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Can you supply some evidence that it is a conspiracy theory? Because I read this article in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/ame

by sbf501 4y ago

Can you supply some evidence that it is a conspiracy theory? Because I read this article in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/american-housing-has-gone-insane/605005/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/american-h... "But the bust is upon us. Today, nearly half of the Manhattan luxury-condo units that have come onto the market in the past five years are still unsold, according to The New York Times." Sorry, but I trust the Atlantic over you unless you got some facts.

dionidium 4y ago
Here's the quote from the NY Times article [0] your Atlantic article references: > Nearly half of new condo units in Manhattan that came to market after 2015, or 3,695 of 7,727 apartments, remain unsold, according to a December analysis of both closed sales and contracts by Nancy Packes Data Services, a real estate consultancy and database provider. So we're talking about 3,695 unsold apartments. There are 3.5 million housing units in New York City. So that's about a tenth of one percent . The problem here isn't that the statistic is wrong; it's that anybody thinks 7k new units over a 5 year period in a metro area of 20 million people is anything more than a curiosity. The hallmark of a conspiracy theory is that it offers a sensational explanation -- usually some foreign, outside force -- for a complex problem, absolves the believer of any culpability, and provides an easy, unsympathetic target on which to dump all their rage. "Foreign oligarchs are buying up all the real estate and locking the rest of us out and that's what's wrong with the housing market" is exactly that kind of theory. And 3500 unsold units over 5 years is emphatically not evidence of its veracity. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/realestate/new-york-decade-real-estate.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/realestate/new-york-decad...
- sbf501 4y ago
  Ah. I see. I'll stop parroting that line now that I understand the impact better. I still think it is shitty of rich people to do that, however.
colinmhayes 4y ago
4% of apartments in nyc are vacant. You can claim that luxury units are more expensive because a block on the southern border is made up of half empty units owned by billionaires, but the rest of the city does not experience that phenomenon at all.

by sbf501 4y ago

dionidium 4y ago

Here's the quote from the NY Times article [0] your Atlantic article references: > Nearly half of new condo units in Manhattan that came to market after 2015, or 3,695 of 7,727 apartments, remain unsold, according to a December analysis of both closed sales and contracts by Nancy Packes Data Services, a real estate consultancy and database provider. So we're talking about 3,695 unsold apartments. There are 3.5 million housing units in New York City. So that's about a tenth of one percent . The problem here isn't that the statistic is wrong; it's that anybody thinks 7k new units over a 5 year period in a metro area of 20 million people is anything more than a curiosity. The hallmark of a conspiracy theory is that it offers a sensational explanation -- usually some foreign, outside force -- for a complex problem, absolves the believer of any culpability, and provides an easy, unsympathetic target on which to dump all their rage. "Foreign oligarchs are buying up all the real estate and locking the rest of us out and that's what's wrong with the housing market" is exactly that kind of theory. And 3500 unsold units over 5 years is emphatically not evidence of its veracity. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/realestate/new-york-decade-real-estate.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/realestate/new-york-decad...

sbf501 4y ago
Ah. I see. I'll stop parroting that line now that I understand the impact better. I still think it is shitty of rich people to do that, however.

colinmhayes 4y ago

4% of apartments in nyc are vacant. You can claim that luxury units are more expensive because a block on the southern border is made up of half empty units owned by billionaires, but the rest of the city does not experience that phenomenon at all.