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by vobios 2443 days ago
Are there really that many empty apartments? I am sure they exist, but are there really enough of them to make a dent in the market? Having lived in the city for years, I've never actually seen one.

I also wonder if you have enough cash to buy and hold NYC apartments, wouldn't your money do better in some sort of a REIT?
3 comments
CoolGuySteve 2443 days ago
If you look at the new residential sky scrapers like 432 Park around 10pm on a weeknight when most people should be home, you'll notice it's mostly dark.

These tall expensive condo towers are like totems to the wealthy absentee residents of New York.

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bilbo0s 2443 days ago
Well maybe that's a bit of the problem.

People are saying they can't get an apartment in NYC. Which is met by disbelief by people who actually live in NYC.

I believe this might be due to the fact that people are really saying that they want a, say, lower Manhattan apartment but can't afford the good ones anywhere. These are probably upper middle class people trying to live a bit outside their means. It's not really that they can't afford NYC, they just don't want to live in Harlem. Or even in Brooklyn, which actually has pretty nice apartments. When I look around Harlem or the Bronx, I don't think, "empty".

Not being able to live where the rich people live is not a problem that society should spend much time solving. I'm one of the very comfortable upper middle class. Yet I don't have a Ferrari, nor do I own a condo on Miami Beach. (Or Manhattan for that matter.) That doesn't mean that society has some sort of housing and car imbalance that it needs to address.

There may indeed be an imbalance nationally, but NYC is definitely not any kind of example of one.

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Bubbadoo 2442 days ago
Guess you're not from NYC based on your post. So Brooklyn is the highest price real estate these days, with many apartments, brownstones and lofts renting for many 000s per month. Harlem has gone through a renaissance, with townhouses on formerly blighted blocks undergoing renovation and selling for $2-5MM. These are places that were used as crack houses in the late 80s and 90s. Word has it, new arrivals to the city are moving way up in the Bronx, but the commute is next to impossible. Suburbs are also ridiculously expensive places to rent or own. The problem, as this article states, is not yuppies wanting to live beyond their means, but an entire city full of wealthy. Yes, if you're a successful professional, you can afford something, but that pool of affordable housing is shrinking daily. I worked and lived in NYC for 30 years and I don't recognize it today.
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bobbydroptables 2443 days ago
NYC is definitely an example of a housing imbalance. It has nothing to do with UMC types not wanting to live in Harlem. It has to do with the fact that prices are ridiculous throughout the city. The quality of building you get for what you pay is way out of whack. The housing stock is old and generally low quality.
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lotsofpulp 2442 days ago
The prices are “in whack” for a sufficient number of people, as evidenced by the transaction clearing.
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bobbydroptables 2442 days ago
And the prices are deeply out of whack for large numbers of homeless people, broke people, uninsured people, people with unhealthy commutes, etc.

Yes there are plenty of bankers, yuppies and Russian billionaires to account for much of the city's real estate volume, if that's your point.

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goldenkey 2443 days ago
You might enjoy this series: https://youtu.be/-55jtMMLJxk
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timidiceball 2443 days ago
It’s a problem at the high end (which is most of what’s been built lately) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/realestate/new-developmen...
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vobios 2443 days ago
Does the data presented in that article really suggest that the apartments are actually empty or is it simply that it takes a while to sell out a new development? It's going to take a while to move a hundred units, especially if you want to increase the profits.

The StreetEasy report the article is inspired by actually shows that in 2019 there were more condos sold than completed.

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corporateslave5 2443 days ago
Where do you put 1 trillion dollars when your main goal is to just preserve it or lose just a little?
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vobios 2443 days ago
> just preserve it or lose just a little

Housing generally underperforms the overall market.

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cko 2443 days ago
Which market?

https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/files/wp2017-25.pdf

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codingslave 2443 days ago
Yeah but you cant jam 1 trillion into any asset vehicle at all, and even if you could, you need to diversify. Portfolio theory 101
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