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When Betsy Messerschmitt talks about how New Yorkers can find rare residential bargains right under their noses, she knows whereof she speaks. Not only is Ms. Messerschmitt a residential broker, but she has also taken her own advice.
Two years ago, she bought into just such a bargain in a land-lease building on 72nd Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side. In doing so, Ms. Messerschmitt has joined growing numbers of New Yorkers who are flocking to the residential market's perennial ugly ducklings: its scores of land-lease co-ops.
Defined as apartments that exist in buildings located on land owned by an entity other than the co-op corporation, land-lease co-ops have always sold at a discount to standard co-ops. In today's hot market, though, brokers say that prices for such properties have risen far more than they can justify.
Real estate attorney Ernest Bial, for one, strenuously objects to using the term "bargain" in conjunction with the units. "They are never bargains," he insists. "The fact is that they are just worth less...