Ugh. Just as we were getting excited about those 50,000 apartments that were recently returned to rent regulation...

We've already reported that the average cost of a Manhattan apartment is now $2 million, but now, we have some even less exciting real estate news. 

Manhattan real estate sales continue to climb steadily, resulting in what is now a serious housing crisis in New York City. 

Less and less people are able to afford real estate, simply because no one is really building affordable housing anymore. 

This is causing a lot of anxiety among brokers, since their average client is now going to have severely limited options when it comes to buying. 

If this continues, where are people going to live? More importantly, where are lower-income renters going to live? 

Mayor de Blasio is well aware of this crisis; a central focus of his political agenda has been the creation of more affordable housing and the rezoning of neighborhoods to allow for more construction.

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Developers, however, don't appear to be motivated to construct affordable housing. 

Eventually, the city will have to figure out a way to offer them incentives that are attractive enough. 

Right now, they don't have any reason to be interested in affordable units-- they want to be profitable, and expect sell prices to be in line with the cost of construction.

This problem definitely isn't going away any time soon, and if the city doesn't find a solution, there could be a lot (more) of displaced and unhappy New Yorkers. 

Check out Can You Guess What the Most Expensive Brooklyn 'Hood of 2016 Is. 

[via Curbed] [Feature Image Courtesy 6sqft]