Bloggers and Other Nerds Are Renting All the Fancy Apartments Now
In the olden days before the U.S. economy devolved into a pure gold-and-canned-goods bartering system, Wall Street guys were the ones who rented all the gaudy, overpriced good apartments. Now that Wall Street's been decimated, who will the real estate industry turn to, to unload all those new condos with "Wii rooms?" Oh, they will sell these pricey spaces to "bloggers," it says here. Hahaha.
NOT EVEN JOKING THOUGH. The WSJ says that "bloggers and tech geeks"—once referred to on this very blog as the "creative underclass"—are now wresting control of the Manhattan rental market away from finance people. And with this new influx of media nerd renters comes a wondrous new flowering of living-space creativity that will forever change the way people think of "young jerks with money."
Young media and tech workers flock to neighborhoods such as Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Chelsea, where many of their employers are also moving their offices. These tenants also demand high-tech amenities such as ubiquitous wireless internet access, movie screening rooms and, in one case, a Wii room.
"The kids that are coming to live today in New York, they want to live with accommodation like they are in a W Hotel," said Ofer Yardeni, managing partner of Stonehenge Partners
Whereas those asshole Wall Street assholes always wanted a condo in the Financial District that resembled the Four Seasons, hip young media winners want a condo in Williamsburg that resembles the W Hotel. Everything is better now!
I can't think of any bloggers offhand who have fancy apartments, but they're out there.
[WSJ. Photo of prototypical geek-with-money hive Williamsburg Edge]