Wall Street’s biggest bears are buying a piece of the Big Apple.
Nouriel Roubini and John R Taylor, better known as the Dr Dooms of the financial industry, and John Paulson, the hedge fund manager who made massively successful bets on when the housing bubble would burst, are among the Wall Street crowd who have recently purchased New York City houses. It is perhaps the most positive sign for Manhattan property since the crisis hit in 2008.
“I bought an apartment in Manhattan, which seems insane,” Taylor, who runs the world’s largest hedge fund at FX Concepts, said last month.
Roubini, the New York University economist best known for predicting the world banking collapse and who warned in 2006 the “United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust,” also bought a $5.5 million condominium in Manhattan.
Paulson purchased a condo on ritzy Fifth Avenue for $2.85 million.
Roubini and Paulson declined to comment, but the deals were confirmed by public records, which showed they bought in the final two months of last year.
Real estate agents for Manhattan’s elite say they have seen a surge in interest from the securities industry, which accounts for almost 35% of all salaries and wages in the city, as it recovers from the meltdown following Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008.
Multimillion-dollar holiday home sales in the Hamptons — the area of Long Island beaches known as Wall Street’s playground — have also started to pick up, they said.
{{/usCountry}}Multimillion-dollar holiday home sales in the Hamptons — the area of Long Island beaches known as Wall Street’s playground — have also started to pick up, they said.
{{/usCountry}}Reuters