IMDonehere - Agree. And agree that many buildings are being built in Manhattan for international billionaires who live there maybe 2 weeks a year. So they are basically ghost buildings. Lots of apartments with no real person, a real New Yorker, living there. Taking up room. It's a shame.

As for chains - A Dunkin' Donuts is moving int the bottom of our apartment house in Forest Hills, Queens. So now we'll have a pink and orange eyesore. And a fantastic independent bakery is being kicked out.

<http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/forest-hills-residents-fight-bonelle-pastry-shop-article-1.2002287>

Something like 20% of the apartments in Manhattan are second apartments of the wealthy from all over world including the United States. The NY Times has a weekly piece on the most expensive residential sale of the week and it is commonly over $30 million. This week it was Jon Stewart who sold his place on Hudson St. for a mere $17 million which is not bad because he paid $5 about five years ago.

Few things are as counter intuitive to me, as the explosive real estate price after 9/11.

The same thing is happening here in Boston. Buildings , condos bought by Internationals.

The same thing started happening in Paris around 2008, during one of the financial crises. Foreign nationals (mostly Italians) looking for tax shelters bought up lots of property in the Marais, in particular - thus explaining the explosion of illegal vacation rentals in this neighborhood.