Unbundling the costs of parking

In the spirit of last week's post about the costs of condos in downtown Spokane, we decided to look even deeper into how the price of a unit is allocated across the living space and the parking space.  The rule for downtown condo development currently is that the developer will provide you with at least one parking space.

Few if any people looking into living downtown think twice about what that parking spot is really costing them because it is conveniently bundled into the overall price.  We decided to unbundle the cost of parking for a few units currently for sale & rent downtown and calculate what people are being charged for the convenience of secured-covered parking.

The table above shows just how much new residents and developers are forking over for the convenience of parking in an urban setting.  Condo #1 & Condo #2 are both downtown.  Just for grins we included a Browne's Addition Condo currently for sale and a home for sale in the Eagle Ridge Subdivision for comparison (That three car garage in Eagle Ridge is pretty costly).  Now comes the question:  If the cost of parking was unbundled from the overall living space cost (and consumers had a choice), how would this affect their purchasing of the units?  What about the purchase price?  We think given the option, it might make some housing downtown much more attainable and maybe even make transit more relavent.  We'll explore this more with future developments we profile.