Building Boom: Cooling or Catching Its Breath?
How healthy is the city’s construction industry these days? It depends on what statistics you look at. If you were a glass-half-empty sort you might cite the fact that 2006 marked the first downturn in almost a decade in the number of permits for new buildings; the number of overall construction permits (including renovations) also…
How healthy is the city’s construction industry these days? It depends on what statistics you look at. If you were a glass-half-empty sort you might cite the fact that 2006 marked the first downturn in almost a decade in the number of permits for new buildings; the number of overall construction permits (including renovations) also fell. If you were more of an optimist, like, say, Dan Doctoroff, you might point out the fact that construction spending was up 5% in 2006. Optimists and pessimists would probably agree that we are already in the middle of a tectonic shift from residential development being the major driver of building activity to commercial and public projects taking the forefront. (Interesting factoid: More than half of annual construction spending comes from public money.) And what about the non-economic impact of the building boom? “Obviously a construction boom is good in many respects. Unfortunately there is an aspect of it that has really been undermining the very nature of neighborhood life in this city,” said City Council member Tony Avella. “We can no longer just have business as usual when in fact we are in a crisis mode. Not enough people are paying serious attention to overdevelopment and unsafe construction.”
Building Boom in NYC Hits Wall [NY Post]
City’s Building Boom Enters a New Phase [NY Sun]
“Building Boom: Cooling or Catching Its Breath?”
Frigid, brittle, cracking and asphyxiating.
Oh, I must be mistaken then. Your anecdotal evidence obviously trumps mine.
My point was that this “economic rebirth” that is gentrifying the whole country is run on massive amounts of debt, not an actual increase in salaries or income (except for the Wall Street guys, who can’t possibly carry the entire economy on the strength of their bonuses). And I don’t see how that’s sustainable. Do you?
I must travel in different worlds than you. Everyone I know has bought a place. What kind of average job doesn’t allow you to buy a place. Doesn’t sound like much of a job to me
It’s weird. Everyone I know who has a college degree and a decent job (not a Wall Street job, but an average, decent job) can’t afford to buy a place. And these are not “whiny” people who refuse to live in uncool neighborhoods. These are people like myself, who, when push comes to shove (which it invariably does, in NYC real estate), move their entire families into rentals in Crown Heights and Kensington because it’s all they can afford.
But when they can’t afford to even buy something in those neighborhoods, it makes me wonder (in no particular order): why do people still think this isn’t a housing bubble? Why are rents so out of proportion to the price of buying? Why do people keep saying that the price of real estate only goes up (historically, completely untrue) and that people should get in now, while they can (and does this sound like guilt-peddling desperation to anyone else?) Why do people think that families should OBVIOUSLY be willing to have both parents work just to be able to afford the privilege of being saddled with a huge chunk of debt they will realistically never see the end of so they can live in a 600 square foot two-bedroom apartment a full hour and a half commute from their job? Is everyone crazy? Is everyone under 30 and childless and making 6 figures and planning on staying that way? Has a healthy national economy historically ever been built on this level of household debt? And if this is a global phenomenon (Dublin, Istanbul), why does it make it any less worrisome than if it’s just a Brooklyn phenomenon?
Just to clarify: I’m less worried about being able to buy my own place, and much more worried about how so many people have come to believe that being in so much debt is not only acceptable, but the responsible thing to do.
There will be a glut of cheaply built (yet still unaffordable) condos nobody wants, and they’ll have to lower prices on those. But there are also well-built (also unaffordable) condos being built and those will sell. I don’t think it’s a bad thing of the crappy new construction doesn’t sell; maybe it will make older co-ops and brownstones more appreciated. At any rate, if houses and new condos are unaffordable for people, aren’t co-ops further out in Brooklyn or in Queens affordable? There ARE places to buy if you’re willing to leave Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill or Park Slope. I just don’t see how people think they can have both – a cheap place in a very fashionable neighborhood. I understand if people have lived in an area a long time and get upset they get priced out. That totally stinks. But it’s happening all over the country. All over the world. Look at the international cities that have had a huge rebirth economically in recent years. Dublin, Istanbul, to name only two. It’s not just Brooklyn. The whining and the hating doesn’t make sense and solves nothing. It doesn’t do anything productive towards buying a home.
Good thing all those Wall Street guys got those huge bonuses to spend on new condos, otherwise we might be facing a massive glut of unaffordable housing in the next few years!
people live on staten island?
check out monday’s nytimes metro section article on page B3, ‘wave of develepment…’. looks like we’re in for a lot of development including AY.
right, anon 9:33.
Based on the monthly averages for 2006, then including December, the number of permits would actually beat 2005 except for Staten Island.
It’s a bit careless, but not surprising for the NY Post to make assumptions based on incomplete data.