Manhattan hits 13,000 empty apartments

[Demovictory9]

[msongs]

1. lower rents then right? nt

[Demovictory9]

2. yep. sf too

[Withywindle]

4. Probably not because of foreign investors and private equity firms

That's the reason rents have been driven up beyond reach of the middle class, never mind the working class.

That's been going on for decades. I would LOVE to see that trend reversed, and rents and ownership prices for regular people who just want a place to live become more affordable, but even a pandemic might not be enough to do it.

[Sanity Claws]

13. They've been buying coops, condos, and entire rental buildings.

However, the foreign investors and private equity firms have not been renting apartments, at least not as tenants. They may be landlords.

[Happy Hoosier]

11. If supply/demand is working, but...

It's not all good news. The property owners will probably take a bat with significantly lower rents, which means they'll cut to the bone, meaning maintenance issues, and they'll be less likely to forbear late rents.

[markpkessinger]

3. The glut of empty apartments has been worsened by the pandemic . . .

. . . but it started well before, thanks to the excessive number of luxury towers that have gone up in the last 10-15 years, many of which have never been filled, and serve as mere investment properties for very wealthy investors.

[Withywindle]

5. +1

It's amazing how, in just a few decades, some inner city areas have gone from "blighted ghettos" (wrong) to locations so desirable for the rich that you have to be a millionaire just to live there.

And this is why. "Urban renewal" is always code for extreme economic gentrification.

[brooklynite]

9. I don't know how to tell you this but...healthy cities are dynamic...

In the 1870s when our house was built, our section of Brooklyn was upper middle class. In the 1930s it was where dockworkers lived and our house had been boarded up. Today it’s one of the higher income nabes. You can’t lock in an economic scale.

[Happy Hoosier]

12. We are always hearing about the need to economically revitalize inner city neighborhoods...

But that will almost always mean some level of gentrification. No business will invest in a neighborhood where the residents can't afford to patronize the them.

I've heard some weird stuff described as "gentrification."

In my small city, there was an outcry of "gentrification" when an Aldi's was being build in an under-served area. Just 6 months before, there was a protest decrying the area as a food desert. Sometimes ya just can't win.

[SergeStorms]

6. Trump shoots himself in the foot.

How is occupancy doing in Trump Towers, Donny? Ahhhh....the Russians will always take care of one of their own. Fat Nixon will never have to worry about occupancy in his properties.

[Roy Rolling]

7. True to a Point...

When the Russian oligarchs run out of money and Trump goes back to being an ordinary citizen moron, he’ll be living in a Motel 6 in Florida. We hope.

[North Shore Chicago]

8. +1

They'll leave a light on.

[Lars39]

10. Under a bridge in a prison somewhere.