Breaking News: Orthos Make Tough Real Estate Customers

NY Magazine tells us something many of us already know: Orthodox Jews make tough real estate customers. It isn't news that observant Jews have some very specific criteria when it comes to looking for a home, as the piece notes, such as formal dining rooms (to facilitate Shabbat entertaining), large kitchens (the better to fit two sinks, dishwashers, and sets of dishes), low floors in apartment buildings (or, as the article notes, a Shabbat elevator) and close proximity to shuls, apartments with terraces large enough to build a Sukkah, etc. It's actually interesting to drive through Williamsburg these days, as it is very easy to spot the buildings built for and marketed to Hasidic Jews, just from the staggered terraces on the facades of the structures (In contrast with more typically architected NYC buildings, where the terraces are genrally stacked one atop the other, terraces to be used for Sukkahs need to be open to the sky).

It's also not news to anyone who has ever tried to buy into a burgeoning Orthodox community that proximity to Shuls is a major selling point, to make walking to Shul on Shabbat less of an ordeal - and that houses that are closer to a Shul can sometimes be considerably more expensive than homes with similar amenities that lie further from a shul. That becomes less of an issue as an Orthodox community grows, generally along with the number of shuls. In a popular community such as mine, if a shul isn't close by at the time of purchase, it's simply a matter of time until one crops up. Another criteria I often hear about from my house-hunting Orthodox friends is a guest room with its own bathroom (Shabbat guests like to have their privacy), a basement playroom (the better to banish all the children of the frequent Shabbat guests), and a separate bedroom in the basement (for the ever-popular live-in domestic help). I am also quite sure that a house with a greater number of smaller bedrooms will appeal to a young, growing Orthodox family more than a house with fewer, but larger bedrooms.

That's a good reason for the success in many Jewish areas of Orthodox real estate agents. What might seem a quirk to a nonobservant broker (as can be seen by the NY Mag piece), is more de rigueur to an Orthodox broker - who likely has many of the same requirements. One only needs do drive through the streets of my community to see "For Sale" signs with identifiably Jewish (and in many cases Orthodox) names as the listed brokers. I've even seen signs around lately for a real estate agency that goes by the name of "Gan Eden Realty".

I guess it's just easier for Young Turks (or Williamsburg Chasidim) trolling the real estate market to get the rundown on questions like "Where can I put the Seforim Shrank", or "Is there plumbing hookup in the basement for a Pesach kitchen" - from someone who actually knows what these terms mean.