Comment by partiallypro | Hacker News Reader

Comment by partiallypro | Hacker News Reader

Studio "luxury" apartments here in Nashville have long term leases at $1200/mo for a studio. I was not impressed when I did a tour across the city; I asked the occupancy rate at a few places, and was floored when they told me it was only ~25%; these were 1yr+ old developments, which is apparently common place. I've been telling people the city is in a bubble, but no one believes me. Everyone says now is the time to buy, I think they're insane.

A lot of people from out of state that had higher real estate values could sell their $400K-$500K home in California and come to Nashville and live like a king. Now they are just poaching people knowing they'll pay up. Our hotel rates are higher than New York City's on average. It's insane, and everything thinks this will last. We'll see. Nashville wasn't mentioned in the article, but I have a very hard time believing the city will sustain its current rent levels, with such low occupancy rates.

It's actually cheaper to just buy a condo outright (which I think is still too expensive $300K for a studio,) than to rent.

I'm in Nashville as well, and was just talking about this yesterday with people. The past couple of years has seemed to be almost entirely luxury apartment complexes being built, and anecdotally most of the young people I know here can't afford them, or if they can will just buy a house instead.

St. Louis, believe it or not, is experiencing a bit of a modest boom in its central corridor. It's certainly more new construction than we've seen in something like 50 years. But, anecdotally, the units are selling quickly, and at rates (and sizes) we've never before seen.

Here's a recent example:

http://theorioncwe.com/floorplans/

For the lazy, they're renting a 683 sq/ft 1 bed/bath for $1812-$1977. I heard some long-time residents literally laugh at those prices. But, they're selling quickly, reportedly.

(I don't have a coherent point; I just thought some might find this interesting in relation to your anecdote.)

I just went there last week for a conference. Man there's tons of development going on. Road construction, looks like a new building being built every 3-4 blocks.

I usually hit all the food joints when I visit a place. Thought all there was going to be was grade A bbq. Was I mistaken, food scene is amazing, would rate near same caliber as SF (and as expensive).

Hotel rates are crazy, spoke with some locals and they said it's cause of all the conferences. Averaged ~300 a night (fri-thurs).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com