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The Phattest Bubble You've Ever Seen?

posted by Gur
Fri, 05/12/2006 - 3:06pm

Did a little sniffing around ... and uncovered what each of your New York Congressional delegates' homes are worth - as well as the the median value of homes in their districts.  Let's just say that some members live a bit phatter than their constituents (hence, the Phat Index, the difference between the two).

Also, for a kick in the ol' transparency ass, I put an asterisks next to each member of Congress who made me work extra hard for their home address.  Not that I mind working, but these folks now list themselves at a post office box rather than their home address on FEC filings - thing is, when they first started in Congress that wasn't the case (with the exception of Rep. McHugh who apparently has always been living out of a PO Box).  Not nice!


 Rep Home Val Dist Median Phat Index
* Nita Lowey $2,170,000 $346,500 $1,823,500

Eliot Engel $1,460,000 $230,600 $1,229,400
* Sue Kelly $1,190,000 $188,800 $1,001,200

Tim Bishop $1,170,000 $176,700 $993,300

Gary Ackerman $1,000,000 $341,000 $659,000

Vito Fossella $997,252 $217,800 $779,452

Nydia Velazquez $922,824 $189,700 $733,124

Randy Kuhl $791,928 $87,700 $704,228

Steve Israel $684,292 $204,200 $480,092

Ed Towns $539,082 $193,900 $345,182
* Carolyn McCarthy $485,500 $224,700 $260,800

Greg Meeks $366,769 $180,000 $186,769
* Maurice Hinchey $365,090 $98,500 $266,590

Peter King $363,200 $224,500 $138,700
* Sherwood Boehlert $307,200 $75,300 $231,900

John Sweeney $275,310 $110,600 $164,710

Tom Reynolds $242,000 $97,600 $144,400

Jim Walsh $210,000 $89,000 $121,000
* Brian Higgins $124,900 $84,500 $40,400
* Mike McNulty $75,000 $100,500 -$25,500

Louise Slaughter N/A $76,900 N/A

Major Owens Co-op $214,800 N/A

Carolyn Maloney N/A $252,500 N/A

Joe Crowley N/A $204,900 N/A

Jerry Nadler N/A $260,000 N/A

Jose Serrano N/A $155,600 N/A

Anthony Weiner N/A $246,000 N/A
* John McHugh PO Box Only $71,900 N/A

Charles Rangel N/A $314,700 N/A

Note:

  • Home values brought to you by Zillow
  • Co-opsters' home values are harder to uncover; hence the plethora of N/As (I'm accepting help from anyone who has access to comparables)
  • A handful of the home values listed are the tax assessed values, or averages of the area; simply click on a particular home value to find out.
  • District median values brought to you by the good peeps at the Census Bureau

Press Release: Council
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/14/2006 - 10:04pm.
Unfortunately Gur, this is an unfair analysis on so many fronts.  Members of Congress represent over 500,000 people and home values in 2006 are over inflated.
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Introducing: LunchBox
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/14/2006 - 10:18pm.
Unfair? What am I missing? There's nothing wrong with this ranking. It's just that ... a ranking. Gur simply presented the numbers that Zillow and the Census provided.
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Introducing: LunchBox
Submitted by Antid Oto (not verified) on Mon, 05/15/2006 - 2:06am.

Since I once lived in Albany, Mike McNulty's negative Phat Index made me laugh.  I have no idea what the actual value of his home is, but I assume your list is based on the homes' assessed values.  The Albany Democratic machine is notorious for playing games with home assessments.  It is routine for nearly identical homes on the same block to have wildly different assessments.  You want something done about the fact that your property taxes are three times your neighbor's?  See your Democratic committeeman and remember us come November.


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Piquing Sue's Interests
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/15/2006 - 12:24pm.
Nadler lives on the Upper West Side in a 2 bedroom.It's easily in the 800,000 to 1,000,000 range.
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Piquing Sue's Interests
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/15/2006 - 12:25pm.
all of those mid-half million to just under a million numbers are probably fair since in the 5 boroughs you cant buy much that is under half a mil today. If you are in long island, it would be closer to a million....I just think Mr. King's value sounds a bit low unless he lives in freeport...but his district consists also of Glen Cove where houses probably are milion or two.
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Me & Charlie Gargano: On the
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/16/2006 - 9:31am.
Gur can't we look at a voter file to find out were they live? 
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Me & Charlie Gargano: On the
Submitted by Gur on Tue, 05/16/2006 - 10:43am.

Using the FEC filings, I now know exactly where they all live, with the exception of McHugh. And yes, generally the voter file was an option. But, the problem with the voter file is that names like Anthony Weiner, Joe Crowley, Jose Serrano, John McHugh, etc... come up numerous times - meaning, they're not unique.

So I would actually have to make educated guesses using the voter file - always a dangerous thing :-); whereas, there's absolutely no guess work using their individual FEC filings.


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Dems Back John Hall at Unity
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 05/18/2006 - 10:06am.
I used to work for a law firm that looked at property values very closely. Using the Assessed Values, at least in NYC, is vastly underestimating the value of the value of the property. NYC property taxes are calculated by taking the "market value" and multiplying by 0.45 to get the Assessed Value. And even the City's "market value" is vastly understated. The rules are even trickier in other counties of NY (by the way, it is the counties that set the Assessed Values, not Albany). Check out the Dept. of Finance website for more info. Also, I recommend using PropertyShark.com for comparables.
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Podcast: Chris Owens
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/20/2006 - 10:38pm.
Please, Please tell me where I can buy a real home in Brooklyn for $189,000
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and what now?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 07/30/2006 - 10:31pm.
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Congresswoman Velazquez
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 12:04am.
What is really funny is the day she moved in to her new home- she made her staff move her- on the Tax Payer's dime. She is as cheap as she is ostentatious.
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Congresswoman Velazquez
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 12:04am.
What is really funny is the day she moved in to her new home- she made her staff move her- on the Tax Payer's dime. She is as cheap as she is ostentatious.
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Congresswoman Velazquez
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 12:04am.
What is really funny is the day she moved in to her new home- she made her staff move her- on the Tax Payer's dime. She is as cheap as she is ostentatious.
reply | email this comment
Congresswoman Velazquez
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 12:04am.
What is really funny is the day she moved in to her new home- she made her staff move her- on the Tax Payer's dime. She is as cheap as she is ostentatious.
reply | email this comment
Congresswoman Velazquez
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 12:04am.
What is really funny is the day she moved in to her new home- she made her staff move her- on the Tax Payer's dime. She is as cheap as she is ostentatious.
reply | email this comment

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