Apartment rentals New York with Manhattan Real Estate

Feel The Surge: Quarter Two Manhattan Apartment Rental Numbers Soar To Pre-Recession Levels... And Beyond

It all seems like a dream, now, the boom market in Manhattan real estate. But while it was unsustainable and way overhyped, and is faintly ridiculous in retrospect, there was a period when Manhattan rental apartments enjoyed an almost instant absorption rate and rental activity was almost terrifyingly constant. That was the middle of 2007, and it seems a long time ago now. But while many of the things that seemed cool in 2007 seem less so, now -- remember how much scarier the world was when Lindsay Lohan wasn't in jail? -- NYC real estate watchers have never quite given up hope that those days might return to the Manhattan rental market. The just-released quarter two Manhattan apartment rental stats suggest, though, that the pre-Lehman glory days of Manhattan real estate aren't coming back. No, the new stats suggest -- astonishingly -- activity in the Manhattan rental apartment market was well beyond those mid-2007 levels. In other words, the Manhattan rental market is not only back, it's apparently stronger than it was during its historic highs. Even more surprisingly, while rental activity soared, rents stayed mostly flat. Maybe that (prematurely lamented) renter's market will survive the turnaround in Manhattan real estate after all.

May's Real Estate Numbers, Crunched: Manhattan Apartment Vacancy Rates Down, Manhattan Rental Prices Up, Renter's Market... Fading

First things first: there are still plenty of good deals out there on Manhattan rental apartments, and even a healthy number of no-fee rental listings in Manhattan. But as the economy continues its slow bounce-back and the Manhattan real estate market follows suit, it looks more and more like the long renter's market for NYC apartments is drawing to a close. The Real Deal's report on May's Manhattan apartment rental statistics bears this out: citywide apartment vacancy is down to under one percent again, and finding a West Village rental (a .33% vacancy rate) or a rental apartment in Chelsea (.52% vacancy rate) is as hard as it has been in years. But, thankfully, at least for those looking for Manhattan rental apartments, May's stats are not all bad news.

View From The Balcony, or Are Balconies Still A Perk On Manhattan Rental Apartments?

By all accounts, the sad and scary death of a Murray Hill renter last month after he fell from a not-up-to-code balcony was both a fluke accident and the product of some serious oversight on the part of the building manager. It's not the sort of thing anyone likes to think about, this sort of thing, and for obvious reasons. But if you go through the rental apartment listings at Luxury Rentals Manhattan, you're going to notice that balconies are something we talk about a lot. We do this because, as Manhattan apartment perks go, balconies are pretty cool and pretty in-demand. A perch above it all, a bit of private space, an opportunity to grab some fresh air -- these are things that NYC dwellers want in a Manhattan rental apartment, and they are things that NYC dwellers will continue to want in a Manhattan rental apartment. We're not in the prediction business here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog, but that seems like a fairly easy prediction to make. That said/fearlessly predicted, as New York Magazine's S. Jhoanna Robledo reports, more and more people are getting antsy about what was once a pretty sweet Manhattan apartment perk.

The Last Concession? Post Reports Concessions In Decline At New York City Rentals

We've been writing about the renter's market in Manhattan rentals here at Luxury Rentals Manhattan for months now, but much of what we've been writing about the renter's market has been about its imminent end. Is it here yet? How about now? Maybe while we were at lunch? The answer to those (incessant) questions remains more or less the same: the market for rental apartments in Manhattan is still tilted towards renters, but it appears to be in the midst of a return to the mean. Which in turn means, as the New York Post reports today, that it's increasingly tough for NYC dwellers to get the sort of concessions on Manhattan rentals that they routinely received during the heyday of the renter's market. Using Clinton luxury rental success story 505 West 37th as a test case, the Post's Katherine Dykstra reports that while concessions are down, the market is not totally back to its boom-era levels.

Upper West Side Table-Turn: New York Times "Hunt" Author Becomes Hunted, Reveals Upper West Side Rental Apartment

Manhattan real estate heads already know that Joyce Cohen's "The Hunt" column in the New York Times is one of the more enjoyable Manhattan real estate reads out there. But as entertaining as it is to read Cohen's interviews with people seeking (and finding) rental apartments in Manhattan, there's always the matter of authorial distance. That is -- and we're not going to get too lit-crit on you, both because it's been a long time since college and because this is the blog on a website about luxury rental apartments in Manhattan -- the question of where and how Cohen herself lives. Does it color her perspective? Bias her discussion of neighborhoods? Are her ceilings higher than yours?

Renting: Still the Rock Star's Choice

If the classic rent-versus-buy debate in Manhattan real estate were a building, instead of a debate, it would be pre-war. But as old as that debate is -- and as academic as it is rendered by the high price of a Manhattan condo and the comparatively advantageous market for Manhattan luxury rentals -- it's worth remembering that renting in Manhattan isn't just for those who can't afford to buy in Manhattan. Let's take Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill, for instance.

Heard the One About the Rent-Stabilized Luxury Rental Building in the Financial District? No, Seriously.

The meticulous renovation of the pre-war luxury rental building at 37 Wall Street in the Financial District speaks to the care with which architect Costas Kondylis turned famed architect Francis Kimball's original Beaux-Arts structure into one of the more desirable rental listings in the Financial District. It's a luxury rental through-and-through, but 37 Wall Street is also something else -- a test-case in a lawsuit that's looking to extend rent-stabilization to all buildings, luxury rental buildings in the Financial District notwithstanding, that were constructed with the benefit of New York's 421g tax breaks. The renovation of 37 Wall Street benefitted from those tax breaks in funding its overhaul into luxury rental apartments, and the New York Times reports that a December housing court decision could pass those benefits on to the residents at 37 Wall Street through eviction protections and, maybe, rent reductions. Suffice to say that the developers behind 37 Wall Street are not pleased.