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The number of vacant apartments and the number of apartments listed for sale/rent are both at an all time high. Despite this, most new construction is priced at

The number of vacant apartments and the number of apartments listed for sale/rent are both at an all time high. Despite this, most new construction is priced at the high end of the market. In addition, there's been a big boom in ultra-high-end multimillion dollar apartments. https://www.6sqft.com/nearly-250000-nyc-rental-apartments-sit-vacant/ https://www.6sqft.com/nearly-250000-nyc-rental-apartments-si... https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/realestate/brooklyn-development.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/realestate/brooklyn-devel...

bko 8y ago
New construction of expensive high end apartments help lower the prices on other units. Wealthy people will move there rather than driving up prices on dilapidated brown-stones. Its kind of how the average new car price is 30k, which is off limits for many Americans. But the new car inventory drives down the price of older models.
- JMTQp8lwXL 8y ago
  The problem is likely more rooted in wealth inequality. As a smaller group of wealthy individuals control a larger portion of the nation's wealth, they will inevitably acquire all sorts of investments (stocks, real estate, etc) driving prices up. If there weren't luxury multi-million dollar apartments to buy, they'd be buying the brownstones anyways. And given that the multimillion dollar units sit on the market far longer than the more affordable housing stock, is there even really high demand among the wealthy to own premium housing? Luxury housing gets built because it's the only thing that's profitable to the builder once you take into account zoning and permits and regulations that need to be satisfied in order to build. What we really need is relaxed policy that allows for the profitable building of run-of-the-mill, average housing.
  - goobynight 8y ago
    Wealthy people are less likely to stay put in one place I think. Thus, there's a demand to rent multimillion dollar units for 1-3 years at a time, but not necessarily own one. Poor or average people buy a house in order to save money on rent. Rich people don't care about that amount and can easily get their stuff moved with company money. They recover the rent vs mortgage cost via increased flexibility.
- JJMcJ 8y ago
  With a few exceptions new construction is high end. There are a few areas that were designed as slums from the beginning: Lower East Side in Manhattan, parts of the West Side in Chicago. Taking Silicon Valley, if 25,000 high end apartments were built, that would take a lot of pressure off low end, because well paid people wouldn't be taking them out of desperation.

bko 8y ago

New construction of expensive high end apartments help lower the prices on other units. Wealthy people will move there rather than driving up prices on dilapidated brown-stones. Its kind of how the average new car price is 30k, which is off limits for many Americans. But the new car inventory drives down the price of older models.

JMTQp8lwXL 8y ago
The problem is likely more rooted in wealth inequality. As a smaller group of wealthy individuals control a larger portion of the nation's wealth, they will inevitably acquire all sorts of investments (stocks, real estate, etc) driving prices up. If there weren't luxury multi-million dollar apartments to buy, they'd be buying the brownstones anyways. And given that the multimillion dollar units sit on the market far longer than the more affordable housing stock, is there even really high demand among the wealthy to own premium housing? Luxury housing gets built because it's the only thing that's profitable to the builder once you take into account zoning and permits and regulations that need to be satisfied in order to build. What we really need is relaxed policy that allows for the profitable building of run-of-the-mill, average housing.
- goobynight 8y ago
  Wealthy people are less likely to stay put in one place I think. Thus, there's a demand to rent multimillion dollar units for 1-3 years at a time, but not necessarily own one. Poor or average people buy a house in order to save money on rent. Rich people don't care about that amount and can easily get their stuff moved with company money. They recover the rent vs mortgage cost via increased flexibility.
JJMcJ 8y ago
With a few exceptions new construction is high end. There are a few areas that were designed as slums from the beginning: Lower East Side in Manhattan, parts of the West Side in Chicago. Taking Silicon Valley, if 25,000 high end apartments were built, that would take a lot of pressure off low end, because well paid people wouldn't be taking them out of desperation.