# Real Estate Value Of All Of Manhattan! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 21, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271 "2008-03-21T21:26:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/1 "2008-03-21T21:26:23Z")
I was just reading an article on MSNBC on the greatest business blunders. They mention the selling of Manhattan by Native Americans back then, but then they give a quote as to the **actual real estate value of all of Manhattan today**. Take your best guess and here is the estimated value, should you decide to buy it all: Take the Canarsee natives, who, in 1626, traded for trinkets a now rather stylish plot: Manhattan (then called New Amsterdam). The island fondly dubbed “the center of the universe” by many New Yorkers is now worth a cool $1 trillion, estimates Matthew Mondanile of Cushman & Wakefield, a global commercial real estate firm. To be honest, I would have guessed it to be worth even more. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/2 "2008-03-21T21:38:45Z")
Having looked at the spoiler, I agree that seems a lowball estimate. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/3 "2008-03-21T21:48:23Z")
I agree: low estimate. Considering all of the infrastructure in place like subways, ground mass-transit, hospitals, power/electrical/steam grid, and communications systems, that estimate seems kind of low. If they’d multiplied it by a factor of ten or so, then I’d say it was ‘ballpark’. Tripler And there’s my $0.02. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/4 "2008-03-21T22:16:59Z")
Starting at $24 in 1626, to $1 Trillion in 2008, that’s about 6.5% annual increase (nominal), discounting all further investment. Not bad, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/5 "2008-03-21T22:50:35Z")
Huh…I guessed three times that amount. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/6 "2008-03-22T01:27:43Z")
[QUOTE=Boyo Jim] Having looked at the spoiler, I agree that seems a lowball estimate. [/QUOTE] Well guys! Remember the neighborhood it’s in! Just down the street from [sub]New Jersey[/sub]. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/7 "2008-03-22T01:42:43Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Well guys! Remember the neighborhood it’s in! Just down the street from [sub]New Jersey[/sub]. [/QUOTE] But it has a wonderful ocean view and easy access to transit. Too bad about the climate, though vacations north and south are easily arranged and reasonably affordable. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/8 "2008-03-22T02:18:42Z")
The Boston “Big Dig” cost about $15,000,000,000 or so and that was just for some tunnels that leak and kill newlywed brides from collapsing structures on the way to the honeymoon. I fail to see how Manhattan would be worth anywhere near $1 trillion dollars. That is way too low. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/9 "2008-03-22T02:22:54Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] The Boston “Big Dig” cost about $15,000,000,000 or so and that was just for some tunnels that leak and kill newlywed brides from collapsing structures on the way to the honeymoon. I fail to see how Manhattan would be worth anywhere near $1 trillion dollars. That is way too low. [/QUOTE] It might have cost 15 billion dollars to dig, but how much is a hole in the ground worth once it’s there? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/10 "2008-03-22T12:34:46Z")
[QUOTE=Boyo Jim] It might have cost 15 billion dollars to dig, but how much is a hole in the ground worth once it’s there? 😛 [/QUOTE] More than New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/11 "2008-03-22T14:49:03Z")
Anyway, I think the Canarsies believed they were selling just hunting and fishing rights, which aren’t worth that much now. Unless you’re really into eating rats and pigeons and toxic fish. So what would Manhattan be worth sold as scrap? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/12 "2008-03-22T18:21:10Z")
[QUOTE=Ichbin Dubist] So what would Manhattan be worth sold as scrap? [/QUOTE] More than New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/13 "2008-03-22T23:47:49Z")
Maybe $1Trillion is just the value of the land, and doesn’t include the development? After all, the natives only sold a mound of dirt, not a mound of dirt full of theatres and subways and hospitals and coops and drunks in the alley and Central Park. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/14 "2008-03-23T12:37:25Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] More than New Jersey. [/QUOTE] Yeah, until the value of chromium and dioxin shoots up in the Panic of 2247 … ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-estate-value-of-all-of-manhattan/442271/15 "2008-03-24T00:21:13Z")
[QUOTE=Ichbin Dubist] Unless you’re really into eating rats and pigeons and toxic fish. [/QUOTE] The fish ain’t that toxic anymore. Still no oysters in the bay though.