A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off • Hacker News Board

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#61

Post by JumpCrisscross » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 11:12 PM UTC

AlotOfReading wrote: post #9

MyHonestOpinon wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that is big one. Perhaps we need to rethink housing. Shared restrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. Keep the same restrooms on every floor. A gym with individual showers and a food court on specific floors.

What will distinguish these structures from slums in 10 or 20 years?

> What will distinguish these structures from slums in 10 or 20 years?

The neighbourhood. When I moved to New York in my twenties, I had roommates. Everyone had roommates. That meant sharing a bathroom and kitchen. Not only did this breed camaraderie and teach me to not be a dick, it also freed up cash so I could enjoy the city and save.

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#62

Post by mothballed » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 11:14 PM UTC

quickthrowman wrote: post #54

LinuxAmbulance wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not so much the owner's financial situation, but rather that it'd be cheaper to build new homes than to retrofit a ten floor+ building's plumbing. You'd also have to install a bunch of showers, which could be a significant problem on its own. And then there's the increased amount of sewage, which the building might not be able to handle - even the local sewers might not be equipped to handle the uh... Load a lar…

> You'd also have to install a bunch of showers, which could be a significant problem on its own. Compared to installing a new domestic water pipe riser and drains in an office tower (plus pumps, pressure tanks, etc), installing a shower in each unit is essentially free. Connect the in-unit supply lines to the tap, core drill a hole in the floor to get to the floor below and connect to the drain piping, done.

You can also just raise the shower and toilet on a platform, plumb the waste directly to the wall while depending on the platform to buy you some vertical slope on the way out, and drill right through the side of the building and run the waste vertically down the side. It's not going to freeze on the way down unless you're in Yakutsk. The supply lines you might not even have to retrofit, just put a pressure tank on each floor for peak loads that are slowly topped off by the undersized supply lines.

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#63

Post by JumpCrisscross » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 11:14 PM UTC

evklein wrote: post #28

adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is historically incomplete. American cities were replete with dorm room style housing. These were especially popular with new migrants to the city. An incredibly large percentage of apartments in cities like NYC are used as multi family housing with several housemates sharing them to save on rent. The reality is that the reason such housing doesn’t exist/isn’t more widespread is because cities have passed laws e…

It's easy to live in shareable spaces when you're young and unattached - it becomes a lot more difficult as you age and want to grow a family. I'm not sure I want the kind of life where I have to share a kitchen or a bathroom, spaces I consider very private, with people I'm not related to. Maybe this is a uniquely midwestern/American sentiment, I'm not sure. But I am confident that there are more people like me than…

> The picture of the American dream is familiar, it's a house with a car in the driveway

Note that this is a very modern familiarity. One that basically goes lockstep with our housing crisis.

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#64

Post by mbg721 » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 11:15 PM UTC

red-iron-pine wrote: post #33

mbg721 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lower-friction result is that the offices become huge apartment buildings with reverse-commutes to the suburbs, hoping the "stuff to walk to" survives. There are issues with that too, like plumbing and windows.

most of those issues will be very expensive or insurmountable for most high-rises -- a non-starter you're basically rebuilding from scratch at that point.

Maybe this is a US perspective, but those are attractive properties.

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#65

Post by mothballed » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 11:26 PM UTC

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #56

milkytron wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a long time, the US had the money to build things, use them, let them slowly deteriorate, and then abandon them. It was cheaper to simply let things fall into disrepair, and build shiny new buildings and developments further away from the city center. Rinse and repeat. This is why a lot of inner ring suburbs are filled with strip malls that can't maintain their parking lots, don't have the residential density to…

It wasn't cheaper for any physical reason. It was cheaper because we regulated it that way on purpose. We've intentionally made it unconscionably expensive to bring anything not built to current standard back into service even in a limited capacity (e.g. sublet a factory into smaller space) because we have because this stuff is mostly the purview of local governments who seem to optimize for some middle-ish ground pa…

You don't even have to listen to the meeting, just take a look around. Here's one at Carson City[]. Notice something about the demographics? None of those people look like young family in need of their first home or condo. It's people old enough that already have a place, bought during the days while the getting was still good, and are looking to secure their property values. Maybe a few of them had bad luck or had a nasty divorce and lost their house and have no real estate now, but that's unlikely to be the majority of them.

There's almost no overlap between people on and with the means and time to go to planning and zoning meanings and the people who have the greatest marginal utility lowering the bar to owning a business or a home.

[] https://nevadanewsgroup.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/p...

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#66

Post by nitwit005 » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 11:53 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #60

nitwit005 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look into US retail space per capita. It has far exceeded other nations for some time. Some retail store CEOs have directly discussed too much supply.

> Look into US retail space per capita Recommend a source?

It was harder for you to quote that and ask me, than to figure it out on your own, so I'm going to pass.

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#67

Post by silexia » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 2:20 AM UTC

Office buildings are going the same direction horses went a hundred years ago after the invention of the internal combustion engine.

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#68

Post by Sam713 » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 5:00 AM UTC

MyHonestOpinon wrote: post #7

LinuxAmbulance wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Commercial buildings can't be easily converted into housing - notably, plumbing is not designed for smaller units and can't be retrofitted.

Yeah, that is big one. Perhaps we need to rethink housing. Shared restrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. Keep the same restrooms on every floor. A gym with individual showers and a food court on specific floors.

Genuine question, who would actually want to share an intimate space like a kitchen or bathroom with dozens of other strangers on a daily basis? This is obviously a common setup in college dorms or prison, but that is specifically because it’s a temporary (and extreme) cost saving measure, or because you’ve lost the right to participate in society (i.e. prison, which is viewed by some societies to be cruel and inhumane). I lived with housemates for many years to save money and afford housing, but I could at least choose the few housemates with whom I shared those spaces.

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#69

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 5:07 AM UTC

triceratops wrote: post #19

mono442 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it also the fact the almost no one wants to live like that? The expectations has changed and there's probably little demand for such type of housing.

People rent bedrooms in single-family homes all the time. The only difference between that and dorm-style housing is the size of the building.

[deleted]

Re: A fire sale has U.S. office buildings going for 90% off

#70

Post by Sam713 » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 5:09 AM UTC

triceratops wrote: post #19

mono442 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it also the fact the almost no one wants to live like that? The expectations has changed and there's probably little demand for such type of housing.

People rent bedrooms in single-family homes all the time. The only difference between that and dorm-style housing is the size of the building.

I absolutely disagree. Renting a room in a single family home vastly limits the number of people you have to share those intimate spaces like a kitchen or bathroom with. You also get the option to interview and pick who you’re sharing those spaces with. I lived with housemates for many years, and in dorms during university, and dorms are not even remotely the same from a social safety and privacy perspective.