The MacBook Neo has arrived at the Apple Store at 4860 Bethesda Avenue at Bethesda Row, and quickly sold out. Initially listed as available for pickup purchase at the store, by last evening, in-store availability was updated to "April 6." Designed to be more competitive with the Google Chromebook, the $600 fanless laptop appears to have met a strong demand in a downtown Bethesda where average incomes have dropped in recent years. Renters being placed into vacant luxury apartments at contract rates below the advertised market rate may be enjoying a subsidized upscale pad, but still can't afford the top-of-the-line MacBooks, not a rare circumstance in a nation gripped by an affordability crisis. Enter the Neo, which employs an iPhone chip instead of the M chips that power its high-end brethren.
29 comments:
METaphor
According to the St. Louis Fed, the median income for Montgomery county is $138,870 (2024 data). This is a record high. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MHIMD24031A052NCEN
Sometimes a good deal on a laptop is just a good deal on a laptop. Much like Grandpa Simpson and his tired takes, keep shaking your fist at the clouds.
9:54: And what is the median income of downtown Bethesda, which I referred to in the article? I'm not sure if it's even being measured, but it certainly wouldn't be a record high if taking all rental residents into account.
9:56: You took my wallet!
“downtown Bethesda where average incomes have dropped in recent years.”
Wild and completely unsubstantiated claim. Let’s see your “data”.
“Renters being placed into vacant luxury apartments at contract rates below the advertised market rate…”
Wilder and even less substantiated claim.
10:27: If you bring in a large number of lower and mid income tenants, average income should decline. The evidence of illegal Airbnb rentals of vacant units, and of contract housing filling yet others, is all around for those who are looking for it.
So you equate Apple introducing a more affordable laptop with the demise of wealthy folks in Bethesda? Sounds like some form of pretzel logic too me. They also sell a $3500 Apple Vision Pro at the Bethesda store. Does that mean that Bethesda is booming using your cause and effect science?
How can you assume that most of those buying these lower-cost computers from the Bethesda Row store actually live in (however you define it) "downtown Bethesda"?
It's possible that it sold out at other stores in the MD/VA/DC area first, and that some people might be traveling from outside Bethesda to pick one up here.
(I didn't check that, but it sounds as if you didn't, either.)
What's the latest on that nearly-all-Airbnb building to be erected on Edgemoor with the art on the side to replace that small lawfirm SFH?
“If you bring in a large number of lower and mid income tenants, average income should decline.”
You have no data showing that income has declined. And you have no data showing that “a large number of lower and mid income tenants have been brought in”. Deductive logic falls apart when it is based on premises that are false.
“The evidence of illegal Airbnb rentals of vacant units, and of contract housing filling yet others, is all around for those who are looking for it.”
No, it is not. You have made this claim repeatedly but never, ever provided any documentation.
I’m interested in buying one. Before this release I considered a Macbook Air, but felt it was still too expensive. Neo is probably a good deal since I use my phone way more than my laptop.
Better sold out than stolen out! IYKYK. Man I'd love some of that MoCo PoPo seniority gravy duty overtime pay...
Pretzel Logic is a great album by Steely Dan, so lighten up on that particular phase please.
@10:27 As an owner of several rentals in DT Bethesda, it is absolutely true that HOC has been acquiring individual units and placing section 8 tenants in these buildings. These unvetted renters cause almost all of the unscheduled maintenance service calls not to mention police involvement. The problem is when some people have no skin in the game so to speak, they treat what's given to them without regard. It should be understood that it is a privilege to be given that opportunity but progressives in MC government hand out keys using taxpayer dollars without any expectations of responsibility.
There is a reason why average incomes seem to be maintaining a high number. Exodus of middle and some higher income residents skew by leaving a smaller legal count of very high income residents. The Accenture CEO in Edgemoor comes to mind. In short, liberals suck at actual governance and simply prefer to rule.
Once again, a series of assertions without any supporting data provided.
11:41: There are three sources of data we can examine: Anecdotal and eyewitness accounts, such as what 5:02 presented and what I have gathered such as Airbnb activity and encounters with residents who are the beneficiaries of contract housing and would not be able to rent these units at the advertised prices; government/census data; and by also looking with a critical eye at what data is *not* be collected or made public (i.e. "privacy" laws that limit data on who is renting) or data that is conveniently not broken out (such as the median income of renters within downtown Bethesda).
Adding thousands of units but filling a large percentage of them with low-to-mid income tenants would clearly lower the median income of downtown Bethesda.
Nefarious actors are left to pose the dubious question, "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"
So: (1) anecdotal and eyewitness accounts, which might be correct, but which aren't available for anyone else to review; (2) government/census data, which, as you recognize in this thread, doesn't appear to be available for "the downtown Bethesda area"; and (3) your suppositions about the reasons why some data that might be relevant isn't collected and/or made public.
That's hardly convincing.
As Felix Unger said, When you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME.
Maybe that's why they call it suppository.
3:22: Well, it appears we have more evidence than you are able to present at this time. There's nothing presented so far that disproves any of our assertions.
That's what you're going with?
"There's nothing presented so far that disproves any of our assertions"??
What's your opinion about Bigfoot? Real? Or, Sus-quatch?
(Tip: The new "Capturing Bigfoot," a documentary about the origin/creation of the famous 1960s video, suggests that at least that supposed sighting was a fake.)
4:00: I've never seen Bigfoot, but I have seen tourists with confused expressions and luggage on wheels going into the lobbies of the new apartment towers in downtown Bethesda. I've also spoken to residents of these buildings who are there under contract arrangements with their employers or universities, and seen the Airbnb ads for units in these buildings (illegal, by the way). The next step is a serious expose by the Post and the County Council, neither of which will do so because they're both in on it. It's like saying we know JFK was killed by a wacky lone conspirator because the CIA hasn't told us they did it instead.
I've got nothing to say about JFK, and I can't dispute the conversations and ads you referred to: but, as commenters here pointed out some months ago, a (substantial?) proportion of those people "with confused expressions and luggage on wheels going into the lobbies of the new apartment towers" could be visiting friends or relatives there.
As a resident in a newer multi-family residential mixed use building for nearly ten years, I am not aware of any AirB&B usage or low cost contract housing in my building. In fact subletting is not permitted by the landlord, who manages several towers in downtown Bethesda. That is likely not the case in all downtown buildings though.
Exactly. I walk by those people every day from Cordell Ave to down past Arlington Rd and they are NOT from all the buses that go to NYC either.
If there's no solid/formal evidence or data on either side, then no official or definitive conclusions can be made for or against. Anecdotal and observational information might be interesting but it's not hard data. Just sayin'
“ I have seen tourists with confused expressions and luggage on wheels going into the lobbies of the new apartment towers in downtown Bethesda.”
Did you consider the possibility that these are residents returning from a trip?
“I’ve seen… the Airbnb ads for units in these buildings (illegal, by the way).”
Do you believe that Airbnb ads are somehow unique to these buildings? Can you document that these rentals are happening at a higher rate than for other properties in this area?
“ The next step is a serious expose by the Post and the County Council, neither of which will do so because they're both in on it.”
Why not do this expose yourself, Mr. Journalist?
6:57: Airbnb use in apartment buildings is illegal without obtaining a hotel zoning from Montgomery County. Residents returning from a trip would not appear hesitant and confused when arriving home to their own building. I've written many an expose over the years, but in some cases such as this, only people with "badges" can obtain the data - The Washington Post, the County Council, or the FBI.
This is what happened with the County's false claim about job creation in 2014. It took Bill Turque flashing a badge from the Post to obtain the data to disprove the County's claim (it turned out the County was cooking the books by counting each new job three times; Turque proved that MoCo was moribund after all).
I'm really the only journalist who has brought the apartment vacancy scam to light, and was able to do so only by obtaining information directly from residents of these new buildings, and combining it with other observations. The average person does not have this information, and is likely to be fooled by developers and politicians claiming there is high demand for $3000+ 1-bedroom apartments in 2026. Airbnb ads and reviews, and residents telling me they are being put into their units through an employer subsidy of contract housing, or that "I'm the only person on my floor" months after the building opened are solid pieces of data, compared to rose-colored pronouncements with zero evidence to back them up.
Airbnb use typically violates local laws and condo and HOA rules, not just in Montgomery County but across the country. But people do it anyway.
I’m really intrigued (and amused) by your repeated claim that you have encountered persons who “appear hesitant and confused when arriving”. How many times have you encountered this situation? Did you offer to help them or at least ask them why they “appeared hesitant or confused”? Do you often stand at the entrances of apartment buildings and stand close enough to the persons entering that you can observe their facial expressions?
6:49: If you regularly walk around an area, these sorts of insights are possible. In contrast, the County Council is so unfamiliar with Bethesda that a bus tour had to be arranged for them during the Westbard sector plan process. "And if you look out the right side, you'll see the Washington Monument." Embarrassing.
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