Rental Rates: Apples to Apples
The best deal the NY Times found in its recent survey of rentals around the city was $1,100 for an L-shaped one-bedroom in Victorian Flatbush for $1,100. In Bed Stuy, that $1,100 didn’t go quite as far, requiring a prospective tenant to settle for a bathroom in a closet. Looking at all the different types…
The best deal the NY Times found in its recent survey of rentals around the city was $1,100 for an L-shaped one-bedroom in Victorian Flatbush for $1,100. In Bed Stuy, that $1,100 didn’t go quite as far, requiring a prospective tenant to settle for a bathroom in a closet. Looking at all the different types of apartments is like comparing apples and oranges though. A better approach, we think, would be to use a more consistent yard-stick: The garden-level floor-through of a brownstone. Obviously, these vary in size and shape, but let’s assume a standard front room and back room with a bathroom and kitchen as well as yard access. In Clinton Hill, market rate for this is $1,400 to $1,500 a month. How about other nabes?
What You Can Rent for $1,000 [NY Times]
All of this information is quite valuable as I am looking to move to the BoCoCa area from the West Village with my boyfriend coming up in December 2006. We’re both interior designers & are starting to look around in Brooklyn. If any of you landlords have apartments opening up soon, I would love to know.
a.worthington@interiorarchitects.com
anon at 8:46am,
You make a good point. Location is everything. Next, size and amenities. When I said may apt would be $2K market, I am referring to a large 800sf 1BR that has everything in terms of location and amentities, newly renovated, etc.
Needless to say, PS is a big neighborhood, boundaries growing with every passing second. So, there is a big variety in housing, both location-wise and condition-wise.
At $1800, I had no less than 4 takers after a weekend open house, all income-qualified, almost all couples.
I am not the $1400/mo person, but I am a LL in PS. There are LL’s who simply don’t charge market. I know one such person on my block. He grew up on the block, inherited some bldgs, keeps a very low profile, doesn’t want to be bothered with much, likes to rent to young people, has no debt on the bldgs, and can’t bring himself to charge market. I bet he’d charge $1400-$1500 for a 1BR in central Slope. It won’t be anything fancy, but fine for a just-out-of-college type. Needless to say, his apts don’t stay available for more than a day. You just have to get lucky or know someone.
Ed, I had a few brokers come through last year– Betancourt was one and I forget the others. The apartment is a floorthrough, 16 1/2 feet wide by 46 feet deep. (There’s some space lost to a narrow common hallway, but that’s the case with pretty much any floorthrough apt.) One large bedroom, eat-in kitchen. And we renovated it just a few years ago. (I think one broker may have said we could get $1450 — it ended up moot because we rented through a personal connection and gave them a discount.)
But again, note the location. (I believe from your earlier posts you live in PLG [?], so I don’t know how familiar you are with Park Slope.) You said that the apt should get $2K/month — as you will note, the poster above was quoted that as a market price for a floorthough on a park block. I’m four blocks farther from the park, again as noted above. Needless to say, that carries a discount.
Seriously, if you’ve seen any listings for a similar-sized floorthrough between 4th and 5th in the Slope for $2K or whatever, post the link. (Not being sarcastic — I’m a generous landlord but not that generous, so if I’m badly underpricing the place I’d want to know.)
I never thought I’d be having an argument with someone on Brownstoner that my property is worth LESS than they say it is!
Hey $1400/mo. in Park Slope. What broker were you using? Are you sure your apartment is as large as you say it is? If the apartment is a reasonable size, that price just does not compute. There must be exceptional circumstances we don’t know about.
we are renting our top floor in propspect heights townhouse for 1575 after surveying our neighbors and seeing that market rate would probably be 1650. we love our tenants and gave them concession to stay another year. this is a 1.5 bedroom floor thorugh, not recently renovated.
renting is cheaper per month now than buying a coop or condo
I recently rented a street-level 1BR floor-thru in a brownstone in central PS, 1 blk from park, for $1800/mo. New kitchen, bath, very nicely renovated if I might say so w/ numerous Victoria details. Drawbacks were no garden access and ground floor (so less light).
Rented in one weekend with multiple takers. I suspect the market for this apt is closer to $2000/mo. People who came to open house told me there was nothing much like it in the price I was offering.
I stuck to the price, because I wanted to good selection of prospects to choose from, and wanted to find solid, long-term tenants. Plus, I like it when people feel they lucked out – makes for a better LL/tenant relationship.
floor thru apts are difficult to rent, and even harder to sell from what i’ve experienced.