New York values: Even for pieds-à-terre, buyers keeping it local

Sure, a second home in London or San Francisco is a rather nice touch. But some well-heeled buyers are opting to escape from it all without ever leaving it all.

Buyers are purchasing pieds-à-terre within their own city or metropolitan area, citing the chance to taste a different neighborhood without giving up the convenience of being close to home and work.

“Different neighborhoods have different experiences,” CORE’s Shaun Osher, who has several clients with more than one home in New York, told the Wall Street Journal. “If you walk on the street in the West Village, it’s like a different world to the Upper East Side.”

Brokers told the Journal of several other advantages, such as the ability to travel without spending weekends in traffic, and the chance to invest in up-and-coming neighborhoods.

When deciding to buy a second pad, Gramercy Park residents Sue and Alan Ravitz chose a one-bedroom on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

“We don’t have a 2½-hour drive in traffic, and it feels completely different,” Sue Ravitz told the newspaper. [WSJ] — Hiten Samtani