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$ 100.000 Dollar Parking, Spots

2024 Website Hosting Fees

Total amount
$905.00
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$1,038.00

Lewis

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$ 100.000 Dollar Parking, Spots


Helen and Bob Alkon paid $1.3 million for their condominium in downtown Boston two years ago. And while some apartments in the building have slipped in value since then, one of the Alkons' investments has paid off: The parking spot they purchased for $100,000 today sells for $125,000.

"I'm glad I bought when I did," says Ms. Alkon, a retired office manager.
In some downtowns across the country, a scarcity of parking has driven demand into the stratosphere — even in places where home prices are declining. In some buildings, parking costs are nearly on par, on a per-square-foot basis, with the apartments themselves.

Parking comes at a premium in places where crowded conditions and urban revitalization efforts have fueled demand. Residential buildings typically allocate one or fewer parking spots per unit. While these are sold only to residents, some parking spaces on lower floors are leased to non-residents as well.
[More from WSJ.com: Some Home Builders Run Out of Lifelines]

Building more parking garages isn't necessarily an option. In Manhattan's business core, for example, constructing a public garage requires a special permit that is expensive and time-consuming to obtain. Separately, city planning officials may lower minimum parking requirements at residential buildings that have good access to mass transit, exacerbating the squeeze.
"It's kind of just a wasted requirement to have them put parking in," because residents are much more likely to take a subway or a bus, says Hope Cohen, associate director of the New York-based nonprofit Regional Plan Association.

As prices rise, some luxury-condo owners have purchased parking spots as investments. Diane Sarkisian, a real-estate agent and concert pianist, bought a condo in Symphony House, a high-end building in Center City Philadelphia, for $1.05 million, or about $783 per square foot, in 2007. She also bought two parking spots, at $50,000 apiece — or about $278 per square foot — to house her Mercedes S550 and her daughter's Volvo S40. While the value of her apartment hasn't appreciated, the going rate for parking spots in the building has risen to $75,000, about $416 per square foot. It offers a good return to owners when developers allow them to sublet their spaces.

"My apartment is probably not quite worth what it was," Ms. Sarkisian says. "I think it's going to retain its value pretty well, but not as well as my parking spot. I'm a parking profiteer."
In cities like Philadelphia, parking prices are also influenced by the availability of parking at surrounding offices, schools, shops and restaurants.
"The beauty of it is, as [apartment] prices came down, parking went up," says Jon Gollinger, a condo broker and real-estate consultant with Accelerated

Marketing Partners in Boston. He adds that in every city he works in, he is noticing parking rates rising for buildings with desirable locations.
[More from WSJ.com: Using Waffles to Gauge Storms]
"You're dealing with the elite," he says. "Someone who has money and is willing to spend a million, million and a half on a unit, you're not going to park your car in a building that's half a block away. That's just not going to happen."

Toronto's exclusive Four Seasons residence building recently set a local record by selling a suite in a 55-story tower for $28 million. Prices for parking spaces also broke a record, coming in at $100,000.
"The city has been on a very healthy run in the last decade, and people have really taken a shine to living in condos." says Mimi Ng, a spokeswoman for Menkes

Developments Ltd., the project's developer. "If you're spending $4 million for a suite here, $100,000 isn't out of line for parking."
In other cities, local policy makers say costly parking spots encourage the use of public transit, which in turn reduces downtown traffic.
San Francisco, for example, in 2006 required that developers unbundle parking-spot prices from the prices of condos. Now, the two properties have to be purchased separately, so buyers are more likely to take public transit to work.

A more recent ordinance limits the number of parking spaces in certain high-density parts of the city, to 0.5 parking space for each condo unit.
[More from WSJ.com: Pleasure Boats Offer Shelter in Rough Times]
As a result, in-building parking prices over the past year have climbed above $100,000 for the first time, says Alan Mark, a real-estate consultant in San Francisco.

In some extreme cases, out-of-the ordinary parking features have actually driven up prices on condos. A building in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood designed by star architect Annabelle Selldorf that opened this year and has sold units to celebrities like actress Nicole Kidman and fashion designer Domenico Dolce, features an "En Suite Sky Garage" — an elevator that brings your car right to your apartment. Units in the building have sold for as much as $6 million apiece.

Residents drive their cars into an elevator inside the building, which delivers both car and driver to a spot adjacent to their condo unit.
"It's something I've seen in New York and Washington and Miami: That the upper tier is just doing better because it's not hampered by financing," says Jonathan Miller, a real-estate appraiser and consultant in New York. "That's where you'll see this propensity for luxury stuff, and parking is one of those key things."
Ny Times
 
glad i dont have that problem.man i thought i had it bad with my way overprice home that i bought during the boom.
 
100 grand for a parking space is about the most stupid thing that I have ever heard of.
 
get used to these things. i see america becoming a third world country. we almost dont have a middle class just elite wealthy and the poor.
 
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