And I thought the market was tight in Boston...

May 30, 2001 10:08 AM

And I thought the market was tight in Boston... A man was charged with killing two people -- one of whom was dismembered -- so he could move into their apartments, police said.
posted by J. R. Hughto (6 comments total)

You'd better believe it. A few years ago (1997) there was big news about a couple in Lower Manhattan (with a $300 loft) who disappeared... The landlord was suspected and later sent to prison on unrelated charges. So when someone says a $300 Manhattan loft is worth killing for, maybe they aren't exaggerating.
posted by Laurable at 10:40 AM on May 30, 2001

Yeah, but apartments? Plural? That's just greedy.
posted by Dreama at 10:44 AM on May 30, 2001

Don't forget the mother-son grifter team Sante and Kenny Kimes, who murdered a woman in an attempt to gain control of her New York brownstone and its lucrative room-rental business. It was a TV movie a couple of weeks back.

Sunlight! Hardwood floors! So darling, it's to die for!
posted by dhartung at 10:26 AM on May 31, 2001

Please, I'd toss live kittens into a woodchipper for hardwood floors.

You ever try to get a pad in the city? Murder is just the ground floor. You see a crusty old guy with three or more girlfriends so under-age that only parental concent could keep him out of jail, and you know you're lookn' at a landlord.
posted by dong_resin at 10:31 AM on May 31, 2001

In NYC, at least, I think rents are about to plummet. Just in Chelsea (a downtown Manhattan neighborhood), within a few blocks, I can think of eight huge new apartment buildings being built — that's let's say 2000 or so new apartments that'll have to be sold or rented in this depressed economy.

How does $1,500 per month for a one-bedroom sound? (Tiny studios in Chelsea are over $1,800 now.) Brooklyn will become Brooklyn again as anyone who can afford the hot new restaurants on Smith Street moves back to Manhattan.

Of course, Giuliani's sudden (literal and figurative) impotency and the resulting increase in crime will help bring rents down too — I'm already seeing squeegee guys! And three-card monte dealers! Black guys are carrying boom boxes again!

Welcome to Fun City!
posted by nicwolff at 1:38 PM on May 31, 2001

lol... fun city, indeed. population = us.

i don't see how some of you can deal with rent like that. $550+ for a one bedroom (cincinnati, OH) is my limit.
posted by lotsofno at 2:53 PM on May 31, 2001