People should also take into consideration how rent control effects the price of non-rent controlled apartments. I believe it has a crowding out effect that increases rent prices for those who can't get into a rent controlled area. Lets say you have a rental market that is split into 50 rent controlled apartments and 50 none rent controlled. The people in the rent controlled apartments have no incentive to ever move, thus the available (tradable) rental market is confined to 50 apartments, not 100. This creates an imbalance, there is more demand for the 50 rentable apartments then there would be otherwise, therefore prices for available rentals rise. In markets where real estate is cheaper this imbalance would be fixed by more building, but in a market like NYC the imbalance can persist for years because the supply of real estate is almost inelastic. -Neo
The influx of hotshot commercial & residential developers has severely hurt the culture & community of NYC. Smaller family businesses being priced out in favor of the brand name corporate crap or high priced luxury chic stores (which are now going out of business). The "luxury" condo/rentals/commercial are unsustainable and you're seeing the cracks right now. When those spaces turn vacant, where are those hotshot developers? Meanwhile, as a result, quality small businesses were pushed out, and they are not coming back. This city has gotten gentrified and now it's being slowly abandoned by the same perpetrators who helped push the cost of living to absurd proportions. All those "luxury" buildings have high maintenance costs, and hence can never drop enough to be reasonably priced. What you're going to see in the near future is people moving out of the city into the boroughs. You will see abandoned high rises, like in Florida. NYC will not be the job center it once was. There is going to be little incentive left to live in NYC, unless you're uber rich or you're in Section 8. Once the restaurants go, it's all over for NYC. And they are cracking as we speak. The luxury boutique stores are in their final stages right now, these are the first to go. As well as overpriced lounges, bars & clubs. Also, some of these cheaply built "luxury" high rises are gonna collapse on their own. This will happen, mark my words. P.S. The guys who are making moves in NYC real estate & doing well, avoid any "luxury" buildings, particularly commercial. The real bread & butter are corners with cheaply maintained businesses, like corner delis, little family shops, laundromats, etc.
NYC is awful. Dirty, smelly, and overcrowded. The best jobs in finance are actually in Boston...but don't come here we don't want you!
Actually I think you have it backwards. Anyone can learn how to make pizza like its done in NY. Good luck getting fresh clam in Idaho bud.
Smaller family businesses can only be priced out of the market in favor of big retailers and luxury chic stores if thats what people prefer. If people didn't want the luxury stores, they wouldn't have been able to make a profit (even in a good economy) and wouldn't have sprung up all over the place. People preferred luxury stores and big retailers to the smaller family businesses and they spoke with their wallets. People always rally in defense of mom and pop stores and against Wal-Mart, but they don't heed their own advice. If everybody really hated Wal-Mart, it wouldn't be one of the largest companies in the world. Likewise, if people in NYC didn't want luxury stores, they wouldn't exist because people wouldn't have shopped at them. The cost of living did go to absurd proportions, but that's not due to the developers. The buildings could never have been built without access to cheap money provided by the Fed's cheap interest rates. The new luxury buildings do have high maintenance costs, but theres no reason that they can't drop. If the wage rate falls and the property value and property tax fall, the maintencance costs will drop with them. When rental prices fall, people will move back into Manhattan from the boroughs and elsewhere. I doubt that we'll see many abandoned high rises in the city. Prices will fall and people will come back. http://robparis.blogspot.com/
New York pizza is delicious. One of my favorite things about living in the city is having so many different pizza places to try, both new and old. It's so good that you can go to any other city and they'll have a pizza place called "New York Pizza" or something equivalent. It's not nearly as good, but they try! http://robparis.blogspot.com/
Boston is fun for a beer filled weekend. Anymore then that, the meat-head frat boy college bar scene gets very old. Weather sucks and omg the DRIVERS! Degradation of New York would be a good thing IMO. Lower rents, cost of living, should hopefully stimulate some interesting people to move back in. The 80's were a great time in the city as artists could afford to live IN manhattan, probably a dump in Alphabet city but still on the island. It remained vibrant through the 90's but ultimately killed by MBA bankers and Sex & the City types.
Boston blows. Just having to listen to that awful accent is enough to keep any normal person away from there.