I skipped posting last week due to the holiday, but it honestly put me in a funk. Even though this blog is vaguely about real estate, writing out something that I love about New York once a week forces me to think positive and sets me up for success elsewhere in my life. I don’t give out much self-help advice, but if anyone is thinking about journaling positive things, I’m seeing now how much it helps. ESPECIALLY when we are in a news cycle like the one currently. I am so, so, so, so, so angry and sad and scared, but let’s direct that rage and frustration at those who deserve it (and in a productive way) and try to think positively about ourselves and in our day to day lives.
With that out of the way, let’s move on to our New York Value of the week — DELIVERY! What can’t you get delivered these days?
Seriously, in NYC 2018, people have their laundry picked up and delivered, handymen/women and cleaning services on demand, Postmates to pick up their food even if the restaurant won’t deliver via Seamless, UberEats, or Slice. There’s Alfred, a company that essentially gets you a personal assistant/butler for a monthly fee. Uber also has a messenger service, so you can use your regular account to send shit all over the city on a bike. Grocery stores and third party companies alike deliver your groceries. And then, for everything else, there’s Amazon, which will even drop your packages in a locker near your apartment if you, like me, don’t have a doorman.
Delivery stock photo
Combined with all our 24/7 establishments, the convenience, especially for food, is insane. And we need to remember and value this. I have the audacity to be annoyed when it’s 2am on a Tuesday and I can’t order anything good off Seamless so I have to walk two blocks to a bodega. For a girl who grew up 20 minutes from the nearest grocery store, that’s pretty entitled.
Real Estate Value — these apps plus ride sharing options have actual effects on property value.
All these apps and services I discussed in the earlier paragraph? They have, over the past few years, trickled their way from downtown Manhattan to the North and into outer boroughs. When I first moved into my apartment in 2012, there were maybe 10 options on Seamless, and two were Dominos. There are now close to 200. I can get tacos at 1am and I don’t even need to talk to anyone or put on pants.
Maybe having a ton of choices for delivery isn’t going to drive prices up in any extreme way, but ride sharing apps like Uber Pool, Via, Lyft Line, have helped minimize some downward rent trends due to distance from public transportation or train shutdowns(#k1enksvsthemta).
Apps like Handy and Jop mean that you can hire someone to fix or clean your apartment without worrying about where a certain company is located. Services like Alfred that market exclusivity are expanding their services based on where people request them, including luxury buildings in lower priced but increasing markets.
Horrifying stock photo
The thing that these companies do is make the city smaller. If you miss your favorite donut shop in Sunset Park when you’ve moved to the Upper East Side, you can, for a hefty fee, have those donuts brought to you in bed. If your laundromat is 11 blocks away and that seems hard, you can pay someone to take it there, have it washed, dried and folded, AND bring it back to you. If you work in Midtown but want to live in Greenpoint, you can hit up Via as a form of carpool commute.
As it becomes easier and more convenient to live further from the center of Manhattan, many of the things that kept prices low historically elsewhere will no longer be a factor. This can be a positive or negative depending on how you look at it, but I’m being positive today, so I'll just be excited that everyone will be more connected. Happy Tuesday!
xo
Anna