Apartment rentals New York with Manhattan Apartments

February Rental Report: Who's Hip?

Brooklyn Manhattan Skyline

In February 2014, the median rental price in the borough of Manhattan has fallen once again from the previous month, January 2014, at a rate of -0.4%. This equates to six total months of median rental decrease. Since last summer rent can be considered as remaining flat, but although the decreases are definitely on a small incremental scale, they are in fact continuing to decrease. Giving Manhattan renters something to smile about, well a small smile in the least. Comparing February 2014 to February 2013 we see a -2.8% decrease in the median rental price, decreases remaining steady on this front, for now at least.

Vacancies in Manhattan Reach an All-Time Low

A few days ago, the second quarter real estate report for U.S. rentals was released, providing plenty of information on the national housing market. The verdict: rents have increased to an all-time high, particularly in New York City. Additionally, demand is at an all time-high. But the most staggering statistic at all is that the U.S. vacancy rate has sharply decreased to a level that hasn’t been seen since 2001. The report has several implications for the Manhattan market, beginning with the fact that in New York City, average rents are now at $2,935 per month, 1.7% more than last quarter.

The Widespread Effects of Rent Regulation in NYC

It’s a policy that dates back to World War I: rent regulation. A housing law that currently applies to 62.6% of the rental units in New York City, rent regulation’s effect on the city’s inhabitants cannot be underestimated. However, rent regulation is far from universally accepted throughout NYC. Recent controversy arose when landlords from the Upper West Side filed a federal lawsuit advocating for the removal of rent regulation due to its alleged unconstitutionality. For many landlords of rent-regulated apartments, it seems unjust that residents could afford to endlessly renew their leases.The importance of rent increases and alterations can furthermore be seen in the recent decision by the Rent Guidelines Board to allow landlords to make a  2% rent increase on 1-year leases and a 4% increase on 2-year leases.

High Income Individuals Promote Rental Market Expansion

The rental market in Manhattan is showing a surprising trend. Despite rents increasing to record rates, the high-end rental market in Manhattan is still expanding. Clearly, high-net-worth individuals prefer signing a lease agreement as opposed to taking out a mortgage to purchase a luxury apartment in Manhattan, but why would they when the financial benefits are few? Apparently, the appeal of the Manhattan luxury rental still exists for individuals needing a place to live without having to absolutely settle down into a long-term residence. Although many residents in this category may very well be able to afford buying a Manhattan condo, it seems that the current state of the housing market coupled with a sense of uncertainty on the future is keeping their faith in the rental market alive.
 

Newly Renovated Luxury Buildings Bring Renters to the Upper West Side

Renovated pre-war rental apartments are hot commodities on the Upper West SidePromising renovations on the Upper West Side have hedge fund managers and Manhattan fashionistas alike suggesting that this prosperous area is now the cool new place for luxury apartment renters to call home. The Upper West Side, which used to hold more unrenovated than renovated pre-war buildings, has seen a refreshing change of pace as high-quality renovations have drawn the attention of renters looking for pre-war places. Thanks to those changes, many renters now consider the area trendy, making real estate brokers and management companies even more eager to rent out those apartments.

Buying is Out, Renting is the New Trend

Manhattan Luxury Rentals - Buying/Renting
We've noted it before at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog, more than once and in ways both bloggy and worth-a-thousand-words visual. Of course, we have our reasons for this (the name of this blog is Luxury Rentals Manhattan, after all), but the numbers don't lie -- Manhattan rental apartments, now more than ever, are simply a better deal than Manhattan condominiums. While some of this owes to the price of those Manhattan condominiums, the trend away from buying and towards renting has been so dramatic, both in Manhattan real estate and in general, that it bears repeating.
 
Which is why we keep repeating it, and which is exactly what a recent report from Bloomberg -- the financial news people, not the tiny orange Mayor -- does, in numbers too striking to ignore. Thanks in part to epidemic foreclosures and largely to a national trend towards renting, the U.S. homeownership rate has fallen below the 60 percent mark, making it the lowest recorded homeownership rate. Before this year, the lowest homeownership rate recorded was in 1965 when the rate was 62.9 percent. The highest rate, by contrast, was 69.2 percent in 2004 when George W. Bush promoted an “ownership society” and banks offered two-for-one mortgages during happy hour. Now, just seven years later, the rate is 59.7 percent -- and the erstwhile ownership society, both in Manhattan and elsewhere, is looking disarmingly like a rentership society.

Summer In The City: Rents Rise With Temperatures, But Deals Are Still Out There

You’ve got your fired-up barbecues, of course. And the beach trips and baseball games and farmer’s markets and sweltering subway stations and, with ever more frequency, weather nice enough to induce the urge to simply lie down and relax wherever or take long, otherwise unmotivated walks. All of which is to say that it’s officially and incontrovertibly summer in New York City. With all those good things (and the sweltering subways, which one eventually just learns to deal with) comes another NYC summer tradition -- the arrival of the annual warm-weather boom in Manhattan real estate. We noted its first green shoots in the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog last month, and -- same as it does every summer -- the Manhattan luxury rental marketplace is in something very much like full bloom as July arrives.

Of course, as anyone searching for an apartment in NYC already knows, the words “strong Manhattan real estate market” bode better for landlords than those browsing Manhattan rental listings. But there’s good news for both renters and landlords alike in June’s luxury rental statistics. Sustained high demand and lower vacancy rates will (as they usually do) delight landlords. But those browsing Manhattan rental listings can take heart knowing that there are still plenty of deals to be had on luxury rental apartments.

Zoned In: Will Rezoning Make It Easier to Rent in Tribeca?

Recently, Luxury Rentals Manhattan posed a question that anyone searching for a NYC rental apartment has surely asked him or herself: "Are Manhattan rental apartments now a rich person thing?" It’s no secret that New York City is the nation’s most expensive place to rent, and although -- given how much more expensive it is to buy a Manhattan apartment -- renting in Manhattan still seems like the way to go, it's all relative: MNS’ figures show that in May 2011, rental prices increased by 6% from last year’s average. That's overall, though, and as anyone browsing Manhattan rental listings has surely noticed by now, rental prices, while high throughout Manhattan, are highly variable, even between bordering neighborhoods. Averaging studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom costs for each part of Manhattan shows that Tribeca is New York’s most expensive place to rent, while Harlem is the cheapest. That’s not particularly surprising, but some of their findings are. Contrary to popular belief, or common sense for that matter, renting in the Upper East Side is actually less expensive than renting in Greenwich Village, the Upper West Side, or Chelsea. So what does any of this have to do with rezoning North Tribeca and lowering housing costs?

High Five (Figures): Demand For Ultra High-End Manhattan Rentals Continues Surge

The Manhattan real estate market is a complicated thing, as any regular Luxury Rentals Manhattan visitor -- and anyone who has ever tried to find a rental apartment in Manhattan -- could tell you. But one of the most peculiar features of the ongoing turnaround in the Manhattan rental marketplace is just how much more quickly the market for high-end Manhattan luxury rentals has turned around than has, say, the market for $2500-per-month Manhattan rental apartments. Given that there are more people in New York capable of paying more modest monthly rents than there are those willing or able to cut five-figure checks on the first of each month, the turnaround would seem to be somewhat backwards. But this is Manhattan real estate, and the top-down turnaround has become both harder and harder to ignore and -- per a recent New York Times report -- even more pronounced in the early months of summer. The demand for five-figure NYC rental apartments has been higher than that for smaller, less expensive Manhattan apartments.  So, what exactly does this mean for Manhattan real estate?

Are Manhattan Rental Apartments Now A Rich Person Thing?

Rich people things: New York City is full of them, from the hundred different takes on seared foie gras to the chilly boutiques of Soho and so on up and down the market. While our media has done a good job of making sure that New Yorkers are up on the latest trends among very wealthy New Yorkers -- and we've certainly done our part here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog, at least insofar as noting the popular renting-a-condo trend among the city's  star athletes -- there's a sense, at least for those of us still living in the actual-existing economy, that these are trends not worth chasing. Which makes it all the more appealing that, albeit at the highest of high-end price points, the wealthiest New Yorkers are now making like everyone else in NYC. Where most of us live in Manhattan rental apartments, the richest New Yorkers long turned to ultra-exclusive co-ops. Now, though, with uncertainty the word throughout the economy, New York's rich are opting to do what everyone else does -- and rent. Yes, they're renting the highest of high-end Manhattan rentals, but for the wealthiest New Yorkers as well as everyone else, renting seems to be the move. The reasoning behind it, unsurprisingly, is proof that -- at least when it comes to finding a place to live in NYC -- the rich are not so very different from you and I.