Cynthia Nixon, NY Governor?! Her Real Estate Story Will Shock You Even More

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Cynthia Nixon‘s run for governor has New Yorkers in a tizzy! And for good reason: In the “Sex and the City” star’s much-buzzed-about Twitter video announcing her candidacy, she bills herself as a “lifelong New Yorker.” “New York is my home,” she says. “I’ve never lived anywhere else … [and] our leaders are letting us down.”

How this political smackdown between Nixon and incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo will go is anyone’s guess at this point. But in the meantime, we got curious about this “lifelong New Yorker’s” real estate story. What’s that like?

Currently, Nixon reportedly owns a four-bedroom co-op on Bleecker Street with her wife, purchased in 2012 for $3.25 million. In 2016, she also bought a two-bedroom apartment in the East Village for $1.49 million, then put some friends on the lease as co-owners (which certainly suggests she’s a generous soul).

I love New York, and today I’m announcing my candidacy for governor. Join us: https://t.co/9DwsxWW8xX pic.twitter.com/kYTvx6GZiD

— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) March 19, 2018

But Nixon’s adventures in New York real estate go back much further than that. We unearthed an obscure foodie site called The New Potato, which interviewed Nixon in 2017 and asked her a surprisingly revealing question: What’s the worst advice she’s ever received?

“The worst advice I’ve ever received was from an accountant, when I was a young woman,” she said. “When I was about 25, I wanted to buy my first apartment. My accountant said I couldn’t afford it, and he tried to scare me out of it. It was a two-bedroom on 86th and West End, and it was selling for, like, $250,000. I ignored him.”

The aspiring actress bought the place—and this early foothold likely helped her become that “lifelong New Yorker” she is today (that, and an HBO hit show, of course).

But is Nixon trying to say something important about real estate to the rest of us, too?

What Cynthia Nixon’s real estate story is trying to tell us

As a New Yorker since 1995—and a homeowner who purchased a Brooklyn co-op in 2002—I constantly hear renters say, “I shoulda/woulda/coulda bought a place in New York long ago.” Now, however, they say they can’t afford to buy; prices are just too dang high. They missed the home-buying train, and it’s not worth even trying to catch up.

But are they wrong?

Dolly Lenz, who’s been a top real estate agent in New York for the past 30 years, encounters this question almost daily from her clients.

“They say, ‘I could rent for $6,000 a month, or buy for $8,000. What should I do?'” she says. “But even now, I tell most buyers the opposite of what Nixon’s accountant said: You can’t afford to not buy in New York.”

Yes, home prices are high. “But odds are, they’re just going to get higher,” Lenz points out. “So as long as you plan to stay put for at least five years, it’s a winning proposition.”

Currently, Lenz’s 27-year-old daughter, Jenny, is apartment shopping.

“Even she asks, ‘Mom, should I really buy or should I rent?'” Lenz says. “I tell her the best thing is to get in the game. If you’re not in the game, you can’t win. Generally the ones who buy look back and say, ‘Wow, I’m so happy I did that.'”

Lenz also thinks buying a home makes sense, particularly for young people, for a totally different reason from real estate appreciation.

“It’s forced savings,” Lenz says. Rather than paying rent, which goes down the drain, mortgage payments help homeowners gain wealth over time.

Lenz, in fact, bought her first apartment in New York’s Murray Hill when she was 18.

“It was a 250-square-foot studio with a window facing a brick wall,” she recalls. “I paid $53,000 for it. I don’t still own it, but today, it’s probably worth $900,000.”

She bought seven more places by the time she was 22. Yes, seven.

How to buy a home when you ‘can’t afford it’

So what’s the secret to buying in New York? No, it’s not a time machine back to 1991. It is to downsize your present-day ideals.

“If you say, ‘I only want to live in the West Village,’ you won’t have a lot of choices,” Lenz points out. “If you can’t afford Manhattan, look in Brooklyn. If you can’t afford in Brooklyn, look in Queens. If you can’t afford a one-bedroom, get a studio.”

Or a roommate—which is what New York real estate agent Louise Phillips Forbes did back in the day when she was told, similar to Nixon, that she couldn’t afford to purchase her first apartment on the Upper West Side.

“It is worthwhile to ‘beg, borrow, or steal’ to own a home,” Forbes says.

“If the area you live in is too expensive, go farther out to see what you can get, or consider another geographic location altogether—perhaps a place you like visiting or envision moving to someday,” says Florida real estate agent Cara Ameer. “Try to find the hidden gems, and lock into what you can afford—perhaps that’s something that you can rent out and at least cover most of your costs while it appreciates.”

And this real estate lesson may be true not only for New Yorkers, but also anyone who’s given up on their home-buying dreams.

“I let a good one get away in a very high-appreciating area myself,” Ameer admits. “Here I was, stupidly showing this property, when I should have been considering buying it for me and my husband. Flash-forward five years later, and this property has just about doubled in value.”

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