I don't think that rent stabilization is actually the main factor that makes market rate rent in NYC so insane.

Yeah, but, unless you do have something rent stabilized, I would think the incentive to buy in the city would be high since rents are generally high and property taxes are relatively low.

WTF? Ready for take-off, Tiddles? Meet the cats which have sprouted wings

The cute little devils began sprouting bumps on their backs, which later turned into wing-like growths, during a recent spell of hot weather in China's Sichuan province.

One cat owner, known only as Feng, claims her cat's wings are a result of stress after he was 'harassed' by females looking to mate.

'At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings,' she told Huashang News.

'Many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow.'

And while she says her lovable Tom is no devil, his wings, which contain bones, make him look more like a 'cat angel'.

But genetic experts claim there is nothing angelic or magical about the condition, which doesn't hinder the cat's quality of life.

They say the wings can form through poor grooming, a genetic defect or a hereditary skin condition.

This doesn't make sense to me. Also, it's hard to tell from the photos what the "wings" are like....

unless you do have something rent stabilized, I would think the incentive to buy in the city would be high since rents are generally high and property taxes are relatively low.

Assuming you can afford the downpayment, yes. This was us when we bought - rents were skyrocketing and we wanted more stability because we were about to have a baby. (Maybe in a market where landlords are less skeezy than in NYC we wouldn't have worried, but the peace of mind knowing that I can't be kicked out of my home with 30 days notice because my landlord is having a bad day? Worth. Every. Penny.)

My point is that the rent I pay is below-market, and held there by stabilization.

Which I would have REALIZED had I noticed that the post was by Jesse and not Jessica. D'oh!

This is what I get for reading to fast. Duh.

Assuming you can afford the downpayment, yes.

Yes, I meant as compared to CA, where the property tax structure serves as a complete disincentive to new homebuyers.

I meant as compared to CA, where the property tax structure serves as a complete disincentive to new homebuyers.

Ah, gotcha.

Which I would have REALIZED had I noticed that the post was by Jesse and not Jessica. D'oh!

Pssst, Trudy, Jesse's the cowgirl.

But it all depends on the timing and where you are--in the past few years, the market was so crazy, in a lot of cities you could rent an apartment for CONSIDERABLY less than the monthly mortgage price on a condo. And everyone was like "Yes but then you OWN it! And the market will never go down! And it'll be worth buckets of money!" And...not so much, these days. For some people yes. For others, no. It just all depended. But I'm just as happy that I was renting, and paying $1K a month, for an apartment that some of the people in my (condo) building were paying easily twice that in a mortgage. Sure, I was "throwing it away" and they have "equity", but when I lost my job and wanted to move, I didn't have to worry about market timing meaning that my "equity" was suddenly underwater...

Even including our coop maintenance fee, we're paying less for housing now (with a mortgage) than we were renting 2 years ago.

For us rent vs buy was strongly influenced by the fact that we couldn't rent the equivalent for the same amt as our mortgage. We'd either need to move to an entirely different area or we'd need to significantly downsize or both. But in general I'd say that rent vs own needs to be decided on an individual basis. I do worry sometimes that having virtually all our equity in our home = not having equity.

Also?

I went to California when I was in my old house. I mentioned in a conversation that it was a 3BR house I bought for $45,000 and I think some locals almost went into shock.

Not shock, just tears.

Do those people still have those accounts, and if so, with whom and how has that worked?

Don't know if I'm one of those people, but I have an ING savings account. It's great, although the interest's been going down recently.