Up up up the high-rises climb and as construction booms rents per square foot start to fall. The city becomes a cheaper, better place to live with more economically empowered renters. But a funny thing happens. Despite the increase in housing affordability, disposable income after rent and utilities is actually lower than it was before. What happened, basically, is that people who used to spend $X for a room in a three bedroom unit now spend a little bit more than $X for a one bedroom all to themselves. And instead of splitting utilities, they have to each pay their own bills. So disposable income has gone down a bit and everyone needs their own pots and pans to boot.
Then there's this:
ReplyDeleteUp up up the high-rises climb and as construction booms rents per square foot start to fall. The city becomes a cheaper, better place to live with more economically empowered renters. But a funny thing happens. Despite the increase in housing affordability, disposable income after rent and utilities is actually lower than it was before. What happened, basically, is that people who used to spend $X for a room in a three bedroom unit now spend a little bit more than $X for a one bedroom all to themselves. And instead of splitting utilities, they have to each pay their own bills. So disposable income has gone down a bit and everyone needs their own pots and pans to boot.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/01/15/housemates_a_parable.html