The Rentish Podcast

Tilted Towers & Tight Markets: NYC Wobbles While Cincy Surges

• Zach and Patrick • Season 1 • Episode 16

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In episode sixteen of The Rent-ish Pod, Zach and Patrick bring the heat with a Real News segment that hits close to home. A new report ranks Cincinnati as tied with Chicago as the toughest rental market in the Midwest, and even more surprising, it’s now the second most sought-after city for renters nationwide. The guys break down what’s driving the Queen City’s rise, and whether this momentum spells opportunity or warning signs for landlords and renters.
👉 Read the article: Cincinnati ranked 2nd most sought-after city for renters

Then, buckle up for a wild ride in this week’s Proptology, as the hosts examine the stunning and surreal saga of 1 Seaport, the luxury Manhattan skyscraper now famously known as The Leaning Tower of New York. From engineering missteps to lawsuits and public embarrassment, it’s a cautionary tale of ambition tilting too far.
👉 Dive deeper here: The Leaning Tower of New York – The New Yorker

🎧 From red-hot rental data to real estate’s most notorious architectural fail, this episode blends headlines, history, and a healthy dose of disbelief.

📩 Have a question, hot take, or real estate horror story? Email us at questions@therentishpod.com, and you might hear it on the show!

Check Innago at https://innago.com/podcast/ to learn more. 

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SPEAKER_01:

What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the Rentish Podcast. My name is Zach, and I'm here with my co-host, Patrick. What up? We are your hosts for this little podcast about rental properties, kind of, but hosted by two guys that work in the real estate industry and sort of know what they're talking about. Going off script there a little bit. Yep. It's time. We're changing it up. I can't say the same thing over and over again or else it's going to get tired. Yeah. But mostly we don't, Patrick. That's right. So this is why you'll have fun. You're putting words into my mouth. No. You said it. I don't want to say that, Zach. I heard you say it. Literally, I just heard you say that in my brain. I want to speak for myself. That's how tired I am. I heard you just say that in my brain. Yeah. All right. Yes, Patrick, mostly we don't, which is why you'll have fun hearing us talk to experts and learning with us or laughing and yelling along at how little we know along the way. Patrick, how's your day going? Yeah, it's going good. Just good? That's it? That's all you got for me? It's going great, Zach. Well, you want to elaborate? Why is it good? Yeah, it's fine, actually. Oh, it's just fine? It went from good to great to fine. It's not so great. Okay, I'm sorry. No, yeah, it's 513 Day. Happy 513 Day. Happy 513 Day to you. For all those that don't know, oh, sorry, Rentish Podcast. Follow the Rentish on social media. We're on Instagram now. RentishPod. The RentishPod. I think it's The Rentish Pod. So yeah, follow us on Instagram. Is there a hyphen? No, The Rentish Pod is the username. Rent-ish. The Rentish Pod. Yeah, but is there a hyphen? No hyphen, no hyphen. All one word. The Rentish Pod. Got it. No hyphen. Follow us on the social media. You can go to The Rentish on basically any podcast service out there. Spotify Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, whatever they're called. You know, the things. They're on there. Amazon Music. We're on Amazon Music too. So you can go check us out on basically all. Is it Amazon Music? Yeah, it is. Yep, that's a thing. And wouldn't lie to you, I promise. And you can go to all those different websites to check us out and give us a review and a rating while you're there. We would really appreciate it. And email questions at therentishpod.com 513-DAY. For those of you that don't know, we record this podcast from Cincinnati, Ohio, which is where our office is, but it's also where the podcast studio is. Cincinnati, Ohio famously, for a very long time, had a 513 area code. So if you got a It still does, what? No, so they started hitting capacity a year or two ago. So new people are getting like, what is it, 9, 6, 7 or something like that? Is that the Dayton one? I don't know if it's specifically in other counties in general or if they just generated a new area

SPEAKER_02:

code.

SPEAKER_01:

But for a long, long, long, long, long time, basically since forever... since the origin of cell phones, Cincinnati had been 5-1-3. So today is May 13th, 5-1-3, Cincinnati Day. Right. I'm celebrating. I'm going to Cincinnati Reds baseball game. It's$1 a dog night or$2 a dog night or whatever. Oh, that's awesome. They were playing the White Sox tonight, right, I think? Dude, I have no idea. You got that pitching rotation lined up? I am there for the hot dogs. Just there for the dogs. You don't care about the game. I don't care about the game. I like the baseball environment. I don't care about the sport at all. Probably halfway through the game, I win. and know who we're playing. Sure. Well, when you go, so you're going to a Reds game, Great American Ballpark, one of my favorite ballparks in the United States of these Americas. So you're going to get just a hot dog. You're going to get a Coney. No, I'm going to get like three. Are you going to get a Coney or are you going to get a hot dog? Dude, we're going to see when we get there. I didn't know there's Coney options. Well, yeah. I mean, like when I go to a Reds game, the first thing I think of is I want a slice of the Rose's pizza and a Skyline Coney. This is my first Reds game ever. Are you serious? I'm not kidding. I've been to a Guardians game. Well, hopefully the weather holds up for you. It's raining out there right now. Hopefully they don't delay it. Do baseball games get rained out? Yes, they do. They'll be on a weather delay. They'll either delay the start or they'll roll it. What I've always wanted to happen in my entire life, never happened to me before. I've always wanted to go to a game that got a rain delay and got delayed to the next day because then your ticket carries over. And then the next day, they just play two games back to back in a doubleheader. And I've never been to a doubleheader ever. It could happen today. Could happen today. But then you'd have to call off work tomorrow maybe to go to. Yeah, I'm not. Yeah, I mean. So. Oh, I am off tomorrow, but I have plans in the evening. Oh, okay. Well, hopefully it doesn't get rained out and you get to enjoy your baseball game. This is the hope. This is the hope. This is the hope. But yeah, Cincinnati Day. Happy Cincinnati Day. We got a very fun Cincinnati article to talk to everybody about with on the show, and then Patrick is going to do a little bit of proptology, and we're going to learn about the Leaning Tower of New York. I, myself, will be celebrating 513 Day, most likely by getting some kind of Cincinnati chili. Shout out to Camp Washington Chili, my favorite chili parlor in the Cincinnati. No way it's better than Skyline. Top two. I'm sorry. Top of the best. Yep. Okay. Skyline's like the fifth or sixth best. I hear the words you're saying, and I respect that you have an opinion. You're just dang wrong. All right. We're going to talk in the news. Real news. Real estate news. Remember, it's R-E-A-L. Real news. No. What? Real. R-E-A-L. Now, you just said R-E-E-L. No. Real. I'm just trying to trip you up. What? I got you. We're going to talk about the news, the real estate news, the news that you need to know about. Title, Cincinnati He tied it with Chicago as the, I didn't need to read the title part, but I just went ahead and did it anyway. Thanks for saying, I'm just not going to skip that part. We should call the segment news real, but R E A L instead of news real, you know, but that's what, that's what we did. We called it real news. But nobody says like a real, like it's newsreel. Newsreel. You know, it's like, I never understood the real news thing. I just thought it was like a terrible. Real estate. Yeah, right. No, I get that. But like newsreel is like, that's like a play on words because it's like newsreel, but it's newsreel because it's real estate. Okay. From henceforth, that shall be known. Retitle the segment. Newsreel. Newsreel. That's it. All right. Welcome to your first episode of Newsreel. Cincinnati is tied with Chicago as the toughest rental market in the Midwest. Finding an apartment in the Cincinnati metro area has become increasingly difficult. A new report from Rent Cafe reveals that in early 2025, Cincinnati was tied with suburban Chicago as the most competitive rental market in the Midwest, with 10 renters vying for every available unit. Only Miami and Los Angeles ranked higher nationwide, placing Cincinnati third for the most applicants per apartment in February based on data from Yardie Matrix. That's crazy. Crazy stuff, Pat. I'm going to read a little article here from the Cincinnati Inquirer. Patrick, did you read the article? No, it's not even on the sheet. No, it's on the very top. Wait, no, obviously I didn't read the article. Oh, okay, got it. Well, I'm going to recap just a little bit of it for you here. With 10 renters competing for every vacant apartment, the Cincinnati metro area was tied with suburban Chicago as the toughest market for apartment hunters in the Midwest in early 2025, according to a new report from Rent Cafe. Nationwide, the Cincinnati area trailed only red-hot rental markets in Miami and Los Angeles for the most applicants per available unit in February, according to Rent Cafe's analysis of data provided by MarketTrack or Yardie Matrix. This was already all covered, but I'm just restating the information that was in the article. But here's new. This is new right here, this blurb. At the same time, a shrinking supply of available apartments helped push the median asking price for all apartments in the Cincinnati area up 15% to$1,420 compared to February a year ago, according to a separate report from national real estate broker Dreadfin. So price is going up. Price is going up. Price is going up. I was asked yesterday about, because I lived in Mount Adams' new neighborhood in Cincinnati. Wow. I forgot about that. That feels like forever ago. It does feel like forever ago. Just about two years ago. Yeah. A little bit more. But anyways, I had a$700 apartment and so then I was- That's crazy. Yeah, crazy. For reference, it was not like a shared apartment either. It was a single apartment. It was like basically a one bedroom. It was kind of like, it was a garden unit. It was like slightly in the basement. I still had a little bit of window. Yeah, not that y'all are curious at all, but for those listening at home, just go to Zillow and search Mount Adams, Cincinnati and just look look at the prices there for an apartment. And Patrick, you'll realize that Patrick was just robbing this company. Yeah, well, it wasn't a company, because he asked, like, what building was it? And I was like, it wasn't really a building. It was Bob's basement, basically. Bob's basement. My landlord, Bob, had a basement unit, and he, I guess, didn't, like, hear about inflation or whatever. I don't know if I would sign with that real estate company. It's like, well, Bob's basement. Apartment's in Bob's basement. So you got lucky, but it's not necessarily going to be very lucky for people right now. Oh, correct. I'm just rubbing it in. Yeah. High demand, limited availability means that renters are going to be forced to act fast and stretch their budgets to land an apartment in Cincinnati area where the occupancy rate hovers above 94%, according to rent cafe, which is a crazy number. I mean, I'm, I'm guessing that means that 94% of places that are livable are lived in are occupied. That is nuts. Occupancy. Yeah. So you're basically, you're basically just gambling on that 6% to like try and figure out where you're I don't know. They keep searching. Yeah. Keep searching until you find some. So Cincinnati is the second most sought after city for renters nationwide based on rent cafes engagement data, which includes page views, saves and favorites. Cincinnati ranks just behind Washington, D.C., which is not not the number one pick that I would have predicted. I'm a bit confused. So like like is this in terms of of numbers like per capita? Because like there's no way that Cincinnati gets more engagement purely numbers wise than like New York. It just doesn't seem possible. Yeah, I don't know. Producers, do we have any stats on it? You're the man with the article. I'm the man with the article. You read the article, dude. This is just what they say. They say that Cincinnati is second behind Washington, D.C. Okay. Yeah, that's interesting. This is just according to rent cafe engagement data. So there could be many other factors contributing to this. We don't know exactly. I'm sure they calculate the data in some sort of way to come up with the most sought-after quote-unquote city Yeah, just based purely on apartment views. It had the most apartment views in the country. So I wonder if Cincinnati is becoming a major investment hub for people who don't live in Cincinnati, maybe aren't necessarily- They're just looking to maybe invest in Cincinnati. Do you think that could have something to do with it? I don't know, Patrick. You might have just answered one of the Q&As there at the bottom of the sheet that you said you didn't read. Oh, I didn't. I guess I... That's a great question, and I'm going to spoil it and say yes. I think that it does mean that Cincinnati is becoming a very highly sought-after investor market. Let me check the bottom of the sheet. While you're checking that, another really fun... Well, fun. Call it whatever you want. Hey, we're trying to make real estate fun. Blend the comedy... This is another trivia fact from the website. It says average time for apartments to be rented in Cincinnati has increased slightly from 38 to 42 days. No way. I'm sorry. Offering a small cushion. They fly on and off the market. There's no way. Like that Mount Adams apartment, I visited it one day. and had the apartment the next day. Yeah, it's interesting. Most of the apartments that I've ever gotten are places that I've lived at in Cincinnati have been listed for less than seven days before being occupied. This number is interesting. I haven't rented a new place in two years, three years. So this data may be slightly different. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, your most recent place, like how long was it between it going up for rent and you getting it? It was like, yeah, same, same deal. It was like a couple of days. Um, That was a couple, that was a little bit longer. But I remember the Mount Adams one specifically was, it was listed at 7 a.m. I visited it at 3 p.m. I'd had the apartment within 24 hours of that. Well, I'm not shocked in that situation, A, because of where it was located. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about the neighborhoods of Cincinnati. We're gonna also talk a little bit about Chicago, too, because I love, I'm a huge, Chicago's like a second city for me. I spent a lot of time in Chicago over the years. I love that city so much. You got a place for rent in Mount Adams which is one of the most highly sought after places to live in Cincinnati. Yeah, I didn't think it was in my price range. And I saw Bob's basement for 700 bucks. Bob's basement. I got to live there. Send an application immediately. But yeah, no, we'll talk a little bit more about all those little contributing factors. But the cost is also a contributing factor there as well.$700 apartment. Someone's going to jump on that like somebody did. And that somebody was me. Yeah, exactly. And that somebody was me. But yeah, keep it on going. Some questions that we've got just for discussion. Oh, yeah, the ones that we didn't spoil already. Yeah, why is it so hard to find an apartment in Cincinnati right now, Patrick? Why do you think? I think it's a great place to live. I don't know if that– maybe I'm just biased, but Cincinnati is a cool city. Anytime I have friends come to visit, they're like, wow, like didn't expect Cincinnati to be cool, and Cincinnati is cool. Yeah. I don't know if that has anything to do with anything, but, you know. it's popping off a little bit for sure it's one of those kind of cities on the rise I think culturally in the last like decade even more so like maybe even the last 15-20 years like the people have started to realize that Cincinnati has a pretty thriving like there's a lot of really cool heritage with Cincinnati people like there's all these different cultural events that we celebrate there's all this awesome history to the city there's a great food scene that's kind of been developed over time with like all these people coming from you know culinary backgrounds deciding to come to Cincinnati and like share their gifts with the world whether that's brewing beer cooking awesome food distilling alcohol like cultivating like a cultural scene too like the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Museum has gained a huge rise in popularity over the years the Cincinnati Museum Centers the Taft Museum the Cincinnati Union Terminal and the CMC has been like a huge cultural thing that's like pushing things forward and the architecture of the city the architecture there's a lot of cool events too I mean like I got a bunch of friends coming from different like we got like Blank and Oktoberfest which are both huge events but it seems like every weekend there's something like this past weekend there was barbecue fest there's like different taco fest if there was Asian food festival like to I think like there's a lot of community engagement which I think people really resonate with I'm not sure you know I'm not sure if that's necessarily a direct correlation but I think that's but I think that's a big part of it I think that people want to go to a place that's a little that's happening like if that seems to be like a bit of the you know what draws renters to a specific location is like not only do they there's two fact there's two factors what's there to do and how much is it gonna cost and we'll talk about the cost factor but it's like over the last 20 years Cincinnati's been more enticing because it is a relatively cheaper market to get into for people but now now it's a little bit harder to find a place to live and it's becoming a little bit more expensive as well so we have to think about like you know I'm sure smarter people than us you know real estate experts and pros will probably tell you like maybe there's a plateau on the horizon for Cincinnati where people it's gonna be a cool place to live but what's the next cool place that's a little cheaper than Cincinnati now that Cincinnati is inundated with tenants. So it's a big thing there. So what should renters be doing to stand out in a crowded market? We were talking about all this stuff with finding a place. Was there anything special that you did to get that$700 apartment, like that quick turnaround? I was very fast. That's the thing. Because I, at the time, was living in Akron, Cleveland area. And so I had another apartment that popped on the evenings before that and I booked a tour for the first thing in the morning and then came down to Cincinnati right then and there stayed in a in a like a hotel and then and then that morning I was with my mom my mom was was with me as well and then that morning like obviously before I woke up she's like she's like I like there's an apartment at in Mount Adams for$700 you know just popped on 10 minutes ago and so she like reached out or whatever about it or like asked me first and then I reached out I forget but like I was the first person to reach out and so I was the first person to tour the one apartment which was in downtown and then also the first person to get the tour so like and so speed and initiative for me yeah yeah you're right that was the biggest biggest thing for me I mean obviously I got very very lucky with both of them I was actually accepted to both which is kind of a unique position to be in um they were both good deals but I think it's because like like I literally as soon as I saw them I booked the tour and made my way down to Cincinnati yeah which worked out for me yeah yeah and I would also throw in another tip in there I would say just like be uh quick communication like no one likes a slow texter or someone that takes a while to get back to someone so it's like if you reach out to a landlord and they ask you like a follow-up question or you ask them a question like make sure that you're being responsive that way you can get someone scheduled they might look at that as being like oh this person's like really interested in this place they're not just lollygagging around trying to waste my time. Make sure that you're efficient, showing up when you need to be there, have your application skills ready to rock and roll. If they ask you to fill out an application, be able to provide references and all that stuff. That's all I would say. A couple other things here. Any signs of relief for renters? This is kind of a slightly situation. Vacancies are sitting on the market for a few days longer than last year, which we said earlier, 42 days versus 38. The competition remains intense. Another thing to think about is this is taking the entire Cincinnati area into consideration. So I'm thinking that this is probably everything within the 275 loop. So you have to also think about all these places in Blue Ash, Norwood, stuff closer to Kenwood, stuff on the west side, Cheviot, maybe even stuff on northern Kentucky. So it's like we see a lot of places go up and then get rented immediately within like the hip parts of the city center. You have to imagine those like those hot spots like Hyde Park, Oakley, Mount Adams, OTR. Those places tend to go up and then get filled very, very quickly. But you have to imagine there's I mean, there's a there's a for rent sign in a for an apartment near my house in Northside that I've passed by multiple times. It's still been on there. It's been a couple of weeks. So it's like there are certain other areas, certain towns in the city where where people are not picking things up as fast as they're coming out. Yeah, that makes sense. Should renters look outside the city center? Again, this is kind of touching what I was just saying a minute ago with like the other neighborhoods of Cincinnati, but it's like, I mean, you could speak to this because you have been living in over the Rhine for a while now. It's never been something that's been desirable to me. I want a little bit more low key suburban kind of area, like a little bit more not city center stuff. And that's just because of many factors. I have a dog. I feel like it's easier to have like a backyard with a dog. pros of living in the city center would you ever consider looking for something outside the city center yeah I mean there's gonna be a time it's like the thing is it's just I love living in the city right now and there's gonna be a time where I don't and then when that time hits I'm probably never moving back to the city so I want to like live here as like long as I can while I can yeah I have no intention of moving in the next few years but yeah there's gonna be a day where I want to have a yard you know not share walls and stuff for sure yeah I'd recommend it I mean like my I really like I like where I live again like it's my favorite It's my favorite neighborhood in Cincinnati, so I'm going to shout it out here on the pod, is Northside. I've spent a lot of time in there from college onward, and I was so excited to finally move there and have a place there just because I love the, it's kind of got this, the downtown area of Northside kind of has this indie counterculture sort of vibe, which really entices me. Lots of really great mom and pop restaurants. The best record store in the entire world is there. Shake It Records, shout out. I'm wearing the t-shirt today for five minutes. Oh, I did not even notice that. I'm a shill. I'm shilling for the, even though this isn't recorded on video, but maybe one day it will be.

SPEAKER_00:

I love Shaker Records. Hell yeah, me say. Thank you. Every weekend.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, awesome. It's dangerous to live a 10-minute walk because I have to limit myself. It's like, every time I walk by, I'm like the Dave Chappelle meme. I'm like, y'all got any more of that record? Or whatever. Dude, Northside Yacht Club. Yacht Club? I am going tomorrow for the May sandwich. Yeah, the churrasca sandwich or whatever it is. amazing yeah man Yacht Club's awesome so I don't know every neighborhood in Cincinnati well one of these days one of the pod episodes should just be like Zach and Patrick rank the Cincinnati neighborhoods I'm done that sounds like a really fun episode where we kind of go neighborhood by neighborhood our favorite spots and everything so but yeah again shout out look outside the city center I mean like if you want to live downtown or in OTR I'm sure you're going to have an awesome time but like there are plenty of awesome neighborhoods surrounding the city that you could have just as much fun and have a lot of really cool stuff to do and see on a daily basis right what this means for landlords a lot lot of pros say that it's a strong opportunity to raise rent costs and improve your listing quality, attract high quality tenants. Worried about overpricing? I don't know. I think that if you overprice something, it's going to be pretty clear that people are not going to pay for it. You just got to be smart to the market. Just do your research, do your due diligence like we always say on this podcast. And then the last quick thing was a lot of pros say that a quick win for landlords in this crowded market is to make sure that you have a really polished listing experience. So making sure that your property has professional photos, good descriptions, thorough, getting that stuff up on these sites and making sure that maybe just due to property taxes and what you have to pay for the property, it's gonna warrant you paying... listing for a higher rent than what the typical median is. So if that's the case, making sure that you're very clear on those listing pages, how to entice these folks, I think is very important as well. But that's it for Newsreel, the official new segment of the Rentish pod. I like it. I'm biased. What do you think? News? I think it's good. I'm a fan with it. Newsreel. Newsreel. Newsreel. And then we've got Newsreel and then Real... What was the one from movies? Real Estate Real. Every segment has a real in the title. It's going to make our news document. Yeah, we got Proptology. Proptology. That's true. That's good. That's still the best one. Proptology. That's the best one. And speak of the devil. Real quick, before you say Proptology, I just got to give a shout out to Chicago as a city. I know we said we would do it a little bit, but if you had not spent any time in Chicago, so much cool stuff to see, so many great museums, so much good food. You could throw a dart in an alley in Chicago and hit a good pizza place or a place to get a hot dog or Italian beef. So much fun stuff to do in Chicago. I don't know. Just shout out to there. Chicago's awesome. Yeah, very, very cool. Go ahead, Pat. You ruined my flow. I'm sorry. It's okay. Yeah, so today on Promptology, we're going to be talking about the Leaning Tower of New York. Zach, have you heard of the Leaning Tower of New York? Only when we did the show run-through earlier this week, but before that, no. Yeah, same. Yeah, as soon as I saw Leaning Tower, I'm like, oh, the Leaning Tower of... Pisa. And then I saw New York. Most people. So fun fact, Patrick. Yeah. A lot of people think that it's the Leaning Tower of Pizza, but it's actually Pisa. Yeah, I know it's Pisa. There's people who think it's pizza. Yes. P-I-Z-Z-A. The Leaning Tower of Pizza. But yeah, so today we're going to talk about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Sorry. Got him. That was what I was hoping for. I was like, I bet I'm going to screw him up. Yeah, Leaning Tower of New York. A lot more recent than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Oh, yeah. Pisa. 2015 is when this this building in New York was started construction from a Fortis property group. They were the ones that constructed it. It's called One Seaport. That's the name of the building. All glass residential. And it's near the East River. Right. And so the idea is it was going to be the first luxury high rise on the waterfront in lower Manhattan. So that's like the kind of building genre that this is. That seems like a weird claim to market yourself as the first luxury high rise directly. So that it's like it's like a subcategory of a subcategory. Yeah. Well, you got to. We're the first luxury high rise directly on the waterfront lower Manhattan. It's like you have to have all these extra clarifiers because otherwise you can't be the first. Right. There's so many luxury high rises in the city. It's a good point. Good point, Zach. But, you know, some of the amenities that was going to have are the high Do you know what that means? I looked it up. I mean, it was a French word. It's like a it's like a a roofed like outdoor, like a pavilion sort of like a sunroom. Yeah. Yeah. Like a gazebo? Sort of, but like in a building. Like not more than like a gazebo. It's more like a roofed like walkway. Okay. Yeah. I actually have no idea where this was going to be on the building. A covered entrance large enough for vehicles to pass through, typically opening into a courtyard. Boom. According to Google. Yeah. Interesting. And an infinity pool actually like on the 30th floor I think is going to have an infinity pool. Cool. But, Zach. Yeah. Never happened. Never happened. Why not? I'm so glad you asked. In 2019, at its full height of 670 feet, it started leaning three inches to the north, which like three inches really doesn't sound like a lot. But when it's a building, you don't want it leaning one inch. Speaking of which, we got a photo here. I know our listeners can't listen to the photo, but how would you describe that building? How would I describe it? Well, it looks Like, I mean, unfinished is the word that comes to mind. I mean, it's you can't really tell based on the photo that there is any kind of lean to it. Like, I don't see it. I mean, it looks just as straight as all those other other blocks in the neighborhood right there. I mean, it's like really, really like skinny. It's super skinny. Yeah, it's like it looks like it just looks like an unfinished building. project like you can see there's a pretty solid base to it with a lot of glass windows and then it just kind of stops about a third of the way up super thin you can tell there's all these different segmented rectangles in it like where those would be where the condos would be and it just goes up and up and up and up and up and up until it gets to the very top of the building and the funniest thing to me about the photo is that this part of the New York skyline not recognizable at all you can tell me this is any city on the water and I would probably believe you well no there's the one like World Trade center behind it. Where? That's the One World Trade Center? I think. I don't think so. It looks like it. It does? At least the building shape. I don't think so. I don't think that that's the One World Trade Center. I could be wrong, but I don't think it has a big pointy Tip like that. Really? Does it? Yeah. I mean, we're not New Yorkians, so, you know, we're doing research on the fly here. Yeah, I actually have no idea. It looks kind of like it. I thought the top of the One World Trade Center was, like, flat. No, no, it's definitely got a point. It definitely looks a lot like it because the building– because it's kind of got, like, those– like, it's multi-sided. It's not just like a, you know, like a regular– I could be completely wrong. I have no idea. Either way, I don't recognize this part of the New York skyline. I'll just throw that out there, man. But I mean, it's just like luxury skyrise in a very interesting part of the city. Where did you say it was? It's lower Manhattan? Lower Manhattan. Okay. Which also checks out with the One World Trade Center. I'm not going to die on this hill, per se. Then you're probably right. I've not spent a lot of time in lower Manhattan. But yeah. So do you have any more about the story of the misalignment? Yeah. So the three inches to the north. And by the way, when I'm looking at the photo, I'm like– I'm like, I think I can see it. I don't know if I'm just looking for it. You think you can see the lean. Yeah, right, the lean. Interesting. I don't see it at all. Yeah, again, I'm probably just psyching myself out. But the lean, in 2019, they noticed it was only three inches north. And the reason is because they used a soil improvement method for the base instead of traditional deep pilings anchoring into Manhattan's bedrock. Now, what that means, like on an engineering level, I have absolutely no idea. But basically it sounded like they made– I don't know if necessarily a shortcut is the right word, but they did a nontraditional sort of strategy with the foundation. Okay. And it cost them basically is what I understood from my research. Okay. I thought you were about to get real, you were like, from an engineering standpoint, I have no idea. But it's a little silly. It's like, yo, we built buildings thousands of times. So we just want to change up the foundation method? It's like, no wonder it's got to lean to it. It's like they strayed from the formula, you know? I appreciate they're trying to break new ground, but it's like, you're building a giant luxury skyscraper in the biggest city in the universe. It's like, universe. time to be experimental. Right, which has become a case study in engineering with really stressing the importance of proper foundational work. Totally. Which, you know, you'd think they would have figured that out by now. But yeah, maybe just a reminder. But yeah, as a result of once they discovered the lean, obviously lots of construction delays, legal battles. I mean, as you saw in the picture, only about 50% of the finishes, including windows, are installed. So it's just kind of like sitting there just incomplete so yeah as a result like obviously legal battles tarnished reputation uh with the people involved and some buyers uh including the the mu family they had invested nearly 400 000 in deposits in the buildings and then now they're just finding themselves in a state of limbo with the the building's completion basically just being postponed indefinitely I don't know who the Mew family is. Do we have a fact check on this family? Am I supposed to recognize that? It's from the New Yorker article that I read. Okay, interesting. I think it was just maybe one of the examples that was used. Okay. I'm not too worried about it. I was just curious to know if that was a big New York family name or something like that. No, I mean, yeah, just tell me this family.$400,000 is no chump change to throw down for deposits for a building like this. Right, right, right. Tell me this. What are they going to do with this? Well, I don't know. So according to, to engineers, there's not a risk of the building collapsing. Okay. That's good. That said, it sounds like despite the engineers assurance, right? This thing's not getting finished anytime soon. It looks like. Okay. And I have, I, I, I'm, I don't know what they're going to do. Are they going to demolish it? Or is it just going to be like sitting there as it's like half completed, you know, work in the city. Cause I, even if they did complete it, like let's say it's, it gets complete after the engineers like oh yeah it's just lean a little lean never hurt you know anybody do you think a little lean never hurt nobody do you think people are would move into a building that's like has been delayed so long because of a lean like that's a great question like the certainly at this point that place will always have like some kind of stigma maybe after they finish it and they like prove that it's a still standing structure and that they're like there's no worry about it like maybe after the new cycle resets a couple times and people start to forget, maybe this place will start to fill up. I also wonder if maybe they're going to start having to take a hit on some of the luxuriousness of the place, like drop down the rent maybe, or maybe some of these crazy amenities they're not going to be able to take into account. They might have to make it more affordable to entice people that aren't necessarily willing to spend thousands of dollars to live in a leaning apartment. Right. Well, it's already been six years since construction was halted. That's crazy. So it's just like I don't know what the future looks like for this building. To me, it seems unlikely that it's going to– but they're saying it's not going to collapse either. So I don't know if there's going to– they're going to demo or– We'll see. I'm seeing some rumors online saying that people are thinking that it's probably going to look like– they might have to finish construction but after it's sold. So it looks like they might– the company that started construction might be looking to sell it to someone. Got it. I'm almost wondering if that potential new buyer would think that it might be more cost-effective to just demolish what they have. And then like recoup that lost cost. But I don't know. I'm definitely not a professional in terms of like New York real estate to tell you what's going to happen there. Well, it's an interesting one because of like the recency of it. It's not like a– like when we're talking about the historic buildings on a lot of the proptology segments, it's like a lot of these buildings have been around for 100 years or whatever. And like this is one that's just like it's less than a decade old. And it's not even being used for anything like a visual eyesore. So I say I don't know. It sounds like it's going to be more trouble than it's worth. to build this building to completion and then try and get tenants rather than just start it over. Well, let me ask you a question. Let's say they did complete it as is with the three-inch lean. Would you live there? Am I wealthy? No, no, no. Because I got to be more wealthy than I am right now. I'm just saying there's a lean on the building. It's a giant sky rise. Would you– let's say it's affordable rent for New York or whatever. Like let's say you– Affordable rent for New York. All right. Dude, you're not playing along with the hypothetical. Let's say you have to move to New York. I got to put myself in this situation, Patrick, or else I can't believe it. You have to move to New York. Circumstances in your life point to you must move to New York. Do I have a job in New York? Yeah, you have a job. Okay. That helps. So I'm getting paid a New York City salary. No, like you're moving to New York. That's happening. You know, and you're in New York. But I have my same job now. No, dude, you're in New York. You have to live in New York. Okay. You're in New York. You're looking for apartments. Okay. It's an affordable apartment. Maybe we'll say the most affordable apartment that you've found, but it's in the leaning tower of New York. Are you comfortable getting an apartment in this tower? If other people were living in it, I wouldn't really think twice about it. So if your friends jumped off the bridge, would you jump off the bridge? No. Depends on the bridge. No, I mean, obviously the answer is like, if it's the same that I'm paying in rent right now for Cincinnati, but in New York City, sure, why not? I'll pay that same amount for a more luxurious place to stay and a chance to live in a cool city like New York City. I mean, I would love to live in New York. So the three-inch lien doesn't make you nervous? No, it doesn't, no. The cost is what makes me more nervous. Oh, okay. I'd rather pay affordable rent and have the building collapse. Honestly, that's kind of where I'm at. But I'm also not a very wealthy person. Got it. I'm more concerned about the cost of rent than the building quality. Yeah, I can tell because the whole point of the question, the hypothetical was like, does the three-inch lean bother you? No, not at all. The lean doesn't bother you at all? Nope, don't care. Got it. I could set up like a little skateboard ramp in my apartment and like do tricks because it's like go downhill or whatever. Yeah. Okay. What about you? Would you be scared to? No, I mean like, yeah, you know, the engineers say like, oh, it's totally fine but just like you know I don't know like what's in it for the engineers to say this you know what I mean couldn't they get sued i'm pretty sure they have to disclose if there's a danger of the building collapsing like back in the 50s when the doctors were like yeah smoking's good for you you know it's just like you know what a comp what a comp what a comp

SPEAKER_00:

i have a question

SPEAKER_01:

okay producer musse's got a question

SPEAKER_00:

if you were the first group of people to move in first of all would you move in Secondly, like,

SPEAKER_01:

like, did we just answer this question?

SPEAKER_00:

Zach just said, but no, but Zach was saying if people have are living there, then he's fine with it. Right. But I'm saying like,

SPEAKER_01:

are you asking me? So you're basically saying like, I need to be the Neil Armstrong and land on this building.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And they're giving you a 50% discounted rate off your rent right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my God. Yeah, totally. No question.

SPEAKER_00:

But they said, you got to make sure you don't work out in this apartment, do any jumping, don't have

SPEAKER_01:

part of the lease a clause in the lease is like no no

SPEAKER_02:

jumping because

SPEAKER_01:

no

SPEAKER_00:

sudden moves cause uh certain uh eruptions um that would freak

SPEAKER_01:

me out

SPEAKER_00:

exactly what okay so answer this question

SPEAKER_01:

that's a no that that's a no

SPEAKER_00:

that's enough

SPEAKER_01:

jack that's a no if if they're giving me the apartment for 50 of what i'm paying right now and rent cool but if they say in the lease no jumping or sudden movements i'm going you guys can go to hell 75% off rent. 80%. I'm going to give you 80% off rent. But I can't jump. I mean, I guess I'm not jumping that much in my apartment as is. Yeah, what are you doing? Yeah, why not? I'll do it.

UNKNOWN:

Screw it.

SPEAKER_00:

but then what if you watch like the Bengals and they make it to the Super Bowl and

SPEAKER_01:

I go yes and then the whole tower oh no good question good question that was good well thank you Patrick that was a cool little segment we'll see what happens over the years as we chronicle the Leaning Tower of New York City I'd like to do an update on this in a couple years sure yeah I'm sure we'll have substantial updates on this as the time goes on and maybe one of these days we'll do a segment on the Leaning Tower of Pisa as well you should That would be fun. As like a book A, book B kind of feel. Thank you all for listening to this episode of The Rentish Pod. We appreciate each and every one of you for listening. If you had a question or a topic suggestion or just something fun that you wanted to shout out, feel free to email questions at therentishpod.com. You can also follow us at therentishpod on Instagram. Go to Google and search The Rentish and you'll find us on podcast platforms basically everywhere. Like, subscribe, give us a rating, give us a comment. I've been Zach. That's been I'm Patrick. That's been Moussey, producer Moussey. And yeah, we'll see you guys next time around.