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Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

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281–290 of 352 posts

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#281

Amazing, supply and demand actually works! Someone should tell all the protestors who opposed construction of new luxury condos because they thought it would somehow increase rents.

For what it's worth - Four of the eleven Supervisors (in San Francisco) were just up for re-election. Some of the candidates were much better than the others. Marjan Philhour, a pro-housing candidate in District 1, lost by 1000 votes. If she won, pro-housing SF Supervisors would have had a 6-5 majority on the board. We were 1000 votes away from a much better housing situation in SF. If you live in SF, the way we chan…

Hillary Ronen, Campos's former chief of staff, could turn out to be pro housing. She included building 5,000 units of "affordable" (BMR) housing in her platform: http://hillaryronen.com/hillarys-plan/

There's nowhere near enough public funds to subsidize that much BMR housing, so in theory she would have to support mixed developments. In practice it might just be lip service.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your $215k Aussie house in close to town in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane? There are plenty of cheap houses in America too, living in LA/SF/NYC is a luxury that people pay a premium for.

It's interesting that a lot of people act like living in those big cities is a necessity rather than the luxury that you've pointed out it really is.

What about better career opportunities?

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That, plus a complete refusal on the part of government and voters to build any more housing. not to mention all the environmental impact fees, taxes, and endless regulation which increase housing costs way beyond where it would be without. It's not just LA and SF (gold rush cities that have housing problems). In CA, even the rural areas with miles of space in every direction, housing still costs a lot more than the…

I'm not sure where you plan to build in new york for example? Build even higher buildings?

Yes. New York doesn't even have that high of a density compared to European standards.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been to the Adventurer Hotel which is the first on that list a long, long time ago. I would not recommend it. I had a layover at LAX, their bus pulled up right in front of me, and some kids said get on. The staff, all the girls were from Russia or Poland and the guys were from New Zealand, Australia, and one bloke from England, on the bus made a pit stop at the liqueur store. They bought at least 12 liters of bo…

Man, life was a lot more colorful before we started spending all our time behind a screen.

Man ain't that the sad truth.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#285
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this just called a hostel? That just sounds like your friend is living in a hostel dorm. $20/day actually sounds cheap now that I'm looking at hostel rates in LA: http://www.hostelworld.com/search?search_keywords=Los+Angele...

I've been to the Adventurer Hotel which is the first on that list a long, long time ago. I would not recommend it. I had a layover at LAX, their bus pulled up right in front of me, and some kids said get on. The staff, all the girls were from Russia or Poland and the guys were from New Zealand, Australia, and one bloke from England, on the bus made a pit stop at the liqueur store. They bought at least 12 liters of bo…

I'm with you right up to the point where you say you don't recommend staying at this place.

From your description, this sounds like every backpacker hostel, everywhere. Or at least what they aspire to be.

Sadly, everything moves upmarket, and "hostel" tends to now translate to giant soulless hotel where they have two or three bunk beds in each room and no real shared space or opportunity to meet other travelers (who realistically would now be staring at their phone the entire time they were in one of those shared spaces, so you'd never meet them anyway).

But what you describe used to be every night of your round the world trip. It was fun.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#286

Can this please be re-titled as a US study? First blush of the article title made me go "What? Seriously?"; the two markets I look at first are London and Sydney.

I've heard similar reports about the London rental market, but then again when it comes to the housing market, the UK press report on every scrap of noisy data they can get their hands on. London has also seen a huge glut of (supposedly) high-end property come online. Builders are struggling to sell, so they're now starting to offer discounts on the new housing stock [1]. If what the article says is true, I would be…

Looks like rents are down a little but not too dramatic: https://homelet.co.uk/homelet-rental-index/london?range=24

This isn't too surprising, since I think London rents were seriously testing what the market would bear - plenty of chatter about London becoming completely unaffordable.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure where you plan to build in new york for example? Build even higher buildings?

Yes. New York doesn't even have that high of a density compared to European standards.

Umm, which standards?

Paris city area has a density (21000/km²) that is twice that of New York City (10800/km²), but is an exception. Many other major European metropolitan cities are less than half of New York's density.

(Berlin 4000/km², London 5500/km², Amsterdam 4900/km², Stockholm 5000/km², Helsinki 1500/km², Madrid 5400/km², Köln 2600/km², Lyon 10000/km², Brussels 7000/km²).

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#288

Studio "luxury" apartments here in Nashville have long term leases at $1200/mo for a studio. I was not impressed when I did a tour across the city; I asked the occupancy rate at a few places, and was floored when they told me it was only ~25%; these were 1yr+ old developments, which is apparently common place. I've been telling people the city is in a bubble, but no one believes me. Everyone says now is the time to b…

I'm in Nashville as well, and was just talking about this yesterday with people. The past couple of years has seemed to be almost entirely luxury apartment complexes being built, and anecdotally most of the young people I know here can't afford them, or if they can will just buy a house instead.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#289
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds plausible, and it chimes with the article's statement that the new supply is at the high end. Thanks! If people were only blocking certain kinds of development, that would explain why low-end prices stay high even while there's a lot of construction causing the median price to drop.

I think of it as: NIMBYism keeps high-density zoned land high value, so the floor never comes out of the market, even if you squish the top down. Houses don't belong in (the core of) major metros anymore, but there are a lot of wealthy home owners who live there, and have built up political networks over decades or centuries. It's a tragedy of our system that we let 20 residents keep out 200.

Should the 20 just be bought out, or forced to sell, or allowed to rezone and then sell one by one (with the first person getting the most money, as each lot is turned into a high rise).

We are facing some of this in the city in which I live and I don't really know how to address it (I can see validity in the arguments of both sides) so was wondering what you see as the path forward.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#290
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yes, it is about weighing the pros and the cons. I personally have chosen very much to refuse any engagement/job that requires daily commute into an office. I understand that is a privilege that comes with being a developer and not something everyone can do.

I was in the same position, but decided to just move Jakarta to live in a fully furnished 2bd apt (along with other other amenities of the building) for about $750/month (I paid this much for a room in a 3bd apt in Boston, with nothing sort of the amenities). Different pros and cons (see remote working cross timezones). I think in the long run as more and more work allow for it, it will free up pressure in extremely…

And remote work needs to get more and more mainstream.

If that doesn't happen, then the pressure will remain on the geographies with many job opportunities, and most of the wealth will flow to the landowners.

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