Real Estate and Bikes

 
  

 
 
 

  Originally uploaded by queued
 

The most read and searched for post on this site is this one:

Apartments and Condos: Where do you keep your bike?

This is something I keep thinking about, especially as we get more bikes, and while I’m really interested in buying a place, the problem of where you keep your bikes keeps popping up. There are a million or so new developments in Morristown, and I’d like to think that I’m part of the target market, we live here and rent already and like the town, it’s close to where we work, we don’t have kids, and we like to be close to the train station. I’m sure the developers did a huge amount of research to figure out who would buy their places, and to be honest, it hurts my feelings a little bit, because none of them seem have any plan for bikes.

I think if they did think about biking, it could only help them, but clearly that’s my bias. There was an article in the NYT this week, that pointed out that in other cities, making streets and developments more bike friendly increased property values. At one point we were considering moving, and Madison seemed attractive; still close to the train, they have bike lanes, some bookstores and a nice grocery store. What kept us in Morristown was thinking about how much further the bike paths would be. It is awesome that you can get on your bike and be on Patriot’s Path in a few minutes, or take the Traction Line to Madison, or ride out to Lewis Morris Park or Loantaka. If I was in real estate, I would totally play this up. I’m not tho, so that’s why I have to keep obsessing over where to keep bikes.

I spoke to a really nice and patient woman today at Roseland Properties about 40 Park, and she thinks it might have a bike rack, but is not really sure what it would be like or where or if you could put a bike locker in your parking space. She promises to get back to me, and they seemed to be involved with the transit village, which also appears not to have any bike facilities planned. I want to be fair tho, so I’m going to wait until I hear from her.

I also want to be fair that it’s not just The Vail Mansion or 40 Park or whatever, it doesn’t seem like any developer has thought about bikes. I am going to start asking around this week and post a round-up for the best complexes for people who have bikes in the Morristown area, and what I think could use some help. If you are a real estate agent and have some ideas, please email me at morristownpedalpushers@gmail.com. If you live in a condo or an apartment in or around Morristown and you think it is awesome for bikes, let me know too.

Later!