A Parking Spot Is Selling for $125K: Outrageous or Understandable?

Not sure its only 'filthy' rich. Again, if you needed a car at work or to get to work and parking was $20/day once there, it makes sense to buy a spot to park rather than pay a parking lot. There are enough jobs in major metro areas that pay an additional $10k a year or so to make that worthwhile to a lot of people. If I made $75k in the suburbs but could make $100k in a metro area, I might take it even if it would cost $10 of that $25 to park. And if I could buy a place / space for $8k a year? I'd be silly not to do so as I'd save money each year and would recoup all the parking fees when I left and sold it.

Not many other than the rich could afford it. I doubt the banks would give you a mortgage for a parking space.

All things are worth exactly what the highest bidder is willing to pay for it.

depends where it is.

It's insane that's why I left New York City!

But then again, these Reagan made conservatives have so much money that they can spend what 3 average families make in a year on a parking space. And we wonder what is wrong with this country? Take a good look!

Surprise they're liberals! In New York City insane liberals. I'm glad I left some time ago.

Name-calling is not informed discourse.

Well that's what the are. What else would you call them? They are not Martians that's for sure. I suggest you come to NYC a see the zoo for yourself.

Once in a while someone like WGN steps outside the "location, location," and "what the market will bear" clichés to make a perceptive observation. If we love our country, why don't we love our countrymen--especially the least of them? Why do we champion wealth and power instead?

Just another consequence of liberlism. Parking, like food, & energy should be plentiful and cheap, but alas liberalism found a way to regulate and restrict it so it is now expensive and hard to come by.

dumbass did I say free or are you projecting? If the marketplace was to run free unincumbered by government liberal regulations parking would be available affordable and plentiful, but there you have it, the poor and middle class take it in the shorts as government shoves them into unsafe ands unreliable government run public transportation.

Hey, I'm a fiscal conservative but your statement is WAY off base. FIrst off, the price is driven by (no pun intended) traffic. Cost is a reflection of demand. How did liberalism raise the demand for parking spaces in crowded cities?

Parking is not like food or energy as it is in limited and finite supply. As demand increases, prices do as well.

If you want to be taken seriously, don't just complain to complain and blame Dems or liberals for the stuff they didn't do. Tey do enough to be blamed for and if you cry wolf all the time your complaints (even when justified) will be marginalized.

Agreed!

Currently, roads, highways, and storage (parking) account for 70% of the land space of Los Angeles and 50% of that of Houston. This is land that could be used by businesses and by residents. In how much more of this waste should we engage to accommodate enough automobiles in New York City, Washinton, DC, Los Angeles, etc., to render parking "plentiful and cheap?" And what regulation keeps parking expensive in large urban centers? And what is "liberalism"?" (My definition is any thinking that does not comport with the litmus tests of ideological corporatism--called "conservatism" as a fig leaf.)

First of all look at that car second of all if it was a parkin spot in the very front of walmart of course

If you have the money why not it is real estate and not like you kiss 100k away and you'll never see it again. And what is 100k when it is included in the 1.3 mill.

It's not understandable. It's an inexplicably obscene price.

Agreed!

For the middle class yes, but for those who can afford to pay for it and want life's little luxuries it is understandable.

life's little luxuries?

If someone had to drive in to NYC for work each day and park in a lot (expecting to find on street each day is impossible, let alone time limits and the meter) they would probably have to pay $40/day, $200/wk, averaging over $800/mo. Now sure, they can find monthly deals, etc., but if you could buy the parking spot for $125k, mortgage would be around $700/mo so not only are you already saving but you can sell it later to get your money back!

Space is at a premium, and if you can take the train, do. But if you have to have a car and park it in a premium crowded area, it makes sense.

I'd check your numbers. I work in NYC everyday, and those numbers are obscene.

You don't see $40/day to park in Manhattan? Heck, I see over $30/day regularly here in Boston. Even at that, its $30/day, $150/week, $600+/month. If you were paying that to work there (assuming you would only do so because the job that paid best was in a major metro area), you'd be silly to pay a parking lot $600+/mo if you could buy a space for the same or less, recouping all fees and costs when you left your job by selling the space to someone else.

Not sure its only 'filthy' rich. Again, if you needed a car at work or to get to work and parking was $30-$40/day once there, it makes sense to buy a spot to park rather than pay a parking lot. There are enough jobs in major metro areas that pay an additional $10k a year or so to make that worthwhile to a lot of people. If I made $75k in the suburbs but could make $100k in a metro area, I might take the job even if it would cost me $7k of that $25k raise to park. And if I could buy a place / space for $6 or $7k a year? I'd be silly not to do so as I'd save money each year and would recoup all the parking fees when I left and sold it.

I doubt anyone is buying a space for $125k for no reason. I assume they are already paying more than that, or close to it, to park (plus damage to the car on the street, time spent looking for a space, etc.). Even the wealthy won't just buy a bad investment just to waste money.

If someone had to drive in to NYC for work each day and park in a lot (expecting to find on street each day is impossible, let alone time limits and the meter) they would probably have to pay $40/day, $200/wk, averaging over $800/mo. Now sure, they can find monthly deals, etc., but if you could buy the parking spot for $125k, mortgage would be around $700/mo so not only are you already saving but you can sell it later to get your money back!

Space is at a premium, and if you can take the train, do. But if you have to have a car and park it in a premium crowded area, it makes sense.

completely

Agreed!

Poor sap.

Sap yes, Poor no. They're all rich limo liberals.

Poorer than before he bought the space. :P

Anyone willing to buy this is a fool. This rich class economy doesn't make any sense.

If someone had to drive in to NYC for work each day and park in a lot (expecting to find on street each day is impossible, let alone time limits and the meter) they would probably have to pay $40/day, $200/wk, averaging over $800/mo. Now sure, they can find monthly deals, etc., but if you could buy the parking spot for $125k, mortgage would be around $700/mo so not only are you already saving but you can sell it later to get your money back!

Space is at a premium, and if you can take the train, do. But if you have to have a car and park it in a premium crowded area, it makes sense.

It's absurd to pay this kind of money for a parking spot but.....if you're stupid enough to pay that kind of money i'm smart enough to take your money......

I would auction it off to get as much as I can. Then pay the couple hundred a month to park in a nearby lot. As long as I am not going to loss money.

It beats the heck out of parking on the street and moving the car to avoid traffic tickets. Back in the day when all these Back Bay brownstones were rental property, you paid extra monthly for a legal parking space behind the building.

It's obviously not outrageous to the person who bought it. To me it would be. But if a person is willing why not...capitalism is what America is all about- go for it.