Brooklyn Rental Market More Stable Than Manhattan
Good news from the New York Observer about the Brooklyn residential rental market: Evidently the smaller properties and more diversified owner base is making for smoother sailing than in Manhattan where a few large companies are being forced to offer increasingly sweet incentives: For now, most of Brooklyn’s smaller landlords are living in a world…
Good news from the New York Observer about the Brooklyn residential rental market: Evidently the smaller properties and more diversified owner base is making for smoother sailing than in Manhattan where a few large companies are being forced to offer increasingly sweet incentives:
For now, most of Brooklyn’s smaller landlords are living in a world apart from the rough-and-tumble Manhattan market, where rents are already falling in several neighborhoods, and panicky property owners are slashing rents, sometimes by hundreds of dollars, and offering any incentive they can think of to help put tenants in their units. In Brooklyn: not so much.
Have any brownstone owners had to rent out their garden apartment recently? How did it go?
Brooklyn Rent Check [NY Observer]
northsloperenter –
Fair enough. I don’t think I’ll ever voluntarily live in Manhattan again, but it does certainly have some advantages for many people.
“So Brooklyn’s being prettier, less crowded, more relaxed, quieter, more friendly to small businesses and non-chain stores, more diverse, and more interesting than Manhattan has no bearing on your renting there?”
Sure it does.
But Manhattan being closer to work, a more convenient place to live without a car, better shopping (except for Target, of course), and a more convenient place for non-Brooklyn friends to visit has a bearing as well.
When I look for an apartment to rent I start with “I am willing to pay X and live in areas Y and Z” and then I look around to see what’s the best I can get for X.
In my case, areas Y and Z are likely to be park slope, brooklyn heights, carroll gardens, cobble hill, greenwich village, chelsea, murray hill, gramercy, parts of midtown, maybe parts of UES/UWS.
No “generally more desirable” is a judgment about rental rates of size comparable apartments located within different housing stock in the same neighborhood – brownstone apartments typically rent for less – as do walk-ups – any competent RE rental broker will tell you the same thing
I can’t see Karl Lagerfeld cutting back on antique Japanese fans, ever. Did you know that he has 75 ipods???
“And what I said is that purposed apartments (i.e. those found in apartment buildings) are generally more desirable FOR RENTERS than those created in Brownstones (and rental prices bear this out) -”
Show us the numbers, fsrq. “More desirable” is a judgment you’re making about what renters want. You don’t speak for us, and you’ll have to prove why you think this affects rental prices. What I can tell you is that as a renter I am willing to put up with a lot of “inconveniences” to live in a place with 2 fireplaces and huge bay windows with gobs of gorgeous sunlight, loads of wood detail and an original clawfoot tub.
I agree MM. The quotes by Karl Lagerfeld were so…well Karl Lagerfeld.
We are just at the VERY beginning of the scaling back process. With the country losing jobs like crazy right now, people who want to scale back might not even be able to because they are just trying to cling to what they have right now.
Think about all those MILLIONS of people who moved to the Sun Belt over the last decade and bought those energy sucking houses in the deserts of Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc. Many of them are trapped. Their houses are worth half, their electricity costs are through the roof and they now find themselves in cities which were born of the notion that bigger is better.
We don’t hear about the shift as much yet, because those people aren’t yet packing up in any serious numbers (my few friends aside) because they are just trying to figure out what comes next.
I guarantee you though, that a lot of people feel trapped right now in a lifestyle which they now realize is not sustainable for the long run.
It won’t be until the economy turns around that many of these same people will be able to do anything about it though.
This is not a blip, I don’t think. This is an earth shattering tectonic plate shift that will reshape the way people view their lives all over the world.
I think so anyway. I also think that it’s necessary, and will ultimately be a great thing for the human race.
“And what I am saying is that coming on a board called Brownstoner and talking about how people would rather rent new construction rather than brownstone apts is not going to be a very satisfactory argument for you.”
While I do prefer living in a brownstone, to argue because you prefer something, everyone else does isn’t really a satisfactory arguement either.
11217 – yeah if talking about restaurants, new developments and the general housing market = “brownstone living”
Interesting article, 11217. The world is going to have to do with less for a while. I think that industries that are built on catering to our excesses are going to have to work the hardest to reinvent themselves in order to survive. This is the hard part to this new austerity. It is not the fault of caterers, florists, party planners, interior decorators, etc, etc that the party is over. They wisely built businesses on filling the needs that an exhuberant public had, and that is the quintessentional success story the world over. People’s livelihoods are tied up in these jobs, and I hope new roads can be paved with new jobs.
I was watching the Newshour last night, with a frightening interview with Cheney, but that’s another story. Another story involved interviewing various economic pundits, the gloomiest of whom said that joblessness will reach 25% of the population. He was the only one to have that dire a prediction, but that’s a lot of people. We are going to have to scale our lifestyles wayyyy back, even those of us, and I do not include myself here, because I am really felling it, who are doing really well. Karl Lagerfeld is due a good comeuppance here. He has no idea what is going on in the real world.