Apartment rentals New York with Financial District Rentals

Apartment hunters in New York City let out a collective groan earlier this month when a new survey on the city’s rental market declared that the average rent of an apartment in the city has reached a whopping $3,017 per month—that’s three times the average rent of an apartment in America. Once again, it is the city’s low vacancy rates that are being blamed for this meteoric rent rise, with landlords taking advantage of the high demand to shoot up the asking prices of their apartments.

But all is not lost—at least not yet. As hard as it may be to believe, there are still apartments on the market that are asking for rents less than the current average in the market. We went through our extensive database to find out apartments that have asking rents of less than $3,000 a month, and we have listed below some of our favorites (read as: the least expensive picks) from that select collection of available apartments.

Winter is on its way out in Manhattan, and accompanying the rise in temperatures is a corresponding increase in the rental prices for apartments in the city. The latest rental market report from MNS says that rents rose by 0.92 per cent in February, which is the first indication of the market reversing the downward slump that it has been experiencing over the past few months. Vacancy rates in Manhattan continue to remain low, and these could serve as a reason for rents to shoot up further in the coming summer months.

For New Yorkers, the refusal of rent-stabilization begs indignation, shock, or simply confusion. In the Financial District, apathetic responses to the option to convert units in eligible buildings to rent-stabilized apartments has become an unusual phenomenon. Up to 16 Lower Manhattan apartment buildings received tax breaks since 2006, requiring the apartments to be rent stabilized. Under the Section 421-g Program, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development designated the Lower Manhattan Abatement Zone, defined as the area south of the centerline of Murray, Frankfort and Dover Streets as an area eligible for partial exemption and abatement.

Another Financial District office tower has been redeveloped into a residential building, and its 419 units are ready to hit the market. Back in 2010, MetroLoft Management announced plans to convert 116 John Street into an apartment complex, and renovations on all 35 floors are expected to be complete by October. Originally built in 1931, the 350,000-square-foot Art Deco building is keeping its exterior architecture and hallmark public spaces, but the conversion process will add new terrace doors at all setbacks and brand new windows throughout. Earlier this week, MetroLoft unveiled what future units will look like, with models in the form of studios, junior one-bedrooms, one-bedrooms with home offices, regular one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms.

We expect the real estate market to slow down during the holiday season. Realtors plan for it. The November and December markets are often the lowest of the year, with prices shooting back up by the first quarter of the new year. But last month’s rental market report tells a different story. November rental prices were indeed down from the previous month, but by a number smaller than anyone would have guessed. And average prices in all Manhattan rental markets in November were considerably higher than they were at the same time last year. People want to rent in Manhattan, it seems, and they’re willing to pay dearly for the privilege.