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Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

$/sqf is a poor measure of rental costs. Because a 400sf apartment in NY is not 1/2 of the cost of a 800sf apartment in NY.

EX: from the same complex. http://www.equityapartments.com/new-york/new-york-city-apart...

  418 sqft	from $2,920 = 6.9$/sf
  727 sqft	from $3,490 = 4.8$/sf

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> Because a 400sf apartment in NY is not 1/2 of the cost of a 800sf apartment in NY.

OP here. This is true, but given its flaws this measure is still the industry standard for benchmarking various markets in rental housing. We actually seek to rectify this problem by creating market rent estimates based on a rental's detailed attributes in our product.

This is true, but what's strange is the curve bends back. There are so few 3 or 4BR apartments, that the per sq foot goes higher with bigger apartments. (Before leaving, we were paying ~6 per sf for a 2BR in the UWS zoned for a crappy school)

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