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Walk-up Buildings Return to the Spotlight

In a city with apartment buildings known for their dizzying heights and grandeur, walk-up apartment buildings in New York City have long had a lower, less glamorous profile. Walk-ups are buildings that have just five or six stories of apartments in them, and, as their name suggests, they do not have an elevator. Walk-up buildings reflect a style of construction of the early 20th century, and the flights of stairs to climb every day have been a deterrent for New Yorkers looking for an apartment to rent in the city. But that was in the past. With the trend of increasing rents sweeping through rental buildings in Manhattan, the apartments in these small walk-ups represent a gold mine for the landlords of such buildings. 

Manhattan: The Rent is, Still, Too Damn High

“The rent is too damn high!” This phrase, adopted as the slogan and the official name of by a New York City political party founded by Jimmy McMillan, is something that every New Yorker has probably uttered at least once during his or her stay in the city that never sleeps. And if the latest real estate reports are anything to go by, it seems this sad refrain is not likely to lose its popularity any time soon: high rents are still very much the norm for apartments in Manhattan. The Manhattan Rental Market Report for July by MNS has revealed that as the first half of the year came to closure, most rents for apartments in the city have seen increases as compared to June.

Hamilton Heights: Rejuvenated, Revitalized and Ready

With many of Manhattan’s popular neighborhoods getting denser by the day, it is only natural that people looking for homes in the city are looking for newer, but traditionally overlooked, neighborhoods to move into. One such neighborhood, which has found many takers among the renters of New York City, is the quiet yet evolving locality of Hamilton Heights in West Harlem. With Manhattanville on one end and Washington Heights on the other, Hamilton Heights is in the midst of a revival of sorts, with people coming in to the neighborhood to make use of its low rents and great living atmosphere. The average rent of a one-bedroom apartment here comes to $1,600, whereas buying a townhouse would cost you about $1 million, a fraction of the cost of a similar home in Brooklyn.

July: Manhattan Rental Market Follows June Trends

After all the cheering for the good news coming out of the Manhattan real estate sector in June, the good spell for the housing market has continued through to July as well. The latest report by real estate firm Citi Habitats reveals that the vacancy rates for apartments in Manhattan have risen to 1.2 per cent, an increase that bodes well for those hunting homes in the city. The highest vacancy rates were seen in the East Village with 1.65 percent, followed closely by the Upper West Side with 1.56 percent and Murray Hill with 1.52 percent. Once again, people looking for homes in the city are at an advantage, and should make use of this time wisely to find their dream homes.

High Rents Driving Residents Back to Manhattan

Brooklyn Residents are coming back to Manhattan in response to high rentsA studio apartment in a tidy, undiscovered corner of Brooklyn: For many young professionals, this image was the dream they aspired towards. However, the recent reality of the New York rental market has forced many to rethink the viability of such a hope. Despite the recent surges in Manhattan rents, Brooklyn’s average rents have been increasing at an even faster rate, and many now exceed the rents of several Manhattan neighborhoods. Although Brooklyn was once seen as a place to find relief from the prices of apartments in Manhattan, recent trends now indicate that the opposite is happening as many Brooklyn residents move back into Manhattan.

New Yorkers Reluctant to Pay Brokers’ Fees

Tough economic times have caused New Yorkers to tighten their purse strings, and some of the ones bearing the brunt of these hard times are New York’s real estate brokers. In a recent survey conducted by Rent.com, four out of ten New Yorkers said that they would not like to pay a broker’s fee when they look for an apartment. In a city where finding a rental is often fraught with difficulties, city residents don’t seem to want to have the broker’s fee added on to their list of expenses. The broker’s fee is typically about 15 percent of an apartment’s yearly rent, but with the double whammy of a surge in rents and a dip in vacancies in the city, New Yorkers are holding on to all their dollars to make sure they can afford their homes.

The Compression of NYC’s Small Apartments

There’s been a lot of hype and hoopla over New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to introduce 275-square foot micro apartments in the city as a means to satisfy New Yorkers’ apparent demand for small apartments. Bloomberg’s plans to shrink rental living space has got both positive and negative reactions, although the majority of the feedback seems to have been mostly of the latter category. But it now seems that Bloomberg was on the right path after all—the size of new rentals in the city has been shrinking over the past few years.

The Beaumont in Harlem Obtains a Receiver for Restoration

The Beaumont in Harlem is a beautiful rental buildingThe Beaumont has seen some better days. A historic Harlem rental building that had previously hosted author Ralph Ellison and opera singer Marian Anderson, 730 Riverside Drive has since fallen into quite a bit of disarray regarding its management and maintenance. However, efforts will soon be undertaken to bring this Manhattan rental back to some of its former glory. The order has been issued down from a state Supreme Court judge to name a receiver to oversee the restoration and renovation of the Manhattan rental building. Attorney Bradley Marks will take up this role of receiver, officially gaining the responsibility of overseeing the restoration projects set to take place.

Manhattan Rents Broke Records in March

The rental apartment in Manhattan reached new heights in MarchTwo new market reports released this week confirmed what we already knew but added a few twists to the story. According to both reports, rents in Manhattan for luxury rental apartments continued their upward year-to-year trajectory in March. These median and average rent increases were elevated by a dearth of landlord concessions, something that we at Luxury Rentals Manhattan wrote about previously. The real shocker was that one report found that the average rent in for rental apartments in Manhattan in March, not including concessions, reached $3,418 a month, breaking the previous all-time high set in May 2007. The picture isn’t quite as one-sided as it appears though. Hidden beneath all these highs, there are some signs that the scales may finally be tipping back in favor of renters.

The Storied History of Sheffield 57

When Sheffield 57, Sheffield 57 on 57th Streeta luxury Manhattan apartment building on 57th Street, was originally built in 1979, it was a colossal building, standing 58 stories tall and holding 845 New York apartments for rent that tended towards the small; it was a building for lower-income families who wouldn’t mind the cramped living conditions if it meant they could live in the Clinton neighborhood.

Fast forward to 2005, when real estate investor Kent Swig bought the building for a then-unheard of $418 million, with an eye towards consolidating the apartments for rent and turning them into luxury condos for sale. But the purchase and subsequent plans for renovation sparked a battle between the developer and the tenants who already lived there. Renters wondered what would happen to their apartments, whether they’d be able to stay, and if they’d be able to put the rent they’d already paid towards a purchase.