4 ms·

Downtown Austin TX is exploding in high-rises and I ask myself that same question. I mean if I, a single, mid 20's, tech guy, making 6+ figures isn't willing t

Downtown Austin TX is exploding in high-rises and I ask myself that same question. I mean if I, a single, mid 20's, tech guy, making 6+ figures isn't willing to spend $3k on a one bedroom apartment or $1.3 million on a condo(like the software dev in the article, wait what?!) then who is? I have a 2bd, 3 miles from downtown for $1k a month and newly built/refurbished homes in the same area are going for $600K. I just don't know who is buying in the towers. I have heard the vacancies are quite high and most of the buildings look empty from the outside.

ghaff 10y ago
In all fairness I'm not sure it's so much 20 something tech guys, even well-paid ones, who are the primary audience for these. I suspect it's far more empty nesters who don't need or want to deal with a house any longer. Or execs etc. for whom this is their in-city residence. That said, I'm not in real estate and don't have a good feel for how speculative all this is. The Seaport area in particular is apparently very hot right now in terms of real estate prices even though it's still something of a work in progress.
- big_youth 10y ago
  Well the article starts by saying "affluent young professionals" and talking about "millennial-friendly extras" but I agree. The people paying $1.5million+ on condos are executive and VP types, but that still leads me to my question... Who is buying those? I work at and work with companies based out of the bay area, seems like most of those senior big money roles are not in Austin. But I'm not a real estate developer and don't know the entire Austin tech scene either...
  - ghaff 10y ago
    Well this is about Boston which has a fair bit of SV style tech but also lots of biotech, pharma, finance, GE is moving their hq there etc.
- roymurdock 10y ago
  In Boston, its international students due to high density of colleges. Seaport is hot because it's becoming gentrified and GE is moving in.

ghaff 10y ago

In all fairness I'm not sure it's so much 20 something tech guys, even well-paid ones, who are the primary audience for these. I suspect it's far more empty nesters who don't need or want to deal with a house any longer. Or execs etc. for whom this is their in-city residence. That said, I'm not in real estate and don't have a good feel for how speculative all this is. The Seaport area in particular is apparently very hot right now in terms of real estate prices even though it's still something of a work in progress.

big_youth 10y ago
Well the article starts by saying "affluent young professionals" and talking about "millennial-friendly extras" but I agree. The people paying $1.5million+ on condos are executive and VP types, but that still leads me to my question... Who is buying those? I work at and work with companies based out of the bay area, seems like most of those senior big money roles are not in Austin. But I'm not a real estate developer and don't know the entire Austin tech scene either...
- ghaff 10y ago
  Well this is about Boston which has a fair bit of SV style tech but also lots of biotech, pharma, finance, GE is moving their hq there etc.
roymurdock 10y ago
In Boston, its international students due to high density of colleges. Seaport is hot because it's becoming gentrified and GE is moving in.