A core principle of economics is that incentives matter.

New York has never seemed to learn that. We have a perfect example:

A New York housing program allows developers to get a 100%, 25-year property tax abatement if they comply with the requirements of the 485X program, which applies to projects with 100 or more units. Those requirements include low-income set asides and a $40 per hour minimum wage for construction workers on projects with 100 or more units and low-income set-asides.

It jumps to a minimum of $72.45 for the projects with over 150 units.

Thanks to this brilliant program, almost every new development project has exactly 99 units: