Rentals in demand: Greenwich Village, studios

Greenwich Village and the West Village, in order, overcame the often-dominant Upper East Side as the most in-demand Manhattan neighborhood of the last week, according to Zumper, an apartment listings website. The Upper East Side took third place among most popular neighborhoods for prospective renters, followed by Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea.

“Prices didn’t change much from last week, but the volume of rental searches dropped 20 percent due to the Thanksgiving holiday,” Zumper COO Taylor Glass-Moore told The Real Deal.

Even though it was the holidays, renters spent the week seeking a place to live alone. They were most often looking for studio apartments, representing 40 percent of total inquiries, the Zumper data show. The median rent query for studios overall was $1,695 per month.

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One-bedrooms had 30 percent of the total market share, and a median inquiry of $2,800, while two-bedrooms had 25 percent of the market and a median query of $2,760. Three-bedrooms had a meager 5 percent of the market and a median query of $4,000.

“It’s interesting to see that the median search price for two-bedrooms is almost equivalent to one-bedrooms,” Glass-Moore said. “Although this is mainly due to renters searching for affordably priced two-bedrooms in Washington Heights and Harlem, there are some renters who found some nice discounts on two-bedrooms in Greenwich Village and West Village last week.”

Methodology: Zumper determined the rankings by using a representative sample of emails and phone calls from renters interested in its Manhattan listings available during the week of Dec. 1. — Mark Maurer