Brooklyn Apartments No Bargain Compared to Manhattan
While it’s not exactly breaking news that rents in Park Slope and Williamsburg are very high, did you know that median rents in the two neighborhoods are steeper than they are in Hell’s Kitchen and the Lower East Side? The Observer has an article this morning about how rents in A-list Brooklyn neighborhoods continue to…
While it’s not exactly breaking news that rents in Park Slope and Williamsburg are very high, did you know that median rents in the two neighborhoods are steeper than they are in Hell’s Kitchen and the Lower East Side? The Observer has an article this morning about how rents in A-list Brooklyn neighborhoods continue to rise while prices in the Manhattan rental market begin to dip—taken together, the trends suggest that Brooklyn’s days of being an affordable alternative to Manhattan are long gone (as if anyone needed a newspaper to tell them that!). According to listings on StreetEasy, the median monthly rent in Park Slope is $3,050, while Williamsburg’s median is $2,900. Both numbers are higher than the median rent on the Lower East Side ($2,700). In addition, rents in prime Brooklyn neighborhoods have gone up at a startling pace over the past couple of years: The median rent for Park Slope in ’05 was a comparatively affordable $1,090. Conclusion, per the article: “Queens, anyone?”
Park Slope Living at Manhattan Rents! [NY Observer]
Photo by DEDE_LE
Hmm. Agreeing with the others here: don’t you need to compare apples to apples? What’s the rent per SF?
OTOH, although I’m a city person, I simply find that many Brooklyn neighborhoods are nicer than many neighborhoods in Manhattan in the following ways: the visual quality of housing stock, the amount of street trees, and the proximity to green spaces. Few neighborhoods in Manhattan can match Brooklyn in those respects. I’ll bet those that do have comparable rents.
This article comes as no shock to me – our family just moved into a 4th floor walkup, unrenovated, 3 BR rental in the South Slope (Windsor Terrace really) and at $3200 a month it was the only place we saw at this price level that was even remotely acceptable. Most places we saw that were decent were $4500 on up. We looked at apartments in Manhattan too, and for that kind of rent you can be in a doorman building with wonderful amenities, central AC, and real closets, in a fine if not premium neighborhood. And often not need to pay a broker’s fee, which is rarely the case in the Slope. We love Park Slope but the only thing that kept us here was not wanting to disrupt our childcare setup – it was certainly not the affordability of the neighborhood.
Also, there are no other families in our building – at these prices, every apartment is rented out to large groups of sharers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that per se, but it makes for a very different character to the building, and the neighborhood. I think the people on here who imagine that families are willing to pay extremely high rents just to be in a good public school district are deluding themselves. I can’t blame landlords for charging what the market will bear, but I also can’t imagine that there is infinite demand – at a certain point sharers will vote with their feet if the rents continue to rise, since the local kid amenities are of no interest to them, and most will be working in Manhattan (at least they will be if they can afford to pay Park Slope rents!).
Also, comparing two Bklyn neighborhoods to two Manhattan neighborhoods does not automatically mean that Bklyn is no longer an affordable alternative to Manhattan. One could have just as easily compared the upper east side or Soho to Crown Heights and Clinton Hill and concluded the opposite.
The lower east side has a concentration of housing projects, so that might be a factor here.
I thought all the people in the know have turned against PS321 for being too crowded, a victim of its own success. According to this line of thinking PS321 is over for a lot of people, not worth the trouble. Hardened Park Slopers couldn’t keep the masses out of their neighborhood, and they’ve come in, swamped the school and in doing so brought the neighborhood down a couple of pegs. The ‘real’ Park Slopers have moved on, mentally if not physically.
I would hope most readers are sophisticated enough here to be sceptical of these stats and inferences (but I doubt it – makes more interesting conversation to repeat bad stats). This goes for all the sales figures comparing neighbhorhoods and year-to-year.
The methdology is very questionable. Collection of data dubious.
If anyone really believes that median rent in Park Slope has nearly tripled in 3 years –
I have a bridge for sale.
We moved last month out of an apartment that was costing us about $2,000/month. (We had been there since 2002. The next tenants will be paying $2,7000/month for the same place with no improvements put into it other than a fresh coat of paint.
For some people, even these high rents represent a savings. If a family rents in Park Slope, they might be able to put their kids into PS 321, saving them tens of thousands of dollars a year in private school costs. The landlords in the area know that Park Slope is desirable for this — and other — reasons, and adjust the rents accordingly.
This kind of analysis means nothing without comparing similar sized apartments. 9:07 is right – there are very few studios in Park Slope, some 1-bedrooms, and tons of 2- and 3-bedroom apartments.
How are the public schools in Hell’s Kitchen and the Lower East Side vs. Park SLope?