Digestible Real Estate News
We’re keeping this reoccurring 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.
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1. New York City Council is taking a huge step in the fight against Airbnb in the city. The City Council is expected to roll out a bill that would require hosts on short-term rental sites to provide the Mayor’s Office with addresses for their listings, as well as provide their full names and primary addresses, so the city can identify hosts that are operating illegal hotels instead of renting out their own homes. Airbnb has been a huge reason for rent spikes, drastic drops in available rental properties, and a hastening of gentrification in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
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2. New Yorker’s rejoice!! Starting June 1, Central Park will be completely car free! This comes as part of large scale restoration project for the park, aiming to bring it back to the lush, pastoral vision at its inception. But obviously this is huge in a safety and enjoyment measure, as 35 million people visit the park every year.
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3. Even though DeBlasio made a huge push for affordable housing to be preserved, we are in the throws of massive displacement and an affordable housing crisis. Between 2015 and 2016, Astoria lost a whopping 634 rent-stabilized units – the highest amount in the city – with rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods like Central Harlem (which lost 500 units) and Bed-Stuy (which lost 460 units) right behind it. The major impetuses heralding these change are new development, changes in price per square foot, rise in flipped homes, and evictions. Click here for the full chart.
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4. Pardon me, can I buy the house of Aaron Burr, sir? That depends, do you have $4.8 million in the bank, sir? Aaron Burr, who famously killed our country’s first treasury secretary in a duel in 1804, owned the plot of land in Greenwich Village at 17 Commerce Street, where a 19th-century townhouse now stands. The two-story, red brick Federal townhouse was built in 1830 and still bleeds the historic charm of that time – most importantly, it just sold for a cool $4.8 million.
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5. The new suburban real estate craze? Adult tree-houses. These puppies are costing folks ~$70,000 and are amazingly ridiculous. Dad, are you reading this?
