Yesterday, while walking from Times Square to Billionaires’ Row on 57th Street, I came across a serious phenomenon.
After passing 15 blocks of abandoned stores and homeless people on the street, I realized that retail in New York City has died in 2020-2021. The stores sold souvenirs to tourists, and New York simply stopped receiving tourists due to the pandemic.
However, the real problem is that after three years, no one has purchased these stores. They remain abandoned and are now breeding grounds for rats and cockroaches.
The reality is that the younger generation does not have enough money to buy assets. This means that the supply is much greater than the demand.
Furthermore, many of the previous store owners are aged between 60-70 years old, and their children do not want to continue the family business.
Having grown up with wealthy people, I have seen this phenomenon very commonly in my social network. This means that when the old guard retires or passes away, there will be even more supply in the market.
It does not make any sense to buy commercial (or even residential) real estate in this scenario. Additionally, the global population is decreasing, and people are having fewer children.
Do you agree that we are in a generation bubble, or am I missing something in my street analysis?
Written by Raiam Santos
Let us know in the comments.
global population still increasing.
shortage of houses.
commercial real estate is fucked though. even if just from online shopping