New York City Luxury Rental Blog

Luxury Rentals: Still The Famous Person's Choice When It Comes To Manhattan Apartments

Regular readers of the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog know that it's a familiar refrain, and just about anyone who follows Manhattan real estate knows that it happens to be true, but let's run this up the flagpole one last time -- in today's Manhattan real estate marketplace, it is inarguably wiser to rent than to buy. (Here's visual proof, if you need it) Of course, if you're already browsing the Manhattan rental listings at Luxury Rentals Manhattan, you're already hip to this fact. But if celebrity endorsements are more your speed, you're in luck. Again, it's nothing new -- we were on this when Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill joined NYC apartment rental community in May of last year -- but Curbed reports that some of Manhattan's best known residents are opting to rent rather than buy these days. (That handsome and extravagantly well-compensated fellow at left happens to be one of them)

Unhappy Trending? For NYC Rentals, January Was Another Month Of Lower Vacancies and Higher Rents

We'd start this post with a "stop us if you've heard this one before," but for two reasons -- the first being that you have certainly heard this news before, and the second being that you've heard it often enough that we've probably already rolled out the "stop us if you've heard this one before." And because we don't want to stop, and because you've certainly heard this news before, we'll just go ahead and say it -- January was another month of (incrementally) increased rents and (notably) tightened vacancies in a NYC rental marketplace that has been defined by those trendlines for months now. This is the thing with trends, of course -- they tend to be linear, and they tend to be difficult to blog about without repeating oneself. The problem, here, being that -- when it comes to Manhattan rental listings over hte past few months -- the trend has proven to be especially persistent. How much so?

Apartments For One: What NYC Neighborhoods Are Best For Singles?

At a certain level, the question of which Manhattan neighborhood is best for singles is kind of a silly one. Silly because, New York being New York, just about every Manhattan neighborhood is a pretty good Manhattan neighborhood in which to be single. But, of course, there are degrees of goodness -- which means that singles hunting for their own NYC studios or one-bedroom apartments might do well to check out a new study from the New York Daily News that uses a simple formula to ascertain which Manhattan neighborhoods are best for solo NYC apartment-hunters. Besides, you know, all of them.

Condo-Quality Redefined, or What's The Deal With Rental Listings In Luxury Condos?

When is a luxury rental apartment listing not a luxury rental apartment listing? Well, if you insist on getting technical about a rhetorical question, the answer is "never." But, for a new crop of Manhattan luxury rental listings, the answer is somewhat more complicated. Some of Manhattan's most impressive new luxury rental listings are either partnered with new construction luxury condos -- blockbuster midtown luxury rental The Ashley, for example, shares an amenity space, a developer, and a number of other commonalities with The Aldyn, a carbon-copy condo with which it was co-developed -- or, in such posh instances as Chelsea's promising Eventi rentals located on the upper floors of luxury hotels. For William Beaver House, a new luxury rental listing in the Financial District, the story is even more convoluted -- developed as a condominium, William Beaver House is still selling luxury condominiums. It just happens to offer some of the most luxurious rental listings in the Financial District, as well. And there is, of course, Frank Gehry's luxury rental at 8 Spruce Street in the Financial District, which ranks among the most luxurious luxury rentals in Manhattan real estate history. The phrase "condo-quality finishes" has never seemed more literally apt, and less like a real estate buzzword. While this new proliferation of condo-rental combos can make for some confusion when browsing Manhattan rental listings, one effect is clear -- it certainly has deepened Manhattan's already deep pool of high-end rental listings.

The Crunch To Come: Is the NYC Rental Market Facing A Looming Inventory Crisis?

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We'll admit it: there are better places to go for economic analysis than the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog. Which is fine, since we're mostly about point people towards no-fee rental listings and NYC rentals and less about detailed microeconomic position papers. Everyone's cool with that. But it has been interesting, during the tenuous but ongoing comeback in the Manhattan rental market, to se basic economic fundamentals getting a real world star turn -- and behaving more or less as the textbooks say they should. If you've been reading the blog -- or even just following Manhattan real estate -- you've seen it, too. From the way that prices have spiked as vacancies have gone down to the near-disappearance of concessions and incentives on NYC rentals, Manhattan real estate has been exceptionally logical of late. Not always kind, and certainly enough to send many renters looking back wistfully at the good old days of the renter's market, but logical. But if there's something reassuring in that logic, there's also something somewhat menacing about it, considering that what looks like a possible inventory crunch in the Manhattan rental market could send prices spiking in months to come. Economic rules: can't live with 'em, can't... well, you know the rest.

Renting Versus Buying In Manhattan, or Picture Versus Thousand Words

We take a certain amount of pride here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog in providing well-written posts on news and trends in Manhattan real estate, even if a strangely large amount of those posts winds up being about food for some reason. But we know when we're beat. This is one of those times. A recent study by real estate research clearing house Trulia revealed something that we at the LRM blog have written about previously -- namely, that it is exponentially wiser to rent a Manhattan apartment than it is to buy a Manhattan apartment, for a number of reasons. The Trulia report reveals that this remains true in New York City, and notably more true in New York City than anywhere else in the United States. Unfortunately for us, it does so in the handy, eye-catching graphic you see above, which illustrates the disparity in rent-to-buy price ratio in New York City and other United States real estate markets. You're looking at that image right now, aren't you? No, that's fine. It's a pretty great image. So great, in fact, that it more or less obviates the need for any words, per the usual one picture: 1000 words ratio. But let's press on, and provide a little more detail.

Go East: Lower Manhattan's East River Park Just About Finished

You live in an apartment in the Financial District. Or a luxury rental on the Lower East Side. Or are browsing East Village rental listings. Congratulations: you have good taste, both in Manhattan neighborhoods and in NYC real estate listings sites. Let's continue. You're looking for a Manhattan rental apartment that offers more than, you know, an apartment and a fistful of amenities. You'd like some green space in your neighborhood. Check. You like to jog. Check. You play basketball, say, soccer. Check. You enjoy lounging, or fishing, just taking in some river views. Check, check, check please. There is a park near your apartment where you can do all these things. Check... almost. Yes, work on the long-awaited East River Park is almost done.

Where My (Spayed and Neutered) Dogs At: Lower East Side Luxury Rental The Ludlow Wants To Talk About Your Pet

Lower East Side luxury rental The Ludlow has more than one thing going for it, but among these is a location couldn't be more quintessentially Lower East Side. The blockbuster new LES rental sits just on the south side of Houston Street, across the street from the iconic (and incredibly delicious) Katz's Deli (and a short walk from such other old-school LES food landmarks as Russ and Daughters and Yonah Schimmel Knishery) and a short walk from circa-now LES haunts as varied as the posh Rivington Hotel and pioneering rock venue/bakery Cake Shop. But while few Lower East Side rental listings can boast quite as iconically a Lower East Side address as The Ludlow, the new construction luxury rental building has always seemed something of an outlier. The tallest building for blocks around, the stylish, glassy Ludlow couldn't look less like the humble ex-tenements that surround it. Which is a compliment of sorts, because The Ludlow is pretty great looking and Katz's (while incredibly delicious) is decidedly not. Instead of lording its good looks over the 'hood, though, The Ludlow is trying to be a good neighbor on the Lower East Side. At least when it comes to pet-related policies.

Kids Stuff: Was The New York Times Fair To Murray Hill?

By the admittedly pricey (some would even argue too-damn-high) standards for Manhattan rental listings, Murray Hill rental listings are among the best value per square foot in NYC real estate. Which, come to think of it, probably has something to do with why they're among the most popular rental listings on Luxury Rentals Manhattan. But while there's plenty to recommend about Murray Hill, it's also a neighborhood with some image issues. Yes, it's home to a host of appealing luxury rental buildings, from the venerable Windsor Court to new construction blockbusters like the Costas Kondylis-designed Anthem. But Murray Hill's reputation as a party-happy 'hood favored by younger twentysomethings has led it to be labeled something of an urban suburb. Which is fair only insofar as any suburb anywhere can boast the knockout Indian food on offer in Curry Hill, or a bar scene half as lively as that spanning Third Avenue in Murray Hill. A new essay in the New York Times on the post-grad scene in Murray Hill won't help that reputation much, which is no doubt fine with the twentysomethings (and thirty-, forty- and so-on-somethings) who call the neighborhood home. But is it fair?

Remember The Good Times: Concessions Seemingly On The Way Out In 2011

We talk about the renter's market here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog the way that older men in bars talk about their high school football days, but we do so for a reason -- those were good times to be in the market for Manhattan rental apartments. Not only were rents down -- or, at the very least, flat -- but concessions abounded from the bottom of the market to the top. As the renter's market has receded during the NYC rental market's return to form, those concessions have become harder nad harder to find. They're still out there, of course -- there are plenty of no-fee rental listings in Manhattan and, oddly enough, concessions are still available to find at new construction luxury rentals such as The Ohm and 808 Columbus Avenue -- but concessions have been harder and harder to come by in recent months, despite widespread hopes that there would be a concession bounce-back in the fall. Just-released fourth-quarter statistics make it plain -- the last few months have seen the number of concessions fall by more than half from where they were in January of 2010 and are roughly a third of what they were at the end of 2009. Good news for landlords, in short, but less so for those hunting for Manhattan rental apartments. Combine this with a bump in rents and a low vacancy rate, and it's hard to find a silver lining in all this. Luckily, it's out there.