Cheaper rents lure Brooklynites to Manhattan

The cheaper rents that lured legions of young people to Williamsburg and Park Slope over the past decade have largely dissipated, and now, according to the Wall Street Journal, many of those pioneers are continuing their chase for reduced rents — in Manhattan.

Over the last year, rents for studios and one-bedrooms have risen faster in Brooklyn, 10.5 percent and nearly 10 percent, respectively, than they have in Manhattan at less than 8 percent and less than 5 percent, the Journal noted. In fact the mean rent for a studio in Williamsburg is better than $2,700, compared to $2,500 for non-doorman studios in Greenwich Village.

“Rents are going up so much in Williamsburg,” Citi Habitats agent John Brandon told the Journal. “If you want to live in Manhattan, it’s kind of six of one, half a dozen of another” compared with Brooklyn.

One popular Manhattan alternative for former Brooklynites is the Upper East Side, where the rental market is less competitive than other parts of the island below 96th Street. Predictably, “trendy establishments” have followed. [WSJ]