It is all the rage now to talk about just how bad real estate is doing in The Big Apple, The City that NEVER Sleeps.....New York City. In fact a lot of buzz has been created about an article in the New York Times today about folks walking away from $1 million deposits on coops and condo's because it's looking so bleak. Apartment Buyers Abandoning Six Figure Deposits
Well, waaaaay back in July 2008, when everyone was talking about New York City real estate holding its huge 10-year gains because the almighty Euro (remember that?) would have Europeans buying the high end palaces going up all over the City our own Richie Bennett had a different opinion;
You know what I look at a lot of the day? All the construction going on in New York City. Manhattan specifically but its going on in the outer boroughs too. I mean these arent small projects either. Big time high rises. The residential kind. Where you can live. The asking prices? Almost as high as the buildings themselves. The sales results in Manhattan are being looked at very closely every month nowadays. You know what the numbers are saying? Prices are flat to slightly higher in Manhattan. This is after a huge gain for the last 10 years or so. HUGE. Interesting.
Um when we hear these assclown real estate brokers talk about these figures, they always mention how New York City is "different" than other markets due to it being a huge hit with the entire globe's population. They will then drop in the ol' "even if the US buyers arent as aggresive, the FOREIGN buyers are very active in NYC due to the strength of the Euro." That's nice. Its also a bunch of crap.
Look I have some money. I dont have it all and never will. But I can tell you this, 10 years ago when the dollar was really strong and I was looking at investments, I NEVER once said "hey you know what I'd like? A nice pad in London, or Tokyo, or Hong Kong, or Sydney." You know what else? Neither did any of my pals who lived here. Trust me we couldve if we wanted to. This tells me that this "foreign love-in" is gonna stop pretty quickly. You think not? You wanna know who took the NASDAQ market on its last good ride from 4000 to 5000 in about 6 months a few years back? You're damn right. The foreigners. The NASDAQ is at 2265 today. Hiya. They aint been been back since.
So my point is, last year, the financial industry paid about 35% of the wages and salaries in NYC so that they could afford those nice expensive (smallish) apartments. That also doesnt take into account the ancillary (nice word Richie) businesses connected to the financial industry who are now also S.O.L (a technical term meaning in trouble), like printing companies, law firms, computer makers, even the coffee guy. Suffice it to say the number is probably closer to 70% of NYC's wages and salaries tied into the financial industry indirectly or directly.
Now tonight, the legally blind governor of the state of New York, David Paterson, is going to give a type of State of the State address that will be on TV. I got a funny feeling the legally blind Gov. is going to highlight some of these issues like someone who has 20/20 vision. He's gonna come with a big ol' can of whoop-ass ladies and gents. Laying down the cold hard facts. It aint a pretty sight when it comes to things like the budget.
So we have construction out the wazoo, people getting fired left and right from the industry that pays all the bills and is going through a LONG downturn, prices "unchanged" after HUGE gains the last 10 years in Manhattan real estate, and a NYC budget that is a black hole (could mean less cops and other important city services like garbagemen). What does that all spell? We hear at monkeybusinessblog.com think thats a nice SELLING opportunity.
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