Apartment rentals New York with Manhattan Rental Apartments

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. 

Developers Leaping from Condominiums to Rentals

Property developers turning to rentals over condosNeed a condominium, but can’t get a mortgage? Well, there’s good news for people in that fix with some New York City property developers are converting residential developments planned as condominiums into high-end, rental apartment buildings instead. Such conversions have been seen in a variety of locations around the city. With people buying less and renting more, there is an unprecedented demand for larger apartments, which has also been proved to be extremely lucrative in the real estate scene.

November Market Report: The Holiday Season Dash

We expect the real estate marketRental market numbers decreased less than normal in November 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.

Worries Beset the Manhattan Rental Market

The rise of the Manhattan luxury rental market may have peakedMuch has been made of the consistent rise in Manhattan rents in the face of adversity. In the midst of economic woes, the Manhattan luxury real estate world has prided itself on the steady rise of rental prices: the average monthly rent in Manhattan is up 8% from this time last year and is just $53 off the all-time market peak set in 2007. In spite of this remarkable success, many real estate experts view this trend in luxury rentals in Manhattan as unsustainable. With the market slowdown of winter approaching, signs are beginning to point to rents either remaining stable or declining for the first time since 2009.

Hudson Square, Ready For Its Close-Up: Call It West SoHo Or South Greenwich Village If You Wish, But Re-Zoned Manhattan 'Hood Is On The Rise

Hudson Square Manhattan Rental Apartments

The first rule of Manhattan real estate -- of real estate in general -- is said to be "location, location, location." Which, as conventional wisdom goes, isn't the silliest thing in the world. But Manhattan real estate observers could be forgiven, in recent years, for believing that at least one of those "location"'s could be swapped out for "branding." New Manhattan neighborhoods are nothing new -- New York City is a study in flux, and all it takes is one zoning decision and a few bold luxury rental developers to turn a neighborhood like the nowheresville around the Lincoln Tunnel entrance into "The Linc," a newly branded neighborhood complete with its own green luxury rental listings and superstar new rental developments such as Emerald Green. What sets Hudson Square apart from The Linc, besides a much cooler name -- The Linc? You're sure about that? -- is that this new neighborhood is actually one of Manhattan's oldest neighborhood. Hudson Square is, for all intents and purposes, West Soho. And it's not exactly "new," either, given that it has been around for centuries -- the Ear Inn, one of Manhattan's oldest nightspots, is a Hudson Square landmark -- and was Manhattan's printing district back when Manhattan had things like printing districts. But a recent re-branding campaign has helped Hudson Square re-make itself as one of the hotter residential neighborhoods in lower Manhattan, and a new campaign to remake the city's streets into leafier, more pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares suggests that it's time for all of us -- those looking for apartment rentals in SoHo and those of us who just dig NYC real estate -- to give this old-new neighborhood a new look. So, yeah: let's look at Hudson Square.

Power Struggle Files: New York Times Claims Balance Of Power In Manhattan Rental Market Tipping Towards Landlords

Time flies when you're writing about real estate. It seems like only a few months ago that we had a post at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog entitled "Sad Landlords, Happy Renters." And that's because, as it turns out, it was only a few months ago -- it was only April that the renter's market for Manhattan rental listings was that robust. Since then, though, things have changed -- as the Manhattan real estate market has returned to health, the concessions, incentives and price breaks that defined the renter's market in Manhattan real estate have largely fallen by the wayside. This was already starting to happen back in May, and by late August we were writing mournful posts with titles like "Vacancies Down, Rents Up On NYC Apartments." The lessons of all this? For one, we obviously like that particular style of headline construction. But for another, despite the fact that there are still no-fee apartment listings and good deals on Manhattan rental apartments to be found out there, things have been trending in landlords' direction for some time. That doesn't make it any more exciting to read the New York Times' recent rundown of that situation, but it does at least make things less surprising. Good news, bad news, after the jump.

Get Out Of Town: Checking In With Southeast Discovery and Taking A Break From Manhattan Rentals Apartments

New York City and New York City real estate have a way of focusing the mind -- this is a tough town, as you might've heard, and an interesting one. For those of us who care about NYC and the market for rental apartments in NYC, the ebbs and flows of the Manhattan real estate scene can come to seem like the most important news in the world. If you're searching Manhattan rental listings, it might well seem like it, but the national real estate market is plenty interesting in its own right. That's the reason -- well, mostly it's that we sometimes like to ogle North Carolina mountain homes and South Carolina golf homes, but also that -- why your Luxury Rentals Manhattan blogger often finds himself checking in with Southeast Discovery, a full-service real estate site serving, yes, the Southeast.

Rents Are Up On Manhattan Rental Apartments. So, Is the Renter's Market in NYC Real Estate's Time Up?

The Manhattan real estate market is a volatile and complicated thing. Given that you're almost certainly at Luxury Rentals Manhattan because you're searching for a rental apartment in Manhattan, you already know about the "complicated" part. But the volatility of the NYC rental market is what makes Manhattan real estate such a fascinating thing. Well, that volatility and the volatility of NYC real estate market watchers, who tend to freak out about even the smallest bit of real estate news. The Wall Street Journal's recent report that Manhattan rents rose 0.9% in the first quarter of 2010 is one such bit of real estate news, but the freakout it has precipitated is not entirely uncalled for. The rise in Manhattan rental prices was the first such bump in NYC rents in five quarters, and has Curbed, among other websites, wondering if the long renter's market on Manhattan rental apartments is drawing to a close. So, is it?