NY Observer > apartments

Manhattan Apartment Rents Tumble Some More

Oliver Haydock — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:25:36 -0400

Manhattan apartment rents stayed flat in September, on par with average rents in the summer and substantially lower than those from early autumn 2007. Rents are down by around $200 across the board since September 2007, in fact, for both doorman and non-doorman buildings, according to a new report from The Real Estate Group New York (PDF). (The report analyzes rents south of Washington Heights.)

The average rent for a doorman one-bedroom, for instance, dropped from $3,881 in September 2007 to $3,692 in July, and then dropped further through September. For two-bedrooms in doorman buildings, the September average was $5,529, down from the summer and down from the same month last year.

The report's analysis alludes to the effects the financial crisis could have on the Manhattan apartment market. read more »

The Real Estate Effects of the Wall Street Mess

Tom Acitelli — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:43:38 -0400

The weekend Wall Street crisis will affect New York real estate. Here's how:

Apartment sales ~ Manhattan recorded over 10,000 home sales in 2007, but sales numbers have been off throughout the city in 2008. In Manhattan in the second quarter, home sales were down 21.8 percent annually, according to a Miller Samuel-Douglas Elliman report. In Queens, 23.7 percent; and, in Brooklyn, over 43 percent. The Wall Street crisis, due to the inordinate influence of the Street on local apartment and townhouse sales, will likely drive the number of deals further downward as the year ends. This could give a hefty advantage to buyers. read more »

Luxury Rentals: New York's Gated Communities

Leigh Kamping-Carder — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:43:01 -0400

The wet bar seats eight comfortably; the billiards table is covered in red felt; ESPN blares from the flat-screen television, a salvo of sports scores echoing over the brown leather armchairs; and, next-door, the children are playing in their rec room.

Upstairs, the rooftop terrace is quiet. Several neighbors are lounging on the deck chairs under the gazebo, surveying the brilliant emerald lawn.

Is this suburbia? Not exactly. Two Gold Street is a luxury rental building smack in the middle of the Financial District.

Luxury rentals like this one, where a one-bedroom will set you back between $2,950 and $3,875 monthly, are New York City's answer to the gated community: clean, secure, exclusive (but not out of reach), and outfitted with amenities like grill stations, manicured rooftop lawns, and foosball tables. read more »

Rob Speyer to Stuy Town Heckler: 'Thank You'

Tom Acitelli — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:36:13 -0400

New Stuyvesant Town/Cooper Village watchdog blog The Stuyvesant Town Report, written by an apparently anonymous Stuy Town tenant, chronicles a recent visit by landlord Rob Speyer:

As reported by a member of Stuyvesant Town message board, Tishman Speyer President and Co-CEO Rob Speyer and a group of about nine suits (minus one suit due to an arm in a sling) descended Tuesday morning upon Stuyvesant Town for a tour of the complex. The member accosted the group as they passed him by, telling them what a horrible job they were doing, to which Rob Speyer answered, "Thank you." According to another resident, the group headed around the Oval and into the eastern area of Stuy Town in an examination of what appeared to be, generally, problematic front spaces at some Stuy Town buildings. Notations were being taken down by a nice young man onto large sheets of building diagrams.

Hat tip Curbed.

Two Mild Views on Rental Brokers

Tom Acitelli — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:31:17 -0400

"Brokers are bottom feeders. Best way to find an apt. is to go to the building where you want to live and ask the super or find who the management agent is and deal with them directly."

"You pay for professional services; that's how the world runs. If you walk into a real estate office asking for someone's time and knowledge, don't complain when you get charged. No management offices charge a broker's fee, that's why it's a broker fee because the broker charges you it for their time and knowledge of the market!!" ["My Rental Broker: 'I'm Just Concerned With Getting You a Place You Love'"]

Stat of The Day: Negative Equity and Lots of New Rentals

Tom Acitelli — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:36:36 -0400

From a new report (PDF) by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the National Low Income Housing Coalition:

According to the most recent Census numbers, in the past year, the number of renter households in the United States increased by nearly 1 million. By contrast, the number of homeowner households increased by just 139,000. The ability for metropolitan area housing markets to accommodate this shift to rental will vary considerably. read more »

What Bear Stearns Means for New York Renters

Tom Acitelli — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:54:42 -0400

The New York City rental apartment market is tied closely to the local economy, more so than the sales market. That market might see foreigners buying a lot of condos even as Americans lose their jobs. But the rental market--it tends to rise and to fall with the city's economy. Generally, job losses and uncertainty in New York translates into more vacancies and lower rents.

So the news that JPMorgan Chase and the Federal Reserve are acquiring Bear Stearns, the world's fifth-largest investment bank and one of New York's most prominent employers, could ultimately be good news for the city's renters. Grimly and pragmatically speaking, any layoffs could reduce the number of people who need to be in the city by thousands. That could free up apartments; and that greater vacancy could drive landlords to drop rents. read more »

STAT OF THE DAY: Blame Philip Glass for High Rents

Tom Acitelli — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:18:47 -0500

Composer Philip Glass in the March issue of Details:

Q: I understand that in your early days as a composer, you rented a Manhattan loft for 30 bucks.
A: It was down in the Fulton fish market. I paid $30 a month. My friends paid $25, and they thought that I had betrayed the community by allowing the rent to be pushed up that high. I was deeply apologetic for having destabilized the neighborhood.

We Got More Rents! It's Upper West Side vs. Upper East Side!

Lysandra Ohrstrom — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:07:46 -0500

In December, apartment rents dropped in both Upper West Side and Upper East Side non-doorman buildings, according to a report out Tuesday from brokerage The Real Estate Group New York.

The best deal for a non-doorman studio can be found on the Upper West Side for an average of $1,734 monthly compared to $1,870 on the Upper East Side, the report said. But studios in doorman buildings on the Upper West Side run for $2,737 compared to only $2,499 on the Upper East Side. read more »

Manhattan Apartment Building Prices Hit Record High

Tom Acitelli — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:31:37 -0500

The median sales price of Manhattan apartment buildings below 96th Street rose above $500 a square foot for the first time in the first half of 2007, according to a new report from investment-sales brokerage Massey Knakal and appraisal firm Miller Cicero.

The sales price for elevator apartment buildings reached $517 a foot in the first half of the year and the price for walkups reached $508 a foot. These medians were both sizable increases from the first half of 2006.

Other highlights from the report, including stats on Upper Manhattan apartment buildings, after the jump. read more »