Wishful thinking can make you feel better, but it has no effect on the market. Unless the Avalon can make it worth peoples' money to charge such high rents, it will not be successful and will need to lower its rates significantly. I too saw the apartments and the number of people turning out to take a peek; quite a few were "curiosity" folks from Citylights. On the basis of the number of signatures in their guestbook, I estimated that approximately 240 people had visited during the first 4 hours of February 2nd - a far cry from the 4,000 people supposedly on the "waiting list". By the time I went, the crowd seemed thin. A few people looked like they were truly interested but were only considering the "cheapest" apartments. In fact, one woman asked "what's the cheapest studio that you have?". Few folks looked like they could afford much more. As for the real estate agent stating that they only have a few more apartments left, what else do you expect them to say?