When real estate prices are high, repairs aren't made because there's no need to-- apartments sell themselves. When they're low and vacancy rates are high, repairs aren't made because there is no point.
How does that make sense? You're arguing that repairs are not worth it if it's easy to sell apartments (what does that mean? That the new tenants do repairs, or that everyone is willing to live with a leaky sink as long as they pay for it?). Or that repairs only happen when apartments can sell (so you'll only let the sink leak if you're going to live with it for a long time).
The utility of repairs can be positively or negatively correlated with real estate prices, but it's ridiculously unlikely for it to be both.
For what it's worth, I've lived in cheap and expensive parts of New York, and, miracle of miracles, people took better care of apartments they paid more for. As it turns out, it really stings if you'd be able to rent someone a loft for $8,000 a month, but you can't because they saw that that ceiling was cracked. People paying $400/month for a room aren't nearly as picky.
How does that make sense? You're arguing that repairs are not worth it if it's easy to sell apartments (what does that mean? That the new tenants do repairs, or that everyone is willing to live with a leaky sink as long as they pay for it?). Or that repairs only happen when apartments can sell (so you'll only let the sink leak if you're going to live with it for a long time).
The utility of repairs can be positively or negatively correlated with real estate prices, but it's ridiculously unlikely for it to be both.
For what it's worth, I've lived in cheap and expensive parts of New York, and, miracle of miracles, people took better care of apartments they paid more for. As it turns out, it really stings if you'd be able to rent someone a loft for $8,000 a month, but you can't because they saw that that ceiling was cracked. People paying $400/month for a room aren't nearly as picky.