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    JubenHamilton Nolan
    4/22/15 5:05pm

    “You may need an apartment as something basic for your survival; but a tiny sliver of extremely wealthy humans around the world need apartments, many of which sit empty most of the year, to use as a physical bank account, and their need supersedes yours.”

    Hamilton you have to understand C.R.E.A.M. The group that sing it are in NYC and all have apartments in various NYC boroughs.

    Seriously, “something basic for your survival” is a city apartment when you can an apartment for less outside the city but then it becomes a drive. 1st world problems if that is true if someone can not survive if they do not have an apartment in the city.

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      Hamilton NolanJuben
      4/22/15 5:12pm

      I would like to see how well New York City runs when all the working class people leave it.

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      cuntybawsHamilton Nolan
      4/22/15 5:18pm

      It’ll run just fine: the working class people will just have to get up at 3am to commute to work, is all. Until, robots. Or revolution. Or robot revolution.

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    aprilphreshHamilton Nolan
    4/22/15 5:14pm

    What all of the out-of-towners in the comments here don’t realize is that this is the only kind of housing that’s being built in Manhattan, Brooklyn and even Queens now, and they get tax cuts. Tall glassy towers that nobody can afford, and many people won’t even live in. There’s always been a ridiculously low vacancy rate in the city; when I was last apartment hunting a few years ago it was 3%. Now even meh neighborhoods are being bought up by foreigners, so where do the locals go?

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      Bitch Puddingaprilphresh
      4/22/15 5:35pm

      “Why do you choose to live there though? I have an amazing 2br for $800 in bumfuck, Nevada.” — Not the point. You don’t get it. Sit down.

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      Ashisyouaprilphresh
      4/22/15 6:08pm

      We have one of those in SF. The new tallest building in the city. Tall, glass, over-priced condos and three quarters empty. Its been three quarters empty since it was built around 5-8 years ago.

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    Arthur VincieHamilton Nolan
    4/22/15 5:53pm

    To all those folks who took Econ 101 with a smattering of Ayn Rand below... you really don’t understand NY or San Fran or other cities. “Just move” isn’t a realistic option - we are already living 1+ hours away from work in many cases. We rely on public transportation that (in NYC’s case anyway) is increasingly expensive and under stress (and forget having a car in NYC, unless you like paying parking tickets, too much for gas and tolls, and taking even longer to get to work).

    So you’re saying we should move EVEN further away from where we work (increasing our transpo costs and commute time) so we can make the same salary? Or we should just pull up our roots and leave the city and hope we can find a job in another city/town? That’s a big ask, and not cheap either.

    Look, NYC has always been a tough nut, but there used to be crannies that people could find that offered some kind of compromise (amenities vs. space vs. rent). And there used to be ways to live cheaply in NYC (cheap food, cheap subway fare, cheap entertainment, lots of unstructured public space) to make up for the expenses. All of that is disappearing, because of this overemphasis on building high-end housing (they’re knocking down mid-range housing, affordable shopping and services for this crap) , privatizing public space, and installing big box stores and shi-shi high-end goods retailers.

    Much of this real estate development would not have been possible without Bloomberg and Guiliani’s generous rezoning initiatives, the over-use of eminent domain and bogus health/building code violations, tax subsidies, loosening of real estate regs, and general fellating of the uber-rich... while ignoring, by and large, the voting and working folks in this town. So this isn’t supply and demand... this is cronyism and anti-competitiveness at its finest.

    So please stop telling us we’re being unrealistic for wanting to be able to live somewhere near where we work without having to count pennies. Just stop.

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      Kirk LazarusArthur Vincie
      4/22/15 8:33pm

      Is your job available in other locations throughout the country?

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      SJDubyaArthur Vincie
      4/23/15 12:27am

      Please stop being unrealistic and pretending the two don’t go hand in hand. If you work in a major business center, then you will pay more. If you move to a place with fewer opportunities, you will pay less.

      It doesn’t take Ayn Rand to realize that opportunity comes with a cost.

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    potatogamineHamilton Nolan
    4/22/15 4:58pm

    I just don’t see how towers of glass in climates of extreme temperature fluctuations can be a good long term investment. In Toronto they’re already predicting that a lot of the new builds will be low income or slums within a few decades because they are so shoddily built.

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      lockyertoespotatogamine
      4/22/15 5:59pm

      Uh, are you comparing Toronto to New York City??? lol

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      potatogaminelockyertoes
      4/22/15 6:08pm

      Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing. They have the same climate and they build the same stupid glass buildings that get bought up by rich foreign investors and then sit vacant, driving up prices for everyone else. It’s a pretty helpful comparison if you can get over yourself.

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    G3istbotHamilton Nolan
    4/22/15 5:21pm

    I was watching NHK they had a special on Singapore that briefly covered the exact same thing. There are wealthy Singaporeans purchasing up condos and apartments in Tokyo, and just sitting on them. An overwhelming majority of the purchasers wouldn’t even be visiting the locations let alone living in them. The end game plan was to hold on to the properties, wait about 2 years or until the price had increased, and sell them off to purchasers (who might just be people doing the exact same thing). It creates an artificial scarcity, and that’s how you get the price to increase.

    So, its definitely not just a U.S. problem, but what seems to be an international problem.

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      celer.aquaG3istbot
      4/22/15 5:28pm

      I’d be happy to apartment-sit for these zillionaires.

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      piss pawsG3istbot
      4/22/15 6:22pm

      I remember reading several print articles encouraging people to purchase apartments in Tokyo as investments while living in Singapore. They described how the build quality is much higher for cheaper than Singapore (which, in my experience, is true), among other things, making it worth it. Lots of wealthy folks out there...

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    Medieval KnievelHamilton Nolan
    4/22/15 5:00pm

    I would kill for this view! The view in, that is, assuming it’s some hottie bathing in that tub, and not a fat old plutocrat.

    It’s probably both, isn’t it? It’s probably both. I’ll just stay down here and look up at the Met Life tower from time to time.

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      G3istbotMedieval Knievel
      4/22/15 5:23pm

      Sorry, but it’s me, just a fat neckbeard covered in chicken wing grease and an assortment of condiments (mostly mustard), sitting on the toilet sweating profusely and staring down at my phone.

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    amgarreHamilton Nolan
    4/22/15 5:08pm

    Can’t we invent something cheap and tell rich people it’s going to be the next big thing, much better than apartments. Tulips? Beanie Babies? Invisible clothes? I don’t know, something. But we poors would have to stick together and not tell them.

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      Mr_SnrubHamilton Nolan
      4/22/15 4:57pm

      The only way to change this dynamic is to either take the apartments, or take the money.
      Don't Let Rich People Own Apartments They Don't Live In Don't Let Rich People Own Apartments They Don't Live In Don't Let Rich People Own Apartments They Don't…

      It is not easy to find housing in big cities. In New York City, apartments are both expensive and… Read more Read more

      Or you know, burn it all down.

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        TopherMr_Snrub
        4/22/15 4:59pm
        GIF
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      mmsfcHamilton Nolan
      4/22/15 7:15pm

      Latest figures say that nearly 40% of the luxury condos in San Francisco are owned by people who do not live in San Francisco. According to ownership records, that figure goes up to about 50% for the most recently built condo towers, although I’ve learned from professional lease negotiators that, in reality, the Infinity and Rincon Towers are hardly occupied at all and being rented just for amounts to cover HOA dues.

      In SF, where median home price $1.1 million, about 40% of new homes are purchased with cash. In some neighborhoods, it’s as high as 58% with homes going at 33% over asking! This all looks pretty much like a textbook definition of real estate speculation and/or money laundering. Of course, it may be that some people have so much money that cash is just what one uses to get this or that thing - a McMansion or a Maserati.

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        toothpetardHamilton Nolan
        4/22/15 4:54pm

        stores of wealth

        Mmmmmm: where wealthism diverges from capitalism.

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          Ashisyoutoothpetard
          4/22/15 6:16pm
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