1) People are now investing in second and third condos in their own buildings, either renting them out or trying to flip them. It's simpler than the stock market and there are other benefits to owning two apartments as well—one lady originally bought a second condo in the Sheffield because she needed somewhere to keep her grand piano. Eventually "she found that the arrangement wasn’t quite as convenient as she had anticipated" and started renting the condo out. There's no mention of what happened to the piano. ['The Investor Next Door']
2) Speaking of real estate investors, the townhouse at 163 East 63rd Street that belonged to financier/real estate developer Disque D. Dean, who died in 2010, recently went on the market for $20 million. The 11,000-square-foot house was originally built in 1919 for clothier Maurice Brill, who also owned the Brill Building, and in the 1950s it was bought and redesigned by John Hay Whitney, an ambassador to Britain and owner of The New York Herald Tribune. A lot of the details that Whitney brought to the house still remain. ['A Lot of History for Just One House']
3) Blake, the guy from this week's hunt couple, probably wouldn't be have been that into the Disque Dean townhouse—he was looking for something modern. His wife, Robin, on the other hand, wanted a quaint prewar building, so they settled on something modern, in Long Island City. Robin had something of a change of heart, saying things like, "if we are going to go luxury, we might as well have heated floors." In the end they seemed happy about their new apartment, but a little upset about the cost of washing their toddler's "huge wardrobe." ['The Hunt/'Enter the Contentment Factor']