Apartment rentals New York with NYC Apartments

The market for renting and buying in New York City is on the rise. Numbers for sales in Brooklyn and Queens and rentals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens released by Douglas Elliman suggest this claim with record numbers for both rentals and sales in the boroughs.

Image Courtesy of WNYC

It's certainly no secret that the cost of living in New York City is outrageous. The food, the entertainment, and worst of all, the housing, are no doubt albatrosses around the necks of city-dwellers looking to take advantage of everything the city's splendors. And, according to a recent report from the real estate research firm, Reis Inc., sustaining one's ideal lifestyle is now harder than ever. The not-so-shocking report states that, for the first time during the second quarter, New York City's average rental rate has surpassed $3,000 and has reached a whopping $3,017 a month.

New York by Gehry, also known as 8 Spruce Street is one of the newest luxury rental buildings in Manhattan. It also has the distinction of being the tallest residential building in the United States. There has become a competition in New York and 8 Spruce may see its title as the tallest residential building in Manhattan challenged.

8 Spruce Street immediately stands out because of the building’s unique façade. Possibly even more impressive than the exterior of 8 Spruce Street is the interior of the building.

Because of the exterior of 8 Spruce Street, many of the rental apartments inside of it have floor plans that are unique. Just as the 8 Spruce Street twists and curves like a flame into the sky, residents can expect to find little nooks and crannies within the apartment that match with the building's exterior.

Looks nice, doesn't it? A clean, modern subway station, a train pulling up right on time. Eventually, at some point in human history, something somewhat like the little image you see with this post will undoubtedly occur somewhere under Second Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side. For all the things to recommend about Upper East Side apartment listings -- and there are plenty, starting with their relative affordability in comparison to other Manhattan rental apartments -- subway access isn't currently one of them. Sure, the 4/5/6 trains on Lexington Avenue run pretty well, but they're the only trains on the Upper East Side, and can get excruciatingly crowded (and sluggish) come rush hour. News that the long-rumored, longer-awaited Second Avenue Subway was really happening was the cause of much rejoicing both among Upper East Side renters and UES landlords, whose apartments seemed poised to become that much more appealing. Today brought the sad and sadly unsurprising news, though, that the Second Avenue Subway is both behind schedule and over-cost -- and not likely to arrive in time for its original 2016 launch.

The three most important words in real estate, as even non-real estate types know, are location, location and location. This would be why we worked so hard on the "Apartments Near" modality at Luxury Rentals Manhattan. But if we could add a fourth word to real estate's holy (and wholly redundant) trinity, it would be "scarcity." You don't need to be Paul Krugman to know how this works -- the fewer available rental apartments there are, the more prices tend to climb. (Scarcity has always been a big part of the appeal of no-fee rental apartment listings -- in addition to the fact that no fee rentals are a great value, naturally -- but we're already seeing the effects of an improving NYC real estate market in the shrinking number of no-fee rental apartments) The fact that Manhattan's rental vacancy rate continues to fall further and further below one percent suggests that, as previous studies have indicated, the recovering NYC rental market is going to lead to higher prices on Manhattan rental apartments. With the usual caveat that there are still plenty of good deals on Manhattan rental apartments to be found -- and with the reminder that you can browse Manhattan rental listings here to find them -- let's take a look at what Citi Habitats' new Manhattan rental market report means for NYC rental apartment hunters, and everyone else.