期間，一些高層公寓里的馬桶無法沖水。“我覺得，要在一個僵尸橫行的末世中生存下來的話，住在一棟戰(zhàn)前公寓里會更好。”她說。

Her home would also need to have a view, so that her cat, Jasper, could watch the activity outside. “I could live with facing a brick wall if I had to, but I wouldn’t put my cat through that,” she said. “My cat’s happiness is important to me.”

她的家里還應該有些窗景可看，這樣她的貓雅斯佩爾(Jasper)就可以觀察外面的世界了。“要是萬不得已的話，即使面對一堵磚墻我也能過得下去，但我不會讓自己的貓這樣湊合，”她說，“貓的快樂比我重要。”

Ms. Klingberg, who is a web developer at Pace, began with a budget in the low $300,000s. Over nearly two years, “we saw the market change,” said her agent, Andrew Mapp of the Corcoran Group, a family friend. “We ended up at $400,000.”

于是，這位佩斯大學的網(wǎng)頁開發(fā)工程師開始找房子，預算是30多萬美元(約合人民幣185萬元)。經(jīng)過大約兩年的時間，“我們看到市場發(fā)生了變化，” 柯克蘭集團(Corcoran Group)的安德魯·馬普(Andrew Mapp)說，他是克林伯格的經(jīng)紀人，同時也是她們全家的朋友，“我們最終把預算定在了40萬美元(約合人民幣247萬元)。”

Her mother steered her toward the Upper East Side, believing property values there would rise upon completion of the Second Avenue subway. But Ms. Klingberg found the neighborhood unexciting. People told her that if she didn’t like it, she could sell in 10 years. “But I didn’t want to live in an apartment I don’t like,” she said. Nor did she want to hunt again in 10 years.

她的母親讓她去上東區(qū)找房，因為她覺得第二大道的地鐵線完工之后，那里的房產(chǎn)會升值。但克林伯格覺得那個社區(qū)乏善可陳。人們告訴她，如果她不喜歡那里，可以十年后再賣掉。“但我不想住在一套自己不喜歡的公寓里，”她說。她也不想十年后再去找房子。

Last spring, she visited a large studio, formerly a one-bedroom, on far East 14th Street, in a pretty row of six five-story attached houses. She was bemused that the listing called the busy crosstown thoroughfare a “wide, quiet, tree-lined street.” The top-floor unit had a skylight. It was listed at $365,000, with monthly maintenance in the high $500s.

去年春天，她去看了一套以前曾是一居室的大單間公寓，位于東14街的較遠段，在一排六棟連體的漂亮五層公寓樓中。令她感到困惑的是，該房源的介紹上稱，這條橫貫市區(qū)、車水馬龍的大道是條“寬敞、安靜、綠樹成蔭的街道”。那套位于頂層的公寓帶一扇天窗。該房源的市場售價為36.5萬美元(約合人民幣 226萬元)，每月的維護費用接近600美元(約合人民幣3707元)。

The floors were peeling. Ms. Klingberg offered $330,000. “They were actually insulted,” she said. (The place later sold for the asking price.)

公寓內的地板已經(jīng)脫皮。克林伯格出價33萬美元(約合人民幣204萬元)。“他們著實被羞辱了，”她說(后來這處房產(chǎn)以要價售出)。

She especially liked a one-bedroom co-op in the far West 40s. The price was $400,000, with monthly maintenance in the low $300s; income for a one-person household was capped at $66,600.

她特別喜歡位于西40街較遠段的一套單臥室合作公寓。該房產(chǎn)的售價是40萬美元(約合人民幣247萬元)，每月維護費用為300多美元(約合人民幣1854元);單住戶家庭的收入上限為66600美元(約合人民幣41萬元)。

The apartment faced a back garden and had a working fireplace, which was not uncommon in the type of apartment she was seeking. She offered the asking price, but was disappointed when the apartment was sold at that price to someone else.

這套公寓面對著一座后花園，而且屋內還有一座尚可使用的壁爐，這在她要尋找的那類公寓中并不多見。她按戶主要價報了價，但這套公寓被以同樣的價格賣給了其他人，令她非常失望。

That wasn’t the only income-restricted co-op she lost to a buyer with “stronger financials,” she said. “What a shame for affordable housing to be sold to the richest buyer — the exact opposite of its purported goal” of helping middle-income earners.

那并不是唯一一套讓她輸給另一位“經(jīng)濟實力較強”買家的收入限制型合作公寓，她說。“一套保障型公寓卻被賣給了最有錢的買家，真是遺憾——這完全背離了當初設限的初衷”，也就是幫助那些中等收入的工薪階層。

“I mustered my patience because it may be the home in which I spend the rest of my life,” she said. “Certainly most of my life will be spent paying it off.”

“我得耐著性子，因為我要買的房子可能就是自己要度過余生的地方，”她說，“當然，我的大半生可能都要用來清償這筆房貸了。”

Ms. Klingberg soon came upon a sunny Kips Bay studio, facing a quiet street, listed for $328,000, with maintenance in the low $600s. She bid the asking price, but another buyer was chosen. She didn’t much mind, because she preferred the West Side, where most of her activities take place, including meetings of the Bartitsu Club of New York City, devoted to Victorian martial arts.

克林伯格很快遇到一套陽光燦爛的基普灣(Kips Bay)單間公寓，那里面對著一條安靜的街道，市場售價為32.8萬美元(約合人民幣203萬元)，維護費用是600多美元(約合人民幣3707元)出頭。她給出了要價，但另一位買家被選上了。她沒有太介意，因為她更喜歡曼哈頓西區(qū)(West Side)。大多數(shù)時候都在西區(qū)活動，包括紐約市巴頓術俱樂部(Bartitsu Club)的聚會，那群人都熱衷維多利亞時期的搏擊術。

Prices were climbing “and I was feeling panicked,” Ms. Klingberg said, “like I might make a rash decision because indecision was so unsettling.”

房價還在攀升，“所以我開始慌了，”克林伯格說，“我很有可能會倉促做出決定，因為懸而未決的狀態(tài)太令人不安了。”

Later, the agent for the Kips Bay place contacted her because the sale had fallen through. “It was weird that, in a matter of weeks, two sellers were willing to sell to me,” she said. By then she had found a one-bedroom in a 20-unit self-managed co-op building in the far West 50s.

后來，基普灣那套公寓的經(jīng)紀人又聯(lián)系了她，因為之前那筆交易失敗了。“幾星期的功夫，忽然有兩位賣家都愿意賣房給我了，這感覺有點奇怪，”她說。那時候，她已經(jīng)在西50街較遠處的一棟自行管理、有20套單元的合作公寓樓里，找到了一套單臥室公寓。

The price had been lowered to $399,000 from $439,000, with a maintenance fee of around $300 a month. The apartment had an income cap of $96,000. It was in great condition, with “perfect cat windows” overlooking a big tree and a bird feeder that a neighbor kept stocked with suet.

這套房的價格從43.9萬美元(約合人民幣271萬元)降到了39.9萬美元(約合人民幣247萬元)，每月維護費大約300美元(約合人民幣 1854元)。此處公寓要求購房者的收入不超過9.6萬美元(約合人民幣59萬元)。公寓的整體狀況不錯，有幾扇特別好的“貓咪觀景窗”，可以俯瞰一棵大樹，還能看見一個小鳥喂食器，有位鄰居總是給里面裝滿板油。

“They did a nice job making what was once an old tenement into a modern, livable apartment,” Ms. Klingberg said. “The original shareholders remember when the bathrooms were in the hall.”

“他們的活兒干得挺漂亮，把一套原來的舊出租房變成了一套現(xiàn)代風格、適宜居住的公寓，”克林伯格說，“原來的股東們都記得，那個浴室一度設在走廊里。”