employment stats 

real estate capital 

New York City is the Real Estate Capital of the world because its sole agenda is to be a tourist attraction. With this, real estate agents can take advantage of and plot their marketing strategies all throughout the city. They have “access to hefty financing sources for megaprojects,” meaning they have their own connections and they utilize them to grow the attractions, as well as the commercial and residential gentrification, in New York City. However, this also means the prices of housing and businesses increase significantly which pushes out people who can no longer afford to live there. As these old residents are being moved out, newcomers are coming in. Most likely they’ll be a lot wealthier as they see the housing and businesses as more affordable to them, but too expensive for low-income individuals. This is the exact case in Harlem. With it being the “crown jewel of capitalism,” it leads to a lot of displacement within the preexisting African American community in Harlem and it gets replaced with wealthier and higher-income receiving people.

the growth machine 

The Growth Machine includes small and medium-sized landlords, brokers, builders, contractors, construction trades, and civic groups. Many institutions are included in the Growth Machine as well, mainly ones that “favor new construction and public works.” One of them is the REBNY, also known as the Real Estate Board of New York. They are responsible for the most part worry about the financial aspect of the corporation. Another one is FIRE, which is responsible for the finance, insurance, and real estate sector of the corporation. They “generate about 20 percent of all income” for the city, making them a huge aspect of the economic sector. The last institution is the Real Estate Clans, which includes infamous individuals of the real estate industry. One of them includes Donald Trump, the president of the United States. Before he was president, he had gotten his name around due to the power of real estate and his family name. He owns numerous amount of properties around New York City and is known mostly for his subjectively vibrant personality.

THE GOVERNMENT’S ROLE 

Local and state governments play a big role within the Growth machine and the New York City Real Estate because they aid in the increase of profit. Real estates find new strategies to make a profit off of different parts of New York City while the government funds them. The article states that the real estate industry “drives the growth” and the government “oils and repairs it” which indicates how exactly their dynamic is supposed to work.

the bull and the bear

New York City’s Real Estate Industry benefits from these social tragedies (displacement) since they always provide some kind of opportunity for profit. To the Industry, they can always tear down an area and built it into something else to profit off of. In the article, there is an introduction to the idea of “bear and bull markets.” They are meant to different ways the Real Estate Industry can profit according to different situations. The bull market is meant to increase prices which is encourages the purchase of stocks, thus increasing profit. The bear market is the opposite, it is meant to decreasing prices which encourages selling in general, however, it is still a way to increase profit.

Real estate is going through a “changing market demand” due to Land-Use Planning and Zoning. This is because their work mainly consists of construction on land that is preowned by other people. More low-income individuals are being forced out and displaced which makes the change in the market demand a lot lower and the profit starts decreasing within the real estate development.

A capitalistic society gets to profit off a growing income, rather than a constant one. Low-income families would not be able to afford copious amounts of rent, therefore, making profiting very hard to achieve. When a higher income housing is integrated, of course, it would cost more, but those costs would be paid back due to the high prices high-income receiving families can pay. Therefore it would be a lot more profitable than low-income housing.