The Times reports this weekend of rapidly rising residential rents around the country and with particular vigor in New York City. Even though rents for apartments in the Big Apple never really fell much, landlords lost some of their pricing power during the buying boom of recent years. Now, it appears, with prices still realtively high (a separate Times article notes that sellers are becoming more negotiable) and rates no longer as cheap, more folks are content to sit on the sidelines, which translates into more demand for rentals. This is when owners of two- and three-family brownstones find themselves naturally a bit hedged. While it’s scant consolation if your house is all of a sudden worth $200,000 a month less than it was six months ago, that extra $200 a month of rent doesn’t hurt either. Especially if you’ve got a variable rate mortgage that’s also in the process of ratcheting up. Any landlords out there (or apartment hunters) experiencing this first hand?
Rents Rising Rapidly After Lull [NY Times]
Photo by pdberger.