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Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

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Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#41
post #13

Presumably "per month"? Still cheaper than central London though.

Not according to this: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locat... I guess it depends on your definition of central London.

Not that I want to get into an argument on this (both cities are fantastically expensive), but the first property on your link when I accessed it (so basically at random) - GBP 5590.00 pcm.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#42
post #13

Presumably "per month"? Still cheaper than central London though.

This would have been true when GBP was strong, but it's now trading at 1.18 USD. The glory days of 2.05 USD from 2007 are long gone, sadly!

Even in Kensington and Chelsea, average rent of £2.5K or even £3K GBP is only $3K-$3.5K USD these days.

https://www.homeviews.com/renting/average-rent-in-london-for...

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#43
As a New Yorker myself I do wonder where this ends up. Me and my relatively well paid friends can afford to live here but we depend on a lot of lower paid folks for the city to function. Grocery store clerks, delivery drivers, coffee baristas, all that sort of thing. Maybe right now they have a half hour subway ride to work and that’s acceptable. But as they get pushed further and further out it’s going to break down somewhere, no one is going to commute 90 minutes for a minimum wage job when there are plenty of jobs available elsewhere.

Wages will need to go up, which means the costs of goods and services will need to go up, and the city will get even less affordable.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#45
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not according to this: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locat... I guess it depends on your definition of central London.

Not that I want to get into an argument on this (both cities are fantastically expensive), but the first property on your link when I accessed it (so basically at random) - GBP 5590.00 pcm.

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Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#46

I’ve had this thought floating around in my head for a while, and it seems wrong, but I’m not completely sure why. I’m hoping someone more knowledgeable might be able to set me straight. Prices on the coasts — like 5k rent — are astronomically high compared to prices in, say, the midwest. This shocks many people. You could easily make the same comparison between the midwest and some non-developed nation. The differen…

[deleted]

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#47

I’ve had this thought floating around in my head for a while, and it seems wrong, but I’m not completely sure why. I’m hoping someone more knowledgeable might be able to set me straight. Prices on the coasts — like 5k rent — are astronomically high compared to prices in, say, the midwest. This shocks many people. You could easily make the same comparison between the midwest and some non-developed nation. The differen…

I think it’s the phrase “less developed country.” The US midwest and the US coast at the same, developed country.

Sure, they’re long distance apart, and drastically different, but that’s not on people’s minds.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is an average place that costs $5k a month in Paris? That sounds like way too much.

That sounds waaay too expensive. GDP per capita is 39K USD and 18% of the population lives in Paris. How would that work?

"Paris" is only the small place within the old walls. It's population is under 2M, most of them owners, with ownership lasting since before WWI, who could never afford to buy (or rent) now. Rest are suburbs and don't have Paris on it's address. And sure, rents there are a lot lot cheaper.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#49

I’ve had this thought floating around in my head for a while, and it seems wrong, but I’m not completely sure why. I’m hoping someone more knowledgeable might be able to set me straight. Prices on the coasts — like 5k rent — are astronomically high compared to prices in, say, the midwest. This shocks many people. You could easily make the same comparison between the midwest and some non-developed nation. The differen…

Short answer: No.

The problem with these insane prices isn't really that you have disparity within the same country, but that a significant amount of people in these places cannot afford to live in there. You can't have a restaurant because you need to hire waiters but you can't pay waiters enough for them to pay the rent. So your service industry is disrupted or alternatively: people need to commute 1 or 2 hours to get to these jobs.

The reason it is not shocking that people in the midwest pay more than people in developed countries is because in the midwest most people have a relatively better life than most people in those developing countries. Whereas, say, a waiter living in San Francisco is not going to live a very different life from a waiter living in the Midwest who will, in turn, be living a much better life than a waiter in a developing nation.

So I think people are shocked because they realise their quality of life is not so different but there is a huge disparity in prices. Same country, similar quality of life, hugely different prices? This is definitely an anomaly!

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#50

There is an elephant in the room that people refuse to look at when it comes to rents: Airbnb.

Id love to see a breakout of Airbnb rentals by number of bedrooms. 1 and 2 bedroom airbnbs are seemingly never economical anymore compared to hotels, at least in the places I visit.
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