💸 The rich win again, apartment edition

When we hear the words “futuristic hotel,” it conjures up images of valets bringing our space luggage to our rooms via hoverboard.

It’s not quite that, but it’s cool nonetheless: McKinsey travel experts have predictions for how the hotel experience will transform in the 2030s.

Who needs hoverboards?

Forecasted changes include:

• Automation: Instead of waiting in line to check in, you’ll receive a room assignment via your smartphone, and hotel apps will translate important information into a variety of languages.
• Customization: Everything in your hotel room — from the intensity of the lighting to the type of coffee to the shower — will be customized and data-backed.
• Differentiation: Hotels will reflect their surroundings and offer more unique experiences based on geography, moving away from standardization.

“The big change that I anticipate… is that every single pain point will be removed,” writes Caroline Tufft, a senior partner at McKinsey.

And future hotels will do more good

Experts predict that guests will increasingly choose hotels that prioritize sustainability, putting pressure on corporations even before regulators do.

Tech will help as well: Hotel room sensors will monitor who is in a room and what they’re doing, adjusting the temperature accordingly to limit energy use (HVAC systems are responsible for most of the energy consumption in hotels).

Beyond prioritizing sustainability, hotels will become more responsible employers, giving workers more role flexibility and better pay and training.

Now back to snazzy new tech…

While hotels today focus on spas and amenities, the future might revolve around customizable restaurant menu items or the technology and lighting used in rooms.

VR and 3D glasses could allow customers to look into different room options before booking, and the rooms themselves could be automated to transform furniture into various configurations based on the guest’s needs.

That’s all pretty cool, but we’ll be holding off on our excitement until there’s a voice-automated french fry dispenser on the bedside table.

Maybe we read too much news (we definitely read too much news), but every single day we’re confronted with a certain intractable housing crisis.

One common conclusion: There is no panacea, but building more affordable apartments for working-class people sure would help.

Now Americans are building more apartments than ever before — just mostly for the wealthy.

First, the good numbers

In the US, a record 460k+ new apartments will go on the market this year.

Another 1m newly built rentals are expected through 2025 (though high interest rates and rising construction costs may ultimately lower that number).

Overall, since covid, America has experienced a construction boom “not seen since the 1970s,” per RentCafe.

… But there’s a problem

To start, ~89% of new builds in the 2020s are high-end units. Those most affected by the current market — low-income renters — remain short on options.

It’s not even a win for all high-income Americans: Nearly two-thirds of construction is concentrated in 20 metro areas, comprising just 41% of US renters.

Builders are flooding the market with the new supply it theoretically needs, just not where it’s needed most.

This mess, as told through NYC

On the surface, this year’s numbers look good for New Yorkers — the city’s ~33k new units will top the US.

But even if the city maintains this scorching pace, it’d only gain ~231k units by 2030. Last year, officials projected the city would need ~560k units by 2030 to keep pace with demand.

If you’re one of the city’s 2m+ renters, assume rent relief isn’t coming anytime soon. Which… oof: In July, the median price of a Manhattan apartment hit a record $4.4k/month.

All that for just 740 square feet on average? No wonder the city never sleeps.

$622k: How much you’d pay in annual homeowners insurance if you lived on Miami’s tony Star Island, a man-made island home to the ultrarich — but also under threat from hurricanes. In 2022, that same policy cost $200k; more broadly, insurance rates across Florida have tripled due to mounting climate change-related risks.

11,196: Years in prison a Turkish court handed to Faruk Fatih Özer, founder of the now-defunct crypto exchange Thodex, and his siblings Serap and Guven Özer. In April 2021, Thodex vanished, leaving its 400k+ members without access to their funds while Faruk Özer fled to Albania. Investors lost, well, no one knows — but it’s estimated to be between $13m and $2.6B.

$500m: A pledge from 20+ philanthropy organizations, including the MacArthur Foundation, to address news deserts, or areas with a lack of local news. Since 2005, 2.5k US newspapers have shuttered while voter participation has declined. The Knight Foundation, Meta, and Google have also previously invested in local news efforts.

63: Number of corrective actions the FAA has ordered SpaceX to make following its tumultuous April launch of Starship, NASA’s intended vessel for its lunar Artemis missions. The fixes Elon Musk’s team must address include hardware redesign, changes to the launchpad, increased analysis and testing, and other safety updates.