From the 2011 Data Book: It’s not always cheap to rent an apartment in Brooklyn. (To wit:
check out the figures below for Dumbo, which has the priciest
one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms in the borough, as well as
Williamsburg, which, surprisingly, has the priciest studios.) But it is
still cheaper than Manhattan. In November 2010, renters could get
a Brooklyn one-bedroom for a 23 percent discount compared to
Manhattan (a mean of $2,093 a month in Brooklyn versus $2,725 in
Manhattan), according to the Real Estate Group New York. Studios
and two-bedrooms saw similar percentage discounts. Click on the link at the top of the homepage or here for more. TRD

Data Book [more]

Residents at 325 East 10th Street between avenues A and B are riled over ongoing renovations in part of their building, according to EV Grieve, which they say left their homes in horrendous conditions. The renovations, intended to turn the front of the building into a Hotel Toshi, a chain hotelier providing short-term apartment rentals, left residents without heat until Dec. 15 last year, sources claim, while alleged landlord neglect led to leaky ceilings and vermin in the apartment building’s hallways. Making matters worse, residents claim that they are still living without cooking gas. [more]

The Monaco, a two-tower rental development in Jersey City and the self-described largest rental complex in New Jersey, has received its first temporary certificate of occupancy, according to developers Roseland Property and Garden State Development. The leasing office at the 50-story, 524-unit project is slated to open April 1. The waterfront development includes 12,000 square feet of retail space and a 10-story parking deck. Rents at the Monaco range from $1,600 for studios to $5,300 for three-bedroom units. TRD

The average Manhattan rent remained relatively stable last month, while showing marked improvement over 2010, according to the Real Estate Group NY’s residential rental market report released today. The report, which tracks data from mid-month to mid-month, shows that average rent was up just .4 percent from mid-January, but up 8.01 percent from the same time a year earlier. Two-bedroom doorman units in Soho boasted the priciest average rent — $8,130 a month — while non-doorman Harlem studios had the cheapest, at $1,452. A recent report from Citi Habitats had similar findings. TRD [more]

As the mortgage crisis continues to spread, more multi-millionaires are choosing to rent rooms to tenants to make ends meet, according to Alyssa Abkowitz in this Wall Street Journal video. Abkowitz, who was a mansion boarder herself in West Palm Beach, Fla., said that more homeowners associations are beginning to write rental clauses into contracts to accommodate the growing trend. Of course, pesky rules can turn some tenants off of the mansion option: Abkowitz says she wasn’t allowed to have men over to the house and was often asked where she was going when she left home.

Average rent for Manhattan apartments is on the rise, according to the Real Estate Group NY’s latest rental market report, which measures data mid-month, despite recent rental reports that reflected a flatter market. The January report, released today, shows that the average rent was up 7.8 percent compared to the same time a year ago, climbing to $3,332. Harlem proved to be the most affordable neighborhood covered in the report, which is based on data cross-sectioned from over 10,000 currently available listings located below 155th Street, with average rents as low as $1,348 for a non-doorman studio in the neighborhood. TRD [more]

Source: Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel

The average Manhattan rent reached $3,499 during the fourth quarter of 2010, according to a new Prudential Douglas Elliman report, released today, down 7.7 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, when that figure was $3,789. The median price in the residential market, however, stayed relatively flat, climbing 1.1 percent during the same time period.

Inventory, meanwhile, declined to 3,862 homes, down 26.1 percent from a year ago, according to the report, which is based on market-wide data.

Overall, the rental market is showing modest improvement, according to Yuval Greenblatt, an executive vice president with Elliman.
[more]

Average rents in the Financial District improved across the board in 2010, up an average of 5 percent over 2009, according to Platinum Properties’ year-end report, released today (see full report after jump), which covers 2,371 closed lease transactions in the neighborhood by multiple brokerages. Studios and one- and two-bedroom units saw average rents of $2,314, $3,014 and $4,442, respectively, during 2010, representing climbs of 4.68 percent, 3.88 percent and 9.05 percent over 2009′s average rents. TRD [more]

While prices are still down, activity is high as buyers and renters forsake ‘cool’ for value

Andrew Barrocas

From the October issue: It might not be Manhattan’s hippest neighborhood, but Murray Hill is holding its own when it comes to residential real estate. “It seems like almost everybody who lives in Murray Hill feels like they should live in a ‘cooler’ neighborhood — until cooler turns out to be 40 percent more rent and 30 percent less space,” said Bond New York broker Gus Waite. In this month’s Q & A, The Real Deal talked to brokers who specialize in Murray Hill about everything from how a crackdown on temporary walls are impacting the rental market to how long apartments are sitting on the market.

[more]

Manhattan continued to see a decline in its rental vacancy rate last month, according to residential brokerage Citi Habitats’ [more]