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chazthetic OP t1_j9gmwit wrote

Reply to comment by sutisuc in Just got our lease renewal numbers. For a 12 month lease renewal, our rent will increase over 10%. I don't see how this is sustainable long term. by chazthetic

It feels like they want nothing but luxury renters from NYC

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JeromePowellAdmirer t1_j9i30or wrote

If Jersey City stopped building, rich people would simply bid up the old houses, as happened in San Francisco and most of Manhattan.

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russokumo t1_j9jldk2 wrote

If you could charge more for a product you sell, wouldn't you?

I moved to the NJ side of the Hudson specifically because my income became high enough that the ~4% city tax for NYC became a non trivial amount of money. I suspect many others did the same especially during covid when no one has to commute into the office. This gentrification effect is now at the snowballing phase for Jersey City where soon our rents east of Grove Street will rival the West Village in NYC.

Over a 30 year period "luxury" apartments should start trickling down to more affordable prices as new luxury buildings overtake them. But the NYC area is so insane that you can have old buildings like Grove Pointe continue to charge rents comparable to new builds in the area.

My biggest regret financially for rent was not buying property in Q3 2020 when prices were down (became a digital nomad instead since I thought NYC would become a crime and germ filled cesspool there was a really nice 1BR in Brooklyn that has now gone up 20%) or signing a longer term lease in Q1 2021 when rental market was still soft.

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chazthetic OP t1_j9jtr82 wrote

I regret not buying as well. I agree with you about the trajectory of JC, but the unfortunate truth is the price increases right now feel like price gouging, the same kinds of price gouging we saw with groceries, gas, etc over the last few years.

I doubt the rising costs of an apartment were solely due to the costs of managing a building, and rather the desire to simply squeeze more and more out of the customers.

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russokumo t1_j9jxcp8 wrote

Alas this is how capitalism works. You squeeze and get higher margins anywhere you can.

Interest rates were the other huge driver. Many other portfolio buildings for these owners are commercial properties on floating rate debt that they are deeply underwater on. So they're probably trying to make up for it where they can.

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