What are "luxury" apartments?

[Greg Pratt]

It's now common to see reference to "luxury condos" and "luxury
apartments" in both real estate advertising and news media.
Developers are putting a lot of such housing stock on the market
and helping to infuse new blood into moribund neighborhoods, while
some detractors use "luxury apartments" with an inflection as if
the phrase were a profanity.

But what *is* a luxury apartment? There's no legal or regulatory
definition that I know of. Do realtors have a definition? Do
major papers have some definition of the phrase, or is it thrown
into articles only when the writer wants to suggest something about
a given building project?

What threshold has to be met? Must the building have a doorman?
(Doorwoman?) Are views required? Balconies? Washer and dryer
hookups in the unit? Central HVAC system for each apartment? Is
there some earnings threshold for tenants or buyers that must be
met?

These may sound like silly questions, but consider a recent trip
through Jersey City, where I noted to a co-worker that the skyline
was unrecognizable from just five years ago. Many high-rise
residential buildings have just gone up in the last 18 months.
Quite a few of them have banners hanging from them, announcing the
availability of "luxury" units. For better or worse, this is
redefining downtown Jersey City, an area that was a blighted post-
industrial eyesore not so long ago.

Is "luxury" just a sales word with no real meaning, injected by
marketing people to boost initial sales prices on new condos?

--
Gregory Pratt g...@panix.com
East Rutherford, NJ, USA http://www.panix.com/~gp/
"You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."
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