60,000 people applied for ‘affordable’ teeny tiny micro-apartments

When we first found out about New York City’s teeny tiny micro-apartments, we were skeptical of the idea of living in a 400-square foot box. That skepticism has never really gone away, despite arguments that these are cheap-ish ways to live by yourself, free of roommates who have more sex than you or don’t do the dishes. Apparently though, lots of other people weren’t skeptical about the apartments, or were at least desperate enough to put that skepticism aside, because as an aside in an article about the apartments, the New York Times mentioned that 60,000 people applied for the 14 affordable units in the building. The affordable units that cost almost $1,000/month.

60,000 people for just 14 apartments! Goddamn. And the Times was also nice enough to do the math for you about how many people per apartment that broke down to, 4,300 per apartment, just in case you wanted to feel a little more despair about this. We did eventually concede that paying $950/month for 360-square feet almost seems like a good deal, but we didn’t expect the amount of people who applied to be able to populate a small city. That being said, at least these ones are cheaper than the market rate apartments, with the cheapest one of those coming in at an astounding $2,540/month for a 265-square foot studio.

Elsewhere in the story, you can find real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller comparing the micro-units to the nice market for buying a Prius. Which of course makes sense for a second before you remember that people don’t buy a Prius in order to live in it. Except of course for this guy Chris, who has a whole blog devoted to living out of his Prius and has some life lessons that you should probably start reading if you’re going to live in one of these apartments. So of course, look for ads soon that learn from that example and advertise the idea that living in this teeny-tiny box will help bring you inner peace.

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