Apartment rentals New York with Real Estate Trends

Deluxe (Rental) Apartment In The Sky: More And More New Yorkers Opting For High-End Rentals Over Condos

After a number of recent posts here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog can attest, we are of the opinion that autumn and winter are about as good as it gets for Manhattan luxury rentals. Which, being as this is the blog at a site comprised mostly of Manhattan rental listings, probably makes some sense. But while the seasonal rise in concessions makes Manhattan rentals that much more appealing, there's also a broader, contextual reason the Manhattan apartment rental market has performed so well of late -- that reason being that buying Manhattan condos is hugely expensive, hilariously onerous, generally difficult and not becoming notably less so. All of which explains, somewhat, why the market for high-price, high-end Manhattan luxury rentals is currently booming. And things are currently hottest at the very high end of the market.

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Luxury Rentals Manhattan Stathead Special: October's NYC Rental Apartment Stats In Context

It's the nature of things, both here at Luxury Rentals Manhattan and elsewhere in the world, to see things out of context. After all, what's happening right now generally seems more important because of that right-nowness. But when it comes to Manhattan apartment rental figures -- heck, when it comes to anything at all -- context is the thing. Slight fluctuations from month to month are meaningful as far as they go -- that is, 30-odd days -- but not so meaningful beyond that. Which, besides the fact that we're kind of into anything having to do with Manhattan apartment rentals, is why we so dig UrbanDigs' multi-year, context-rich NYC real estate rental chart. So, what are we looking at, here?

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Rise and Fall: Do Rising Vacancy Rates On Manhattan Rental Apartments Augur A Comeback For Concessions?

You know it's good news when Luxury Rentals Manhattan breaks out the popchampagne.jpg imagery, and so it is in this case. Of course, rising vacancy rates are not the sort of thing that landlords pop corks over -- the tighter the market for NYC apartment rentals is, the more they're able to get for said NYC apartment rentals. But with October rental stats showing an (expected, seasonal) rise in the New York apartment vacancy rate, things in the Manhattan real estate market seem to have turned in favor of renters, after months of running the other way. Again, this sort of thing pretty much always happens in autumn, which is why it's the most wonderful time of the year for Manhattan apartment hunters. But that doesn't mean renters shouldn't be celebrating this particular bit of seasonal good luck. While CitiHabitats' report on the October rental market indicated that rents fell one percent from September's averages, the real news here is the rising vacancy rate -- and how it could wind up making concessions on NYC apartments a lot less rare. Thus the popping corks. Read on for the nitty gritty.

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Leaves Fall, No-Fee Apartment Listings Rise, or Why We Love NYC Real Estate In Fall

The specific numbers are different from quarter to quarter, of course, but for the most part the last few rounds of NYC rental stats  all point to the same conclusion -- the market for Manhattan rental apartments is strong, and growing stronger with each passing month. Which sounds great, of course, but has been less than great in practice for Manhattan rental apartment hunters. With vacancy rates back under one percent and rents rising slowly but steadily, all the things that made the less-than-strong NYC rental market of old so appealing for renters have become harder and harder to find. Regular readers of the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog have probably noticed that posts like this have become something of a regular presence in this space. Gone, we note in tones of deep regret, are Manhattan rental apartments offering concessions, gone are the free months of rent and gym memberships and suchlike. Gone are the no-fee... oh wait, what's that? Some high-end new construction rental buildings are actually still offering up appealing concessions? And no-fee NYC rental listings are on the rise even though the rental market is strong and getting stronger? Must be getting cold outside. (Yes, that actually is how it works)

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Tight Market For NYC Rentals, Boom Market For Real Estate Scams: How Not To Get Played

Ordinarily, the Luxury Rentals Manhattan "Service Corner" tag is reserved for lighter, more service-oriented posts -- which Manhattan neighborhoods offer the best selection of Chinese food, for instance. But while that sort of thing is no doubt important to dumpling enthusiasts -- and LRM readers know that we're already on the record on that issue -- it's not nearly as important as, say, not getting scammed when searching for a Manhattan rental apartment. That sort of thing is rare, but not nearly as rare as it should be, which is why we at Luxury Rentals Manhattan have a renter's guide on our site, and why we so closely vett the agents to whom we refer those interested in our NYC rental listings. Working with people you trust, especially when it comes to real estate agents, takes a lot of uncertainty and unpleasantness out of the Manhattan apartment search process. And, as a recent article in the Wall Street Journal reveals, working with people you cannot trust can take a lot of money out of your pocket. And so the Service Corner tag is revived, in the service (ha) of a much more serious post. After the jump: how not to get played.

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Something Old At Someplace New: New Construction Luxury Rentals Prove Last Holdout For Rent Concessions In Manhattan Real Estate

It's a pretty common refrain here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog that the return of the Manhattan rental market to something like its old gangbusters status is a good thing. That's because, in a macro sense, it is. But it's also because we're working on talking ourselves into it. The renter's market of the great Manhattan rental market slump was tough on landlords and developers, but it was great news for those browsing NYC rental apartments, who suddenly found themselves faced with a wealth of no-fee rental listings and landlords seemingly eager to give away months of free rent and other other concessions. Now that the Manhattan rental market is healthier, the renter's market is generally a thing of the past -- a fondly remembered silver lining surrounding an ever-shrinking cloud, if you're a metaphor type, and a casualty of economic trends if you're more literally inclined. But, as we try to remind readers (and ourselves), there are still great deals to be found on Manhattan rental apartments. There are still plenty of no-fee rental listings out there, for instance, and there are also plenty of Manhattan luxury rentals offering concessions on leases. The surprising part, though, is the identity of those concession-granting Manhattan luxury rentals. From The Ohm -- a new construction luxury rental in Chelsea pictured near these words -- to a host of other new construction rental listings in various Manhattan neighborhoods, some of Manhattan's most concession-friendly rental listings happen to be at some of Manhattan's hottest new construction apartment buildings. No, really. More after the jump.

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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.

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NYC Rental Report: Vacancies Down, Rents Up on NYC Apartments. Landlords Love It, But How Should You Feel?

Deja vu? Maybe a little bit. But while regular readers of the Luxury Rentals Manhattan already know about the end of the renter's market for Manhattan rental listings -- in part because we wrote about it a few weeks ago -- it's impressive to watch the evidence of the Manhattan real estate market's recovery continue to pile up. Impressive, and maybe just a little bit depressing -- as we wrote earlier this month, the NYC rental market is at its most renter-friendly when it's at its weakest. A stronger rental market means fewer concessions and other goodies, and makes sought-after no-fee apartment listings that much tougher to find. But while the most recent report from The Real Estate Group New York offers a vivid example of just how far the Manhattan rental market has come since the dog days of 2009, it's not quite as bad for renters as it sounds. There are still good deals to be found for those searching for Manhattan rental apartments. It just makes the search that much tougher. So, now that the soothing is over, what does the report actually say?

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(Almost) No Vacancy: Report Indicates Manhattan Rental Apartment Vacancy Rates Shrunk Yet Again In July

Rental Apartments NYC

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.

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That's Cold: In Sweltering Summer, NYC Rental Apartments With Utilities (Read: AC) Included Become Hot Commodity

As a general rule, a luxury rental apartment in Manhattan is something of a prize. Some Manhattan rental apartments are more prized than others, and more prized by some NYC dwellers more than by others -- no fee NYC rental apartments are both rare and money-saving, which gives them some obvious value; the appeal of green rental apartment listings is no less obvious. But with New York City sweating out what is turning out to be one of the hottest summers on record, a new type of Manhattan rental listing has surged to the top of the list of most desirable NYC rental properties. In the New York Times, Sam Dolnick describes the appeal of the ultilities-included rental apartment, in which the absence of apartment-specific electricity monitoring enables round-the-clock air conditioning blastage. So, is the utilities-included rental apartment the new holy grail of Manhattan rental listings? Or is it just an especially inefficient way for some NYC dwellers to create a huge, 66-degree carbon footprint for themselves? Who says it can't be both?

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