Wall Street & Real Estate Prices
I was just watching the 1987 film Wall Street with a young Chuck Sheen as Bud Fox, and of course Michael Douglas and the evil Gordon Gekko, who told us that “greed is good.”
In one scene, after Bud has made it on Wall Street as Gekko’s lackey, he buys a Manhattan penthouse apartment — for an astounding $950,000. I was reflecting on that and how such a condo would cost at least double that price 18 years later. It’s a darn good thing that real wages have more than doubled in the same time frame.
Oh, wait …
(in 2005, in my neighborhood in DC, $950,000 will get you a nice fixer-upper. Thanks Mr. Greenspan.)
agree that prices are out of whack, but wanted to make a couple points.
– i think his apartment would go for at least 3M.
– income taxes for top earners are way down, mortgage rates are deductible, and the cost of carrying a mortgage is cheap. prices are out of line, but you have to adjust a little bit for the aformentioned points.