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Comment by SCAQTony | Hacker News Reader

Hey, remember those Amazon insiders that bought property on the cheap?

"...Amazon employees are apparently eager to get a head start on the New York City real estate game.

Condo sales in Long Island City are soaring following the announcement that the Queens, New York, [a] neighborhood will host part of Amazon's HQ2, The Wall Street Journal reports. According to The Journal, one brokerage firm sold 150 units in four days last week — 15 times its usual volume — after Amazon announced plans to open a headquarters in Long Island City...."

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-buy-apartme...

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That was my first thought on seeing the headline as well.

However I think those buyers will still do just fine. I doubt very many people have lost money by investing in NYC real estate.

Depends if they can hold. A lot of speculators are going to have to take an L if they thought they were going to flip as Amazon ramped up. Especially if they took debt to do so.

The L only runs through Brooklyn

Right, it's New York. If anything they avoided an investigation by not selling to Amazon.

Buyers took a risk. I would gloat to the ones that claimed insider trading for it that they were jealous for naught.

It rarely happens, but it's always refreshing to see when real estate investment doesn't just equal free money.

LIC realty investment was free money even before amazon's announcements.

It happens pretty often, actually. It's a myth that real estate is some kind of money printing machine.

Adam Smith is down with that statement too. he said it best in his book "The Wealth of Nations," published coincidentally in 1776 that a home/house/condo is not an investment:

“...a dwelling-house, as such, contributes nothing to the revenue of its inhabitant. [...] and though it is, no doubt, extremely useful to him, it is as his clothes and household furniture are useful to him.” [...] If it is to be let to a tenant for rent, as the house itself can produce nothing, the tenant must always pay the rent out of some other revenue which he derives either from labor, or stock, or land. ..."

(12th paragraph) https://www.bartleby.com/10/201.html

My advice to my kids is that they should buy a dwelling and not live in it. Let it be an investment, let someone else pay the mortgage and the upkeep as well.

If the sales didn't start until after the public announcement, how do we know that it was Amazon employees who were buying?

Regardless, I suspect Amazon employees would know better than to bank on Amazon following through on a commitment.

If they bought before people knew Amazon was coming and sold now would they really lose anything? Probably still kept up with the price of inflation even now

They'll lose 5% to the realtor upon selling.

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