Manhattan is expensive because of wealth inequality. Every year you see a huge number of neighboring apartments get merged together to have a single bigger unit

Manhattan is expensive because of wealth inequality. Every year you see a huge number of neighboring apartments get merged together to have a single bigger unit, where huge numbers of people still can never afford to live there. I'd also point out that Manhattan would still be a very expensive place to live even with lower real estate prices, as a huge number of the buildings have very high maintenance costs.