Recessionary pressures can force you to opt for a smaller and cheaper house. But even if you opt for a cheaper car, you require the same size of space for parking it. And that’s perhaps the reason why despite the prices of the apartments went down during the recession the prices for parking, in fact went up. Buyers who had invested in parking have actually made a handsome profit on the investment. A couple who bought a condo in downtown Boston for $1.3 million a couple of years ago have seen the value of their apartment slip but the parking spot they purchased for $100,000 has appreciated to $125,000. Same is the case with a Miami parking garage. Talk about premium parking.
The downtown area across the US is witnessing a scarcity of parking space and it has pushed the prices to unimaginable levels. Manhattan parking space is a case in point. In some buildings, parking costs are nearly on par, on a per-square-foot basis, with the apartments themselves. The residential buildings allot only one or fewer parking space per unit. Creating a public garage is an expensive and time consuming process so there is no easy way out of this problem and the prices of parking spots would rise further in the short term.
Purchasing parking spots as investments is becoming a trend. It makes a lot of sense as the going rate for parking spots in the city center of cities like Philadelphia has crossed the $400 mark for every square foot. The elite, high end house owner must have the parking in the building. Toronto’s exclusive Four Seasons residence building recently created a new record for a parking spot in the building at $100,000. “En Suite Sky Garage” a new concept has driven the prices of such units to close to $6 million.
Via: online.wsj
