RENTER'S INSURANCE: Don't Stay Home Without it!

Just because you don't own your NYC apartment, doesn't mean it will be any less expensive if you damage everything - or anyone - inside it. And you can wish upon a star that you will never need renter's insurance, but if something happens and you don't have it, you will be really, really sad and possibly broke and homeless. It's just not worth not having.


So why don't some renters insure their NYC apartment the minute after they sign the lease? Here are four common fantasies that keep many renters from getting the coverage they need:


1) My Fairy God-Landlord's looking out for me! No, your Fairy God-Landlord is looking out for his/her building - not you, not your property. If fire guts your NYC apartment, your landlord will replace walls, floors, and any large fixtures and appliances that came in the original lease agreement, but that's it. Your computer, your clothes, your furniture? Renter's insurance will replace them with new stuff!


And if you can't live in your apartment while repairs are being made, most renter's insurance policies offer an allowance for alternate living arrangements, like a hotel.


2) I don't have enough gold to pay the insurance trolls! Renter's insurance varies according to where you live and what you want and need covered, but for the most part, it's surprisingly cheap. If you can afford an NYC apartment rental but not can't afford $15 to $40 a month for insurance? You're living waaaay to close to the bone...


3) My building, neighbors and neighborhood are all charmed, how can I not live in my NYC apartment happily ever after? Too bad there's a wicked world just beyond your doorstep, Bubble Baby, and you and your property will have to venture out there sometime! Renter's insurance can cover you if your property gets stolen or damaged while temporarily outside your apartment, like in your car or a delivery truck.


And what if evil from the outside world in the form of a litigious jerk slips in your apartment bathroom, breaks his ankle, and wants you to pay? Renter's insurance will cover the jerk's medical expenses.


4) My stuff is crap. Really, it's crap... OK, so when you leave the tub on and all you're your crappy stuff in your NYC apartment turns to paste, you're not exactly heartbroken. But you will be when you find out the water leaked destroyed the faaar less crappy belongings of your downstairs neighbor! Yep, you're on the hook for it. Renter's insurance can replace not only your crap with new stuff, but you neighbor's nice stuff with new nice stuff as well.


And EVERYONE lives happily ever after...


4 Myths About Renter's Insurance [msn.com]

Stars: Swinging, Spanking, and Pleasingly Pinched

NYC real-estate insiders say that "the incredible amount [Alex Rodriguez] is offering" on a four-bedroom luxury apartment for sale in 15 Central may be waaay high and outside. But with Madonna's condo only two blocks away, he may be swinging for a homerun. [NYP]

Last week the cast and crew of the CW11's hit show, Gossip Girl descended upon a home in Prospect Park South to shoot as scene in which Serena and Blair are having a fight - in the Hamptons! Yep, and believe it or not, this Queens home makes a pretty convincing Hampton home, especially when the director was overheard barking, "Spank her again!" [FlatbushVegan]

The ultra-proper River House on West 87th at one time rejected actress Diane Keaton's application for one of their luxury NYC apartments because her relationship with Woody Allen was considered unseemly. In the visage of Renee Zellweger, however, River House must be as pleased to find a neighbor as pinched as they are puckered, since they have just approved her purchase of a third luxury apartment in the building. [yippi.com]

It's hard to say if Hollywood partners in Goth, Sweeny Todd's director Tim Burton and co-star Helena Bonham Carter, decided to sell their two, combinable NYC apartments in 1 Fifth Avenue when they heard Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell's next novel would be called One Fifth Avenue. But it's even harder to picture Carter in flouncy pink dresses and Burton being emotionally unavailable. [NYP]

Maybe Rodney Dangerfield "can't get no respect", but his spacious NYC luxury can get no buyer after two price cuts and over 10 months on the market. [NYMag]

If You Lived In New York City, You'd Be Thinner By Now!

Sure, New York City apartments are expensive, but so's your fuel-ravenous, insurance-sucking, malfunction-prone auto and the hours you waste stuck in traffic finger-miming threats of bustin' caps and throat-slitting to your fellow commuters. And if you moved to an NYC apartment or condo, believe me, you'd get used to the convenience, safety, reduced expense of living "car-lite" right quick.

You know what else is expensive about not living in a NYC apartment? The membership fees to that gym you don't go to because you just can't justify the gas expense and rebuilding the living room wall that firefighters will have to knock down so the forklift can take you to the hospital. And then there's the forklift driver's tip, of course. Heck, even an NYC luxury apartment looks like a bargain if this is what living in a state shaded red on the CDC's obesity map costs in health, dignity, and cash.

The Center for Disease Control [CDC] reports that 66% of all Americans overweight or obese, while only 56% of New Yorkers are. And no, that average wasn't taken during fashion week when New York City's population "swells" with models so thin there's no medical reason why they should be alive. So then what are the magical dietetic properties of living in the Big Apple? New Yorkers walk the walk.

According to Walkscore.com - a website that rates cities, neighborhoods, and even individual street addresses on a scale of 1-100 based on how easily routine destinations can be reached on foot - New York City is the second most "walkable" city in the US after San Francisco (but we're coming for you, SF!). Without having to rely on cars - indeed, most Gothamites don't even bother to own one - the car-lite or car-free lifestyle of NYC apartment dwellers is not only healthier and more cost effective, WalkScore also highlights how walking benefits our environment, our social capital, and strengthens local businesses and economy.

Keep in mind though, if you are moving into an NYC apartment for dietetic purposes, not all boroughs' butts are deflated equally. According to Sam Roberts of the New York Times, Manhattan apartment residents consume the same amount of yummy food as other boroughs' denziens, but with only 42.3% overweight or obese, they sacrifice far fewer square feet of real estate to excess pudge:

"Over all, more than 300,000 New Yorkers get to work on foot. But Manhattanites tend to walk more than people who live and work in the rest of the city. They're more likely to walk to the bus or subway. Walk up and down stairs to stations. Even walk all the way to work. They're less obese than New Yorkers in other boroughs, regardless of race or income."

Also keep in mind, though, that there's a lot of variance within each NYC neighborhood, so if you want to find out how walkable a Brooklyn apartment for rent in a neighborhood you know little about is, just enter the exact address and voila! Not only will you get a Walk Score, you'll get a list of the businesses, services, schools, parks, etc., within walking distance. And you don't even have to get up off the couch to do it.



How Walkable Is Your Neighborhood? [NYT]