Even if you’ve never been to New York City, the concept that
parking would be hard to find and very expensive there shouldn’t be too hard to
grasp. Space within the city is extremely limited, and as a result all real
estate is expensive. Most of the residents don’t even own cars, and a
surprising percentage of them will be happy to tell you, at the drop of
anything resembling a cue, how wonderful it is to be able to go anywhere you
want to go on public transportation, how much money they save every year by not
having to make car payments (or pay for car insurance), and why this is further
evidence of the complete superiority of their city to anywhere else in the
world you could possibly live. I’m not convinced that the existence of a
parking space that will cost you as much as $6,600 per square foot supports
that contention, however…
According to the story in the New York Times website, the parking
spaces are part of a new condo development in a building that will offer
three-bedroom units in the $8.7 million to $10.45 million range – or around
$3,150 per square foot; less than half of what the parking spots cost based on
footage. Or, to look at it another way, each of these parking sports will require
financial resources that would be sufficient to purchase a really nice house
(complete with multi-car garage) in many other large cities, or four quite
large houses in a good part of East Lansing, Michigan, outright. This would
seem extravagant almost anywhere, but in a city that prides itself on its
public transportation – and which is widely associated with both horrible
driving conditions and unbearable automotive expenses – it seems like a
complete logical disconnect…
Now, we should probably acknowledge that according to the
same story it isn’t that unusual to see parking spaces with a six-figure price
listing in New York; the author also points out that the available number of
off-street parking spaces has dropped by around 26% over the past 30 years,
whereas the population of the city certainly has not. We might also want to concede
that someone who is paying in excess of $10 million for a new residence
(especially a condominium) might consider an extra 10% in order to park in the
same building no more than a minor expense – or possibly an interesting
investment, since it will both enhance the value of the condo and also offer a
property than can be sold separately from the residence. But it should probably
also be noted than anyone who can afford to spend that kind of money on real
estate can most likely also afford cab fare…
In the long run a parking space that costs four times more
than the national average for a house may seem like a particularly disgusting
example of conspicuous consumption, but if the people who buy them end up
selling the properties at a good profit in five or ten years it’s hard to
imagine what was wrong with this choice from a business standpoint; if the
spaces appreciate the way some real estate did in the early 2000s the owners
might end up having the last laugh on all of us. The truth is, if I could
realize a profit of millions of dollars – or even $200,000 for a nice 20%
profit – on buying and selling a piece of property, I don’t believe that I’d
care whether it was a 200-unit apartment complex or a 200 square foot parking
space…
And I can’t imagine why anyone else should care, let alone
give me a whole lecture on conspicuous consumption…
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