We came across a 1999 article by John McCrory (who’s been blogging for longer than it’s been called that) that’s both funny and enlightening to read in 2005. Concerned about the runaway prices in his neighborhood of Park Slope, McCrory decides to write a paper on gentrification and hyper-inflation. And we quote…

Most observers agree that the recent wave of hyper-inflation in Park Slope is the result of intense new demand from households in the upper-income brackets. “You have a huge demand and a limited supply,” says Steve Sommers, who sells real estate in Park Slope. Even buyers ready to spend $500,000, he says, are unable to find property. Feeding the buying frenzy are “the people with bucks who have been made wealthy by the stock market.” Tim Ross, Ph.D., a researcher for the Center for Urban Research, also says the current wave of hyper-inflation results from Wall Street profits. He says the hypercompetitive housing market in Manhattan has forced many well-paid professionals to look to the outer boroughs. When they do, they limit their search to just a few attractive neighborhoods, of which Park Slope is one of the most prominent. “These folks simply won’t think of living in vast swaths of the city,” says Ross, “so their demand is focused narrowly on just a handful of neighborhoods.

Gentrification in Brooklyn [John McCrory]