After an exciting August – both in terms of the weather and the real estate market – expectations ran high for September. Not only did August have remarkable increases in rental prices all over Manhattan, but it also had a hurricane and an earthquake. That’s a tough act to follow, and it didn’t help that September had lots of rain and humidity. Nonetheless, September was a good month for Manhattan real estate overall, although not nearly as torrid as August. The gains made in September fell very much in line with luxury rental market trends of the past 3 years. Recent months showed divergent trends between studios and everything else, and that held true for September: while rental prices rose for 1- and 2-bedrooms, studio prices went down. Right now, Manhattan studios are undoubtedly the best bargains in the city. The luxury market still looks good though; overall rents increased by 0.8% in September even with this decline.

For many years, cries of “fresh fish!”, shouted by fish-mongers plying their wares, were far more prevalent than residents within Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. But since 2005, with the re-location of the Fulton Fish Market to Hunts Point, that paradigm has become obsolete, as many Manhattanites find themselves choosing to rent luxury apartments within this historic district. To be sure, there has been a changing atmosphere in the area dating back to the late 1970s, but since 2005 the rate of transformation has rapidly increased, perhaps representing the beginning of a new trend within Manhattan real estate.

When one thinks of the benefits of living in a luxury apartment building, one of those benefits is inevitably having a doorman. However, we at Luxury Rentals Manhattan have touted the benefits of not having a doorman in Manhattan -- and it seems the NYC real estate world has begun to agree with us. In the past two years, the desire for Manhattan luxury rental apartments in doorman buildings has significantly decreased. Perhaps the most obvious reason is the fact that New York City has been experiencing an historic economic downturn, therefore forcing many people to choose other, less expensive options. But this is not the only reason. The changing demographics within NYC, namely the increase of labor within the technological and creative industries who have different tastes have also played their part, causing a perfect storm of events leading to this dramatic decline in the desire for Manhattan luxury apartments in doorman buildings and possibly the beginning of a new trend within the NYC real estate market.

It’s not a boundary you’ll find on any map, but any Manhattanite will tell you that the stretch of 96th Street east of Central Park is one of the brightest and longest-standing borders in Manhattan real estate. With the ultra-prosperous Upper East Side on the downtown side and East Harlem on the north, 96th Street marked a long-standing class boundary as much as a dividing line between two neighborhoods. But, thanks in large part to a host of new luxury rentals on the upper reaches of the Upper East Side, the bright line along 96th Street is looking notably less distinct these days -- and two culturally rich neighborhoods have started to look more alike. Call it the upper Upper East Side if you like, but the changes along the northern part of the Upper East Side are unmistakable and undeniable. The Upper East Side, in other words, is moving uptown.

Across Manhattan new ideas to make the city greener are taking off, and the city’s most recent environmental project has sprouted on the Lower East Side. The LES will be getting a little greener when a block of 20 buildings' roofs are painted bright white. This single block from East Fourth Street to East Third Street, and from Second Avenue to the Bowery will finally see what it is like to have some green touches in their living quarters. The idea of white roof painting helps impact the environment in a better way, but it also makes an impact economically. In the future, these white roofs may dot more of the Manhattan skyline.