Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time • Hacker News Board

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

#711

Post by rayiner » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

vjk800 wrote: post #476

simonsarris wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. Coming from New Hampshire: this is just fantastically untrue. NYC is about one hundred times more violent than where I live. It is so thoroughly not the same that I can usually tell when people come from cities simply based on how nervous they are. I think most people don't realize how badly it affects them, or how violent cities are versus "the rest…

Indeed. I come from a rural village where I could leave my bicycle unlocked over night at the center of the village and it wouldn't get stolen. When I moved to a city, one realization I made was that cycling is just a lot less convenient if you have to worry about your bicycle getting stolen. Also I can't leave my home door unlocked when I go somewhere (and thus have to remember to take the keys with me). I think sma…

That’s not a “city” thing, it’s a “New Yorker” thing. People in Tokyo routinely leave things unattended in public, including valuable and easily carried things like laptops.

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

#712

Post by dopeboy » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

diehunde wrote: post #569

jononomo wrote: post #68

I decided about four years ago that it just doesn’t make sense to live in NYC if you’re not making $200k/year consistently. Also, I was surprised at how many people without an original thought in their head earn $200k/year in NYC —- the city rewards a sort of dull ambition. Do you want to hang out with people who are intelligent and ambitious yet somehow fail to be interesting? If so, then NYC is for you!

How much is the take-home pay if you make $200k a year? About 12K a month? A rent of 5k would take away almost half of that. A $4K rent would be at the limit of the 1/3 recommendation but not sure what you can find these days for a $4K rent. It's doable, but I don't think it's sustainable if you want to save money or live comfortably

Very few people at that income level are renting a 4k/month appt - they probably have a partner. Or if they are, it's like a 1-2 yr thing.

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

#713

Post by spaniard89277 » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

aaaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #336

abduhl wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not backwards. Calling housing and land an X and saying that this means it should have heavy state intervention IS a bold claim regardless of what X is because it's calling for heavy state intervention. Compare: "Abortion is a non-transable good and therefore there should be heavy state intervention in it." "Video games are non-transable goods and so there should be heavy state intervention in it." "Cryptography…

Sorry, but this is a non-transable comment, and I only reply to transable comments.

I like your style, you made me laugh.

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

#714

Post by zjaffee » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:28 PM UTC

dangus wrote: post #493

ctvo wrote: post #390

The problem for me, as a long time NYC resident, is that there's no other place in America I want to live even with work from home as a possibility. I like mass transit. I like not owning a car. I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. I like that it's the center for tech on the east coast, the arts for the entire country, and finance for most of the world. I like that we generally get along…

Before I start with my comment, I'll remind everyone that averages skew very high when there are outliers. NYC has a high quantity of extremely high rent tenants. I wish more news articles used medians and median per capita when discussing rents. The main point I want to make: even with those high rents, we tend to forget how much our cars cost us, directly and indirectly. Directly: AAA's average new car TCO is close…

I grew up in NYC and just completely disagree with your analysis here. There are a lot of hidden costs to live in NYC such as some of the highest income and sales taxes in the country, apartments where even if you own if a problem is found the forced maintenace costs can go up thousands a month and you get evicted for not being able to pay. Health driven by sin taxes on soda and tobacco, and much more along those lines than just people walking places.

It is true that older people in NYC are seemingly healthy, but they're definitely a very specific type of person.

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

#715

Post by lancesells » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:29 PM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #678

lancesells wrote: post #668

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NYC gave up on violent crime. It's Democrat's policy. Could you explain that? Crime is trending down in NYC over the last 20 years. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_...

Even according to this, murder and manslaughter is significantly up in the last 2 years. But you're also ignoring the fact that in other parts of the country these crime rates are 1-10% of these numbers. NYC could be much safer, if the right policies were applied.

No doubt it could be safer but I'm asking you to explain how NYC gave up on crime. In 20 years the crime rate looks like it went down maybe ~45%?

I believe the south has the highest per capita murder rate which is mostly Republican led. It's states with lower education and higher poverty that have high murder rates. I think blaming Democrats or Republicans is misguided. We're a country pretty evenly split and there's no place that's a panacea.

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

#716

Post by usrn » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:29 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #540

usrn wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The metro in DC is pretty underrated and you can live car free pretty far out into its suburbs even.

The problem with almost all public transit is that it converges on a center and branches out into legs that do not connect with each other. This is the DC map: https://www.wmata.com/schedules/maps/upload/2019-System-Map.... If two friends move to the outer edges of different legs of the system, then your travel time and inconvenience multiplies a lot. It is the same reason Manhattan is so popular compared to the oute…

That sounds... expensive.

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

#717

Post by tfbkggjjji » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:32 PM UTC

ctvo wrote: post #390

The problem for me, as a long time NYC resident, is that there's no other place in America I want to live even with work from home as a possibility. I like mass transit. I like not owning a car. I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. I like that it's the center for tech on the east coast, the arts for the entire country, and finance for most of the world. I like that we generally get along…

Are US cities the only options? Why not move to London or something?

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

#718

Post by filmgirlcw » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:33 PM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #516

simonsarris wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NYC is generally safer than the rest of America. I don't think that's true: NYC is at 5.8 violent crimes per 1,000, and the national median sits at 4.0. That's 45% more violent than the median. That's not small! I feel like some PR firm must have implanted this idea in everyone's minds that NYC is somehow magically safer, but it's not showing up in the stats, and if the stats are skewed by reporting its almost cert…

I have a sneaking suspicion that New Yorkers who think NYC is safe are comparing it to 1980s NY, rather than contemporary $other_region. Or maybe they're only comparing themselves to Chicago and Rio de Janeiro?

I don’t know. I never felt generally unsafe in New York if I was out late at night (after midnight or 1am) and walking alone to the subway or whatever. Part of it I think is that the city “never sleeps” so you don’t get the feeling of being alone. There’s always other people around.

(My mom felt differently and would often force me to take a car home if I was leaving the office at 10pm in NYC — but my mom would feel that way about any city I lived in.)

In SF, I’ve felt *very* unsafe being out before midnight (I was once propositioned for prostitution 4 times in a 2 block walk). Same in Seattle, where my own neighborhood has felt downright unsafe after 7pm on certain nights. Same in parts of Atlanta. Same in parts of LA.

I can’t compare it to places like New Hampshire or the suburbs — but I’m a female who weighs between 105 and 110lbs and yes, I’m white so that might help me, and I haven’t been to every part of NYC late at night — I’m sure there are places I wouldn’t want to be alone — but I do think that it is generally safe.

I was shocked by how much more crime was in Seattle than where I lived in Brooklyn.

There is another part of New York which is just that people generally leave you alone. So you’re surrounded by people who you can call out for help to, but you’re also not usually badgered by randos on the street.

I can’t talk about statistics but I can talk about how safe I feel. And I feel safer in NYC than any other major US city I’ve lived in or visited.

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

#719

Post by dahdum » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:33 PM UTC

lovich wrote: post #614

tmh88j wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whether or not you lock your door has more to do with cultural attitudes towards risk > People in rural areas don’t lock their doors for the same reason they don’t wear seatbelts and drive drunk everywhere. They just don’t care. Do you think the attitude towards risk is because they truly don't care about having their belongings stolen, or because they know there is less risk of that happening? Having lived in a ru…

> Also, people in rural areas driving drunk is mostly due to lack of transportation options. I'm certainly not condoning it, but Uber doesn't travel out into the sticks and there is no bus or train to hop on. I don’t think that refutes their point that they don’t care. Having come from a rural area myself, the decision was to drink at home or a friends I was staying over at rather than drive drunk. They don’t care ab…

> They don’t care about the consequences compared to doing what they want

I also come from a rural area and I think you're missing some detail in the individual calculus. The chance of negative consequences drop so precipitously in some areas that, coupled with poor transportation options, it becomes primarily an individual risk in their eyes. They don't see a big issue with being over the limit when it's a road they drive everyday and encountering even a single vehicle on the way back is rare. It's not a lack of caring, it's just a different calculation.

I've never drove drunk (or even buzzed) and I'm not defending the practice, just trying to explain their point of view.

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

#720

Post by NovemberWhiskey » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 6:33 PM UTC

suchow wrote: post #275

j0hnyl wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they can. The thing is the corporate landlords would rather have their high rises sit empty than rent the units at reasonable rates.

Do you know what would motivate this behavior? Naively, any rent is more than zero rent, so why let a unit sit empty?

There's a large (20,000+) volume of empty rent-stabilized units - in those cases, landlords say that a recent tenant protection law (HSTPA, 2019) makes it uneconomic for them to rent due to the expected difficulty of evicting non-paying tenants and the strict limitations on how much repair and investment work can be recouped from increasing rent.