The Geography of Real Estate Markets Is Shifting Under Our Feet

Real estate markets where occupancy is optional at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Globalization and gentrification.

Subject Article: "New Era estate scandal: families at the mercy of international speculators. Homes across the capital have turned into international assets and their residents now merely live in financial instruments."

Other Links: 1. "Vancouver housing prices tied to China’s economic growth: No real estate downturn in sight, Conference Board economist says."
2. "The brave world of super-commuters."
3. "Why New Yorkers Are Moving to Philly and What It Means for Our City."

Postscript: Greater Greater NYC is pulling up a bunch of cities in its orbit. The same can't be said for Greater Greater London:

Britain’s cities are falling either side of a divide. A few—mainly the big ones—are growing at the core and faltering towards the edge. London’s highest levels of unemployment used to be in the inner city borough of Tower Hamlets, now they’re in the suburbs of Greater London: Barking and Dagenham and Newham. Between 1998 and 2008, Birmingham’s private sector job numbers stayed flat but moved inward (they grew 27% at the centre). But most of Britain’s towns and cities—places like Luton, Wakefield, Sunderland—are doing precisely the opposite: the action is on the outskirts, the centres ever more deserted. Fully 22% of Sheffield’s central business units stand empty; in 2011 McDonald’s left Rochdale centre (though not its edges). If London is getting more like Paris, these towns increasingly resemble America’s sprawling cities, such as Cleveland and Houston.

What gives? Just spitballing, the NYC effect on Philly might be the equivalent of the London effect on European cities outside of the UK. Paris is like a suburb of London given the very functional commute. Thus, UK cities further down the urban hierarchy don't see any trickle down from London's powerful agglomeration economy.