Residential Rents in Brownstone Brooklyn Receding
After ramping up in the spring and summer, residential rents in Brownstone Brooklyn began to ease in October and continued to decline through the end of the year. That’s the big take-away from Ideal Properties’ year-end report. Not surprisingly, supply was up by more than 50 percent over 2007 for one-, two- and three-bedrooms; the…
After ramping up in the spring and summer, residential rents in Brownstone Brooklyn began to ease in October and continued to decline through the end of the year. That’s the big take-away from Ideal Properties‘ year-end report. Not surprisingly, supply was up by more than 50 percent over 2007 for one-, two- and three-bedrooms; the number of available studios rose only 17 percent. With greater competition for tenants, the percentage of No Fee apartments also rose from about 2 percent to over 20 percent. Landlords aren’t getting too desperate yet though. According to the report, “unlike their Manhattan counterparts, Brooklyn’s prime neighborhoods’ landlords have not started offering ‘first month free [rent].'”
As a renter I am not moving to Jersey with the cows I have saved up to buy a forclosed property in Brooklyn. I am just waiting for forclosures to increase. So homeowners stop begging for your 400.00 dollar tax refunds and dont ask for any bailout from the government. Can’t afford your morgatge? Start packing!
I think $1200 for a 1 Br in Bedsty apt is a fair price. Am i missing something? Why do people think DIBS is asking too much? Am assuming, the street is a nice tree lined block, the apt is kept up well and hopefully near the trains etc.
I’m a landlord in PS and have a 2 BR duplex with all the amenities etc and charge $2800 – I like my tenants and I feel we are good landlords (fix things pretty quickly and keep the heat high-haha) their lease is up in June and I will not increase the rent. The same day I listed my apt on Craigslist WITHOUT photos and I received 10 calls. I showed the apt to about 6 people the following day and my current tenants snatched it up that same day.
I feel hopeful that the rental market hasn’t softened too much out there. Agreed with MG1 – the rental market always takes a dive in the winter months b/c of supply and demand. In summer more people are moving into the city b/c of college and families are looking to move to newer nabes to change schools before the school year starts.
Oh, and some advice for landlords: don’t expect me to pay a freaking realtor fee for your place unless you are offering me supercheap rent.
I’m only planning to stay in the place for 12 months, so when comparing apartments, I always add 1/12th the realtor fee onto the monthly rent.
So if your apartment in $2,300/mo but the realtor is charging 12% fee, the actual rent on the apartment as far as I’m concerned is $2576/mo — although I’d have to round that up to $2600 for the sheer annoyance of dealing with some dipshit realtor for a simple 12 month lease.
DIBS- I INSIST on being labeled a bitter bitter bitter renter (sebb says so, so it must be right. right?) but I do agree with rob. the label is unfair. There are plenty of bitter landlords as well, who have no problem making a tenant’s life hell. fact is landlords and tenants can be either a symbiotic or a parasitic relationship depending on circumstances. But neither exists without the other so here we are.
I think MM pointed out on a post recently that pricing is not always open to negotiation. Just because the economy sucks, banks aren’t rushing to lower mortgage rates so that landlords can lower rents. It’s all well and good to talk about vacancies, and negotiating downward, but the landlord has to have the wiggle room to do that, and in neighborhoods like Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy I don’t see that a majority of homeowners have much room to play with. Bigger buildings, probably- but in brownstone neighborhoods, I don’t think so much.
“Trust me, this isn’t an environment where the majority of tenants can demand rent decreases from their landlords.”
I pay almost $3k/mo for a 1.5 bedroom apt. (a realtor would call it a 2 bedroom) in a brownstone that I first rented near the top of the market (2007).
I got a 5% rent increase last year and just rolled my eyes and accepted it because I didn’t feel like moving.
I agree with you that my landlord won’t be interested in offering me a rent decrease this year, but I am going to get one anyway. If he doesn’t want to offer it, I will move.
I put my moving costs at about $4000 for movers, refurnishing, supplies, and grief, so I need a place about $340/mo cheaper than the 5% rent increase I would expect from my landlord.
That isn’t going to be too hard to find this year.
My landlord’s a nice enough guy, but I’m sure the whole concept of lowering rent is so incredibly alien to him that it will not start making sense until the apartment has been vacant 3 months.
And, who knows, maybe he’ll find a new tenant asap and get another year or two at these elevated rates. Good for him if he can do it (like I said, he’s a nice enough guy).
rob….the vast majority of renters are not bitter. Its just that the bitter ones are so obviously bitter!!! And, you can’t tell me that any landlord worth his salt does not know his own market better than the prospective tenants.
The vast majority of leases will not be negotiated downward. Additionally, most of the new supply coming on the market is from properties unable to sell which are typically larger and more expensive units.
These people I’m arguing with think they know all of brooklyn and one shoe fits all. That is not the case. You could come to bed Stuy and get a nice duplex for $2,000-$2,500 if you need to. It will go up faster than other places though.
will you people stop with calling renters bitter and belitting them (us?) we’re the saps paying 1/2 your mortgage so seriously please stop drinking the hateorade it’s getting really old.
*rob*
cornerbodega….Glad you took the bait. I may be a laughable moron in your mind but you’re just a bitter renter in the sorriest case of the term…looking for a handout.
I’m sure I’ve accumulated far more real estate assets than you have so I must know something about these markets.
Please, share with us your vast experiences as a landlord as opposed to just being an uninformed moron yourself!!!
dibs says
“Trust me, this isn’t an environment where the majority of tenants can demand rent decreases from their landlords.You renters are smoking some pretty serious crack out there.”
Maybe I should just let the utter stupidity of this statement stand on its own but…. I just can’t so…. Dibs you’re a laughable moron 😉 hahahaha