[zjp]

Well, in 1920 to live in Midtown you would have had to be able to drop $3m ($55m inflation adjusted) for a ground-level mansion and now you can get an apartment there for under $1m, so I would say the cost has dropped precipitously over the past hundred years.

Demand is only induced when you give the thing away for free.

[jjav]

I don't know where to find rental pricing info for 1920s NYC so can't really check. But I'm fairly confident that $55M (inflation adjusted) was not the cheapest apartment available at the time so it's not an apples to apples comparison.