[starkfist]

The problem is not lack of new buildings. There are dozens, if not hundreds of mostly empty new buildings in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, LIC and downtown Brooklyn.

The expense of housing in NYC is not tied to any real "fundamental." The owners are charging what they think the market will bear. The smaller tenement style and brownstone buildings in the hot rental areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn were usually purchased and fully paid for back in the 1980s... My old landlord owned a block of avenue B that he bought for about $80K per building back in the 80s. Paid off decades ago. He's charging $2400/m per unit. Shit apartments, roaches, old appliances, noisy... The whole alphabet city experience from the 80s still available to BFFs from Maryland psyched to be at NYU!