New York City Luxury Rental Blog Archives for July 2011

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.

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Cornell University Enters Race to Win Roosevelt Island Campus Spot

Manhattan Luxury Rentals - Roosevelt IslandRoosevelt Island has been getting a lot of attention lately, what with the Octagon taking huge strides in New York State’s green building practices and Riverwalk Court and Manhattan Park offering luxury apartments for rent in an extremely unique Manhattan neighborhood. Roosevelt Island, currently undergoing development, has been enjoying a burst of popularity and has slowly been climbing the charts when it comes to Manhattan’s “neighborhoods to watch” list. Now, Roosevelt Island gives us one more reason to take a close look at this tiny island on the East River: a competition amongst some of the world’s largest engineering and applied science programs for space to build a campus on the island.

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city is offering up to $100 million to the development of a major engineering and applied science campus on Roosevelt Island. Cornell University is among the colleges looking to grab this offer and strengthen their (already notable) New York City presence. The Ivy League school isn’t the only school, however, that is hoping to get their hands on this deal. Stanford University and other international schools are competing for the spot as well. But one thing's for sure: whatever school secures the campus grant will bring a new demographic to Roosevelt Island of grad students and college kids, likely spurring the development of this growing section of Manhattan.

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Summer Trends: Closing the Gap Between Doorman and Non-Doorman Buildings

NYC Luxury Rentals - Summer TrendsAs July nears its end, New Yorkers are passing the halfway mark of a sunny, sweltering summer. With dizzying heat waves crossing the country and sending miserable New Yorkers a-scramble for sunblock and the nearest air conditioner, a bit of (semi-)good news would not be amiss. So we at Luxury Rentals Manhattan are happy to report that -- once again -- our past predictions for the summer have come to fruition, despite our recently tempered views. The summer Manhattan rental season has continued to grow in strength according to July’s rental market report, with rents climbing across the board. And while only last month we touted the price benefits of non-doorman buildings, July sings quite a different tune. The prices of doorman and non-doorman buildings are slowly drawing even as the market buffs up and rents rise, closing June’s price gap between the two types of rentals.

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New Media, Not Investors, Investing in Rentals. What?

NYC Luxury Condos - Media Investing in Rentals

New York City, ever known for taking the real estate and rental advice from the rest of America and throwing it out the window, is now going through a more unexpected demographic change. When we think of who actually rents luxury rentals, the first group that comes to mind is usually investment bankers, mainly those in their 20s and 30s who fill the tangled streets of Lower Manhattan early in the morning and seemingly beat rush hour both to and from work. That was true until recently, and while financiers still comprise the largest portion of renters, they no longer form the majority that they used to be. Instead, an eclectic tech-savvy generation has usurped traditional business, and in turn, the rental market.

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Luxury Rentals Market Cools Down a Few Degrees

Luxury Manhattan Apartments - Rental Market Cools Down
Last week, Citi Habitats and Prudential Douglas Elliman released a second quarter report claiming that the Manhattan rental market was on fire, and things weren’t going to cool off any time soon. Rent prices were supposedly at an all-time high and weren’t expected to drop in the near future. This was music to every Manhattan landlord’s ears, but a punch in the gut (or wallet) to everyone searching for a luxury rental in Manhattan. However, a more in-depth look at the aggregate rent paid each quarter dating back to 1991 shows that the peak in the luxury rental market actually already occurred.

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Mercedes House Revving Up for Its Opening As It Nears Completion

Mercedes House Luxury Apartments in New York CityThe Mercedes name conjures up images of luxury and grandeur. These same images that are associated with the car company are associated with Mercedes House, which gets its name from the fact that it houses the Mercedes-Benz of Manhattan showroom. It is safe to say that this is one of the few opportunities in Manhattan to live above a car showroom. Unfortunately, it will not be like Oprah, where everyone gets a free car, but there are many other reasons why this building is being talked about.

One of the more notable things about the Mercedes House is its interesting design. The building rises up with a step-like pattern, one section being a story higher than the next. At one end of the lot, the building turns and continues its step-like like ascent into the skies.

This spectacular rental condominium building in Clinton is nearing completion. There is only one section of the building that needs to be completed, but condominiums are already on the market. Mercedes House is one of the newest condominium buildings with luxury rental listings to hit the market in New York City. A truly unique building is a seemingly perfect fit for the unique city that is Manhattan.

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New Plans for Waterfront Along the East River in Murray Hill

Last week, plans to revive Waterside Pier were put into action along the East River in Murray Hill.  Officials hope to turn the area between 38th Street and 41st Street into a public park—a project funded through a $13 million payment from Con Edison, fulfilling its lease, explains the NYCEDC press release.  Luxury rental apartments available in Murray Hill will soon have some new, green waterfront space in the neighborhood.

And there you have it; the East River is getting a three-block makeover thanks to Mayor Bloomberg’s Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy (WAVES) initiative.  The initiative was introduced back in May of 2011 and projected both long-term and short-term projects, all with goals to improve Manhattan’s waterfront space and give the city a sustainable blueprint.  The East River’s Waterside Pier was included in these plans and its development was kicked off early last week.

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Luxury Rentals Market is Hot, Hot, Hot as Rents Continue to Rise

Here at Luxury Rentals Manhattan, we have already discussed the fact that the much-predicted and highly-anticipated traditional summer rise of rental prices is underway. Prices for luxury rental apartments have risen in both May and June, and we recently predicted the probable continued rise of prices before the summer’s end. There is more information available now that gives a better picture of what is happening with the Manhattan rentals market, and -- as is fitting for New York real estate experts such as ourselves -- the stats match our predictions. Based on second quarter reports put out by Citi Habitats and Prudential Douglas Elliman, it is clear to see that the rentals market is growing stronger, and rental prices have yet to hit their peak.

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Battery Park City: LEEDing the Way in Green Rentals

There’s a lot of green in New York City…well New York City’s real estate market, and we’re not talking about money. Green building is a hot trend, and LEED certification is a surefire way of adding some appeal to what would otherwise be an ordinary rental. One of the more recent additions to Manhattan’s green rental market is Liberty Green in the city’s most sustainable neighborhood, Battery Park City. Yet Liberty Green is not alone; sustainability is rapidly-growing trend around the world, and New York City in particular.

Battery Park City has become a green mecca in Manhattan for a few reasons, aided by the fact that it is privately owned. All new property, both rentals and general real estate, must satisfy LEED requirements, a policy dating back to 2000, far before many other places followed suit. As a result, there is a vast array of green renting available in Battery Park City, with The Verdesian, The Solaire, Tribeca Green, and Liberty Luxe all certified at least to LEED Gold standards and open for new residents.

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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.

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