Quote:
Originally Posted by Ricopedra
Boy, am I out of it. Why would anyone ever buy a condo out in the sticks, where everyone has a yard? Am I missing something? That's why you move out to the boonies, to have more space than you can fill, mowing lawns to the horizons.
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The answer to your query, along with so many others posed on this site, is the same as with many things - MONEY.
It's far less expensive to build a low-rise wood-framed apartment-style condo in the burbs than it is to build a highrise concrete or steel condo downtown. In turn, they get sold for far lower prices. You can make the argument that people would pay more for a highrise condo downtown and that is certainly true. However, obviously not in the quantity to make it financially viable. Project costs get scrutinized very carefully in the proforma and pre-construction phases where $5 per square foot can make the difference between a project proceeding or not proceeding. The additional $50 - $100 per square foot to build highrise vs. lowrise makes a huge difference in the prices at which those units sell or rent.
Many posters seem to think that most developers are morons and if they would just build downtown highrsies, the masses would flock to them. Simply because the market demand is not what you would like to see is not the developers' fault. Developers are not morons - they build what they think they can sell - simple as that.