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Millennials Paying $4,000 A Month For "Dormlike Atmosphere"
By
Nathan Tempey
Published Aug 2, 2015
Modified Aug 3, 2015
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By
Nathan Tempey
Published Aug 2, 2015
Modified Aug 3, 2015
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Packing a bunch of people into an apartment to save money—and for dreamy idealists, to create the type of close-knit community sorely lacking in modern society—is an old, well-established concept. And if there's one thing realtors and tech entrepreneurs love, it's taking old, utopian ideas, and hawking them as fresh moneymaking schemes with a utopian sheen. Want to host travelers at your apartment? Why not make money doing it? Want to hire out your personal car as a cab? Why not give Silicon Valley a cut?
And so it was probably inevitable that some disruptive hucksters would come along and try to sell wealthy young people the authentic, organic, holistic experience of cramming into a living space with a bunch of like-minded strangers. And to do it without all the traditional headaches of self-sufficient living, like having to do one's own repairs, or, you know, commit to staying in one place for more than a month. The Times reports, describing one such scheme in Williamsburg:
Pure House is among a handful of businesses that are renting rooms at a premium in exchange for access to amenities, a dormlike atmosphere and an instant community. For a certain set of New Yorkers, often new arrivals to the city with an income but no rental history, Pure House offers something of a reprieve. No credit check. No draconian rules about earning 40 times the monthly rent. No 12-month lease.
Instead, they sign a 30-day membership agreement, paying from $1,600 to $4,000 a month for a room in an apartment to be shared with others who, theoretically, have a similar worldview.
At the top price point, more than a swanky one-bedroom in the neighborhood, long-term hostel dwellers get massages, yoga instruction, fresh produce, personal coaching, and counseling. The "co-living" idea has so much social lift that developers are in the process of planning to devote whole buildings to this possibly illegal type of high-end boardinghouse.
The company Common, fresh off a $7.35 million round of investment, is overseeing renovation of buildings in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant to be turned over to potluck-starved app peddlers, software engineers, celebrity chefs, and financial advisers.
In summation: "The traditional landlord-renter model is broken," Pure House founder Ryan Fix told the Times, explaining that his company's goal is to "provide an amazing experience and leave with a hug."
N.B.: Though the Times headlined its trend piece "The Millennial Commune," no one utters either word anywhere in the piece. That's what we call digital innovation!
Tagged
brunch hate reads
co-living
collective house
commune
disrupt
roommates
sharing economy
Nathan Tempey
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