Realty experts say America's cities are running out of space, and it's driving up prices in city centers from coast-to-coast.
Michael Weaster of Houston's Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate says without space to build, trendy high-rises have taken over the landscape, fuled by college grad millennials with money to burn.
“Not just downtown but these pseudo city centers, places like Town and Country has become quite a hot spot too,” he says.
“My 20-year-old was talking about renting an apartment on top of CityCentre, her price was $600 more than if she rented six blocks away, and I asked her why. She said 'dad I can walk to a restaurant, I can walk to the movies, I don't ever have to get in my car to go anywhere.'”
Weaster says one of his listings was slow to sell due to a lack of amenities most millennials are looking for.
“We were competing with town homes and condos that were newer construction number one, but had the rec center, had the pool, had the wifi, had the restaurant on the ground level, everything within the complex, that's your competition,” he says.
Bloomberg reports that “Inside a 30-mile radius from the center of Dallas, new home sales decreased from 2000 to 2015. Outside the radius, though, sales are up by more than 50 percent. The same trend has played out to varying degrees in Phoenix, Atlanta, and San Antonio, among other cities.”