This is a reversal of cause and effect. I'm guessing since you are on Hacker News, it's quite likely that you are a high-paid engineer. You, and many others lik

This is a reversal of cause and effect. I'm guessing since you are on Hacker News, it's quite likely that you are a high-paid engineer. You, and many others like you, are the cause of your neighborhood getting more expensive. As suburbs have become less desirable in our culture, many people would like to live in walkable parts of the city, so prices get bid up. The new mid rises kept prices lower than they would have been otherwise. If they hadn't been built, then all the rich people would have moved into lightly renovated tenements, exposed brick and such. Perhaps your apartment is something along those lines. Trust me, I'm from San Francisco, a city that "beat the developers" in the 70's, and made laws against building anything new in most of the city. Now poorly maintained 100 year old houses in any neighborhood go for $2-3mm.