New York City

Sorry, New Yorkers — this city isn’t the most expensive area in which to rent a two-bedroom apartment, not even the most expensive in the state. At least that’s what a new study covering rents in the country released by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition says, the Wall Street Journal reported. In fact, Long Island took the prize for the priciest two-bedroom rents in New York. Its average price ticked in at $1,682 per month, putting Long Island in fourth place nationwide. New York City came in at 14th with an average rent of $1,424. [more]

(source: Jones Lang LaSalle)

Buoyed by the city’s growing technology sector, Midtown South was the strong point in a Manhattan office market that stagnated in February, according to a report released today by Jones Lang LaSalle.

After a brief respite from tightening conditions last month, the vacancy rate in Midtown South fell to 6.6 percent from 6.9 percent, as Class B space was in particular demand, with just 6.4 percent of the 48.6 million square feet of inventory. [more]

The Meatpacking District is seeing the beginnings of an influx of high-end retailers with mass appeal, the Wall Street Journal reported, in the wake of the departure of ultra-exclusive designers like Stella McCartney from the neighborhood. Sephora, Levi's, Intermix and Tory Burch are all entering the district, while brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chanel have also eyed potential locations in the area, runs roughly from West 14th Street south to Gansevoort Street, and from the Hudson River east to Hudson Street and has a total of 200,000 square feet of vacant retail space. [more]

The Times Square bow tie, at Broadway between West 42nd Street and West 47th Street, has made it onto a list of the world’s most expensive shopping stretches for the first time, Crain’s reported, with rents averaging $1,350 a square foot, according to data compiled by Cushman & Wakefield. “Times Square is the center of the world and it has become another place where retailers want to express their identity,” said Gene Spiegelman, executive vice president with Cushman & Wakefield. Rents on East 57th Street between Fifth and Madison avenues have also been increasing rapidly, the findings show, rising 20 percent to $1,200 a square foot year-over-year. Fifth Avenue, as usual, ranked as the most expensive shopping street in the world for the 10th year in a row, averaging $2,250 a square foot in the year ended June 30 — a 22 percent jump from a year earlier. [Crain's] [more]

Vacant storefronts in prime city areas are finding tenants, and many stores are seeing rents as high as they were in 2007. In order to survive, or find a bargain, retailers are getting creative and looking in less popular neighborhoods, or on side streets, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s a tale of two cities,” said Gene Spiegelman, a broker at Cushman & Wakefield, of the price gap.
In 2008, retail vacancy reached 9 percent on the desirable upper stretch of Fifth Avenue, according to data provided by Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing and sales at Prudential Douglas Elliman. The vacancy rate now sits around 7.5 percent. Rents fell to less than $2,000 a square foot, still the highest in the city. The vacancy rate hit 15 percent on Madison Avenue, according to Consolo, while in Soho, the rate went above 11 percent. [more]

City Joinery, a Dumbo-based furniture making company, is moving to Easthampton, Mass. after the landlord upped the rent by $3,000 on its 5,500-square-foot showroom and studio space at 20 Jay Street, bringing it to $8,000 a month, according to Crain’s.

Jonah Zuckerman, City Joinery’s founder and owner, said the rent hike made the space essentially unaffordable, especially since demand is lessening for wooden furniture since the recession.

“In the boom years, we would have a couple walk-ins and one or two appointments every day, so the showroom investment was totally worth it,” he said. “But in the past six months, we’d be lucky if we had one party a week.” [more]

While the greater New York City area is notorious for its expensive rental market, a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the greater San Jose and San Francisco markets have the first- and second-priciest rental rates, respectively. The report, released today, says that the New York City metro area’s median gross rent was at $1,125 — making it sixth in the nation. The report lumps New York City, Northern New Jersey and Long Island into one market, and notes that the region only barely beats the seventh-priciest market, Boston, which had median gross rent of $1,123. TRD

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Click chart for larger version (Chart source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Rents in New York City and Northern New Jersey saw their smallest annual increase since 1994, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, climbing just 1.6 percent between January 2010 and the same month a year earlier. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate was at 10 percent in the area over the same time period. Housing costs in the region have ramped up far more rapidly than other living expenses for the last quarter century, according to the report. Since the early 1980s, housing costs have increased by more than 300 percent, compared to food expenses which rose 125 percent and clothing, which rose less than 20 percent. Household energies on the other hand have decreased by 1.6 percent over the same time period. TRD [more]

Source: TDG/TREGNY

The 2010 rental market is expected to start off slow, though there is potential to see a return to stability, according to the 2009 year-end report from TDG/TREGNY, released today (see full report after the jump).

The Manhattan Rental Market report, which conflates the group’s monthly Manhattan rental market reports, shows that seasonal rental trends were less noticeable in 2009 than in other years, with the summer showing only a slight uptick in activity compared to the rest of the year. Crucial to the rental market’s future improvement, the report says, is how other segments of the Manhattan economy perform in the coming months.

“The most important factor for a market improvement is employment,” the report says. “As it steadily improves, we can expect the rental market to do the same.”

Overall, the 2009 rental prices show downward momentum from 2008. Rents on doorman studios declined the most year-over-year, with average rents last year clocking in at 8.12 percent lower than 2008. Doorman units saw significant declines in rent due to renters’ interest in finding bargain homes, according to the report. TRD  More

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Now is a good time for renters to negotiate with landlords for better rents and more incentives. It’s a “good time for tenants right now,” said Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group, on the “Today” show. Even tenants with bad credit may be able to rent homes, she said. Tenants have a lot of room to negotiate in states like Florida, where vacancy rates are at highs. While people have become accustomed to concessions like free rent and lower security deposits, today’s landlords are offering things like flat screen TVs, cash, decorating allowances and iPhones, Corcoran said. “If you can think of it, that’s what landlords are offering today,” she said. [more]