爱猫的人，运气不会太差

Wanted: A View, Preferably of Birds

爱猫的人，运气不会太差

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)作为佩斯大学(Pace University)的一名学生，搬到了纽约市生活。她在别处租住过几套公寓，之后便搬到了格林威治村(Greenwich Village)的中心地带。

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(约合30平方米)的单间公寓里有一座燃木壁炉，但没有可用的壁橱。而且盥洗池太小了，以至于“每次我清洗烤饼干的托盘，都会把自己弄得浑身是水。”克林伯格说。

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从2001年的每月大约1250美元(约合人民币7723元)，涨到了现在的每月大约2000美元(约合人民币12357 元)。租金上涨的一个原因，是有重大设施改良建设，又称MCI(major capital improvement)，“我曾经抗议过，因为他们是把锅炉换了，”克林伯格说。尽管她很清楚，该州的法律是允许在这种情况下涨租的，但她始终认为热水是一项必备设施，而算不得什么改良。

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

“可那不应该是租户背上的十字架，”她说。

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

尽管换了新的锅炉，但把热水烧开仍然要花很长时间，如果真的要烧开的话。

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岁的克林伯格来自长岛(Long Island)，她很想买一个属于自己的住处，她的母亲也很愿意帮她交首付款。

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.

克林伯格决定在战前无电梯的合作公寓楼里买一套房子。她曾听说，在飓风桑迪肆虐期间，一些高层公寓里的马桶无法冲水。“我觉得，要在一个僵尸横行的末世中生存下来的话，住在一栋战前公寓里会更好。”她说。

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.”

她的家里还应该有些窗景可看，这样她的猫雅斯佩尔(Jasper)就可以观察外面的世界了。“要是万不得已的话，即使面对一堵砖墙我也能过得下去，但我不会让自己的猫这样凑合，”她说，“猫的快乐比我重要。”

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，这位佩斯大学的网页开发工程师开始找房子，预算是30多万美元(约合人民币185万元)。经过大约两年的时间，“我们看到市场发生了变化，” 柯克兰集团(Corcoran Group)的安德鲁·马普(Andrew Mapp)说，他是克林伯格的经纪人，同时也是她们全家的朋友，“我们最终把预算定在了40万美元(约合人民币247万元)。”

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.

她的母亲让她去上东区找房，因为她觉得第二大道的地铁线完工之后，那里的房产会升值。但克林伯格觉得那个社区乏善可陈。人们告诉她，如果她不喜欢那里，可以十年后再卖掉。“但我不想住在一套自己不喜欢的公寓里，”她说。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单间公寓，位于东14街的较远段，在一排六栋连体的漂亮五层公寓楼中。令她感到困惑的是，该房源的介绍上称，这条横贯市区、车水马龙的大道是条“宽敞、安静、绿树成荫的街道”。那套位于顶层的公寓带一扇天窗。该房源的市场售价为36.5万美元(约合人民币 226万元)，每月的维护费用接近600美元(约合人民币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.)

公寓内的地板已经脱皮。克林伯格出价33万美元(约合人民币204万元)。“他们着实被羞辱了，”她说(后来这处房产以要价售出)。

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.

她特别喜欢位于西40街较远段的一套单卧室合作公寓。该房产的售价是40万美元(约合人民币247万元)，每月维护费用为300多美元(约合人民币1854元);单住户家庭的收入上限为66600美元(约合人民币41万元)。

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.

这套公寓面对着一座后花园，而且屋内还有一座尚可使用的壁炉，这在她要寻找的那类公寓中并不多见。她按户主要价报了价，但这套公寓被以同样的价格卖给了其他人，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.

那并不是唯一一套让她输给另一位“经济实力较强”买家的收入限制型合作公寓，她说。“一套保障型公寓却被卖给了最有钱的买家，真是遗憾——这完全背离了当初设限的初衷”，也就是帮助那些中等收入的工薪阶层。

“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.”

“我得耐着性子，因为我要买的房子可能就是自己要度过余生的地方，”她说，“当然，我的大半生可能都要用来清偿这笔房贷了。”

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阳光灿烂的基普湾(Kips Bay)单间公寓，那里面对着一条安静的街道，市场售价为32.8万美元(约合人民币203万元)，维护费用是600多美元(约合人民币3707元)出头。她给出了要价，但另一位买家被选上了。她没有太介意，因为她更喜欢曼哈顿西区(West Side)。大多数时候都在西区活动，包括纽约市巴顿术俱乐部(Bartitsu Club)的聚会，那群人都热衷维多利亚时期的搏击术。

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

房价还在攀升，“所以我开始慌了，”克林伯格说，“我很有可能会仓促做出决定，因为悬而未决的状态太令人不安了。”

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.

后来，基普湾那套公寓的经纪人又联系了她，因为之前那笔交易失败了。“几星期的功夫，忽然有两位卖家都愿意卖房给我了，这感觉有点奇怪，”她说。那时候，她已经在西50街较远处的一栋自行管理、有20套单元的合作公寓楼里，找到了一套单卧室公寓。

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.

这套房的价格从43.9万美元(约合人民币271万元)降到了39.9万美元(约合人民币247万元)，每月维护费大约300美元(约合人民币 1854元)。此处公寓要求购房者的收入不超过9.6万美元(约合人民币59万元)。公寓的整体状况不错，有几扇特别好的“猫咪观景窗”，可以俯瞰一棵大树，还能看见一个小鸟喂食器，有位邻居总是给里面装满板油。

“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.”

“他们的活儿干得挺漂亮，把一套原来的旧出租房变成了一套现代风格、适宜居住的公寓，”克林伯格说，“原来的股东们都记得，那个浴室一度设在走廊里。”