Real Estate Insights

In Houston, $225,000 will buy a three-bedroom house with a game room, den, in-ground pool and hot tub. In Manhattan, it will buy a parking space. Spaces are in such demand that there are waiting lists of buyers, some of whom don’t even own cars but just rent them out. Eight people are hoping for the chance to buy one of five private parking spaces for $225,000 in the basement of 246 West 17th Street, a 34-unit condo development scheduled for completion next January. Parking in new developments is selling for twice what it was five years ago, and it is estimated that less than 1% of all co-op and condominium buildings in the city have private garages. In Boston, they can sell for as much as $175,000, and they go for as much as $75,000 in Chicago. But in other cities, like Los Angeles and Dallas, most condos include parking in their prices. For developers in New York, parking is the highest and best use for below-grade space and fetches about the same price per square foot as actual living space, which costs much more to develop. The average parking space costs $165,019, or $1,100 per square foot, close to the average apartment price of $1,107 per square foot.

And you probably thought that real estate prices were inflated here in the Bay Area...