Digestible Real Estate News
We’re keeping this recurring piece to do a bit more for those genuinely interested in New York real estate, not just food porn, and give my LinkedIn designation a little luster. Taking a note from the easy to absorb nuggets of information in MarketSnacks‘ newsletter (blanketed with this unshakable food theme), here are your RealEstateSnacks so I can make this newsletter tax deductible.
1. Rental prices in both Brooklyn and Manhattan hit an all time high last month and in conjunction, concessions offered by landlords slipped away with the heavy demand. In Brooklyn, the median rent price reached a record high of $3,015, following eight consecutive months of growth. Rent prices also climbed in Manhattan, where the median price reached $3,500. Many credit the rent increases to the lull in the sales market, where prospective buyers are waiting for a shift in the market. However with interest rates being so low and most sellers more realistic, for first time buyers this market couldn’t be more if an opportunity.
2. In a recently released 2020-2024 capital plan, the MTA has promised to invest $51.5 billion into the New York transit system, pledging to focus on the laughable subway. The largest chunk of that investment is $37.3 billion dedicated to signal modernization along six subway lines, bringing in 1,900 new subway cars, making 70 stations ADA-accessible, replacing tracks, and revamping 175 stations. Where’s the money coming from? Largely congestion pricing and the progressive mansion tax.
3. New York is a tale of two markets: while the first time buyer market is healthy, the luxury condo market is experiencing a glut. Of the 16,242 new condos constructed in the past six years, more than 25% are still sitting, including 40% of the condos for sale on Billionaires’ Row. The big culprits are Hudson Yards and the Lower East Side, where many projects, like One Manhattan Square, are largely unsold. Prices need to come down so locals can afford the units and cure the condo boom hangover.
4. So there’s an extremely toxic, hallucinogenic plant, that gives its users an 11 day trip where they effectively turn into zombies, growing along planter-beds on the greenway of the UWS. Datura Stramonium turns its victims into zombies void of free will, and trips are described as horrific nightmares. The Manson Family was also known to frequently use the planet…and now it grows freely on the idyllic UWS.
Unrelated but nonetheless news worthy: Lebron James is trying to trademark the phrase “Taco Tuesday”…in case you need another reason to despise him.