"Creative Workers" Driving Down Manhattan Rent

Anybody see this WSJ article the other day?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014241278873244491045783123742409520…

It's basically stating that the influx of "artists" and tech employees are keeping rents flat in Manhattan due to their mediocre wages. Finance workers made up 60% of all renters in 2006 and its down to 40% today.

Is this what you're seeing around town? Is New York the new California? Are the hippies invading?

6 Comments
 
JENS88Anybody see this WSJ article the other day?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014241278873244491045783123742409520…

It's basically stating that the influx of "artists" and tech employees are keeping rents flat in Manhattan due to their mediocre wages. Finance workers made up 60% of all renters in 2006 and its down to 40% today.

Is this what you're seeing around town? Is New York the new California? Are the hippies invading?

I bet 90% of those techies have never been laid in their life.

 
Best Response

Yeah, because the real estate market in 2006 was based on a sustainable trajectory. Things overheated in a bubble economy and are returning to their natural levels - aka levels where certain sectors weren't propped up to blowout levels by the Fed for a decade. NYC has always been a cultural center and technological center, long before finance crept out of the financial district. Lower rent just says to me that I can stick more money in retirement accounts, so I'm all for it.

You can embrace this reality, or you can basically end up isolating yourself from the best parts on NYC. Equating "artist" with hipster is merely a reflection of a philistine....and uncultured member of the underclass who somehow attains a degree of material wealth is unable to function at the high end of the spectrum within a civilization. Artists definitely get laid more than you, on average, and tech geeks at least have free time to build relationships....truthfully, the average career financier pays for more ass than they ever actually 'hunt'.

You're too young to have such a decrepit worldview. Seriously, get out more. Whether high art like opera is your thing or more basic pastimes, not taking advantage of that while in NYC is an injustice to yourself.

Get busy living
 

Here's some direct quotes from the WSJ article:

"An influx of artists, designers, young people in the city's burgeoning technology sector and other industries is helping to drive rent prices down because they typically make less money than those in financial services, which has seen weaker job growth, according to the report by real-estate marketing consultant Nancy Packes, released with SteetEasy.com and On-Site.com, a national leasing and tenant screening company.

"Lower wages are contributing to lower rental growth," Ms. Packes wrote. "The highly compensated finance sector is losing market share to the technology and creative industries.""

"Workers in creative fields and technology have nearly doubled, now making up nearly three out of 10 renters, the report found.

Despite strong demand for apartments, the trend of lower-paid workers is capping rent increases, setting a limit on how high rents can go—outside super luxury buildings—now and possibly for years to come, the report found."

 

The fixed their damn site so you can't just search for the headline? ballsack

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

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