Monday, August 25, 2008

Just dropped a kid off at NYU--and thought about the real estate.

So we just had the first one leave the nest for Greenwich Village (second one leaves in two weeks for Evanston). Two real estate thoughts hit me:

(1) NYU dorms are the bargain of the century. They are very nice (four young women share two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchenette) and have views that would command double the price per square foot in the standard, un-rent-stabilized NYC housing market. The hallway gives a great view up Lexington Avenue (you can see the Chrysler Building) and over the Williamsberg Bridge.

(2) People need to get over considering price-to-household-income as the key fundamental. Density in lower Manhattan is so much greater than nearly anywhere else in the country, it will of course be the case that the relative price of housing to anything else--including wages--will be higher there than elsewhere.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Should the ratio of household income to rent be deemphasized? For the apartment lessor, the concern is whether the lesee can pay the rent. So, just because the apartment is located in a highly dense area, I'm not sure why the income requirement should be relaxed.