Upper West Side rents rose 4.1% year over year in 2015, more than the average Manhattan neighborhood, which was up by 1.95%, according to real estate brokerage MNS.
Here are the average rents in the neighborhood:
December 2015
- Studio (with doorman) $2,813
- Studio (no doorman) $2,213
- One-bedroom (with doorman) $3,927
- One-bedroom (no doorman) $2,906
- Two-bedroom (with doorman) $6,205
- Two bedroom (no doorman) $3,829
File photo.
I never understood these statistics as they never specify if rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments are included in these calculations.
In any case, with the stock market in the toilet I would imagine rents would be stabilizing or perhaps even decreasing in 2016.
These statistics are obviously not including rent controlled or rent stabilized apts.!!!!
It looks at listed rents. There aren’t many rent-stabilized apartments that are currently listed on the UWS.
I know how fortunate I am that my one-bedroom (with doorman)rent-stabilized apt is $1200 but $3927? That is just insane.
Red, clearly you do not understand how fortunate you are.
If you’re blown away by the fact that 1BR doorman apartments typically go for around 4k you must be living in your current place for 20 years or so?
Yes. Almost 40 years.
That’s great, you are definitely very fortunate!
I’m sure DeBlasio has your vote.
I’m sorry,almost $50,000 a year for RENT for a one bedroom- is simply obscene. All for the pleasure of now living amongst corporate box stores and a bank or Duane Reade on every other corner. I could almost- almost- understand it if the UWS still possessed some of it’s old world funkiness and charm. But this homogenized version of it’s former self just makes me sad and makes me wonder what’s the point? When New Jersey has more character than your former neighborhood, something is wrong. Who can afford this “new” Upper West side? Wall Streeters and Trust fund babies? I love my hood, but if I had to move here and start over, not only would I not be able to, but as a creative person, I would not want to. I hardly recognized the New York I grew to love.
Sorry to disappoint, but we sold our 4200 sq ft central no home with 1/2 acre and a pool to move in to a 1 bedroom 722 sq ft apt and couldn’t be happier. between property taxes, maintenance on the house and 2 car payments our expenses are the same yet I am now in the greatest city in the world and anything I want within reason is a few steps away. It’s an adventure I wouldn’t trade for anything. Don’t assume that what’s right for you is right for others.
While I agree about the rents, I disagree with the rest. As a 40-year-long UWS’er the place still retains the character that it’s always had. Go down to the Lower East Side to see and example of total gentrification and change.
Gee, it must be cold up there looking down on everyone.
If you want to understand why UWS costs what it does, read this: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Economics-Edition-Gregory-Mankiw/dp/128516587X
You assume a Wall Streeter can’t be a “creative person.” Look up mortgage-backed collatoralized debt obligations – Can’t get much more “creative” than that!
I gest.
The costs of New York City rentals is driven by market forces. If $50,000 for a one-bedroom was truly “obscene,” than folks would not pay it and rents would go down. We all get to choose where we live and people within NYC move all the time. Is a cheaper UWS really an equivalent value to today’s? Is it possible that the costs comes due to improvements in the neighorhood, perhaps better schools and less crime (Does that have no value?)?
I find that people tend to look at aggregate numbers and make judgements based on their values (using words like “overpriced” or “obscene”).
Frankly, $50,000 for a one-bedroom may be obscene “for you”. But if you compare the cost of living in the surrounding suburbs, the costly investments of owning a suburban home, and the value of your time (assuming you live and also work in Manhattan); life outside of the UWS isn’t such a bargain either.
What seems obscene to me is to spend your time kvetching about your ‘lost’ neighborhood which you still apparently live in; what’s creative about that? If you can’t be “creative” surrounded by people who are different, than really how “creative” are you? Seems to be you are yearning for a different sort of homogeneity.
This poster reminds me of the Yogi Berra saying that “nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded”.
Obviously, if there are people willing and able to pay $50K a year for a one bedroom it is not obscene.
Besides, my friends in the ‘burbs pay a fortune in real estate taxes, maintaining there home, maintaining two cars, train fare etc..
And I’m not even counting time commuting every day into the city for work.
$50K is practically a steal. No wonder so many people are willing to pay this rent.
Typo? 2-bedroom
No doorman $3829
?????
Glad I am moving to Philly!
To NYCya and Cynthia:
EXACTLY! That is why I moved to Philly. I will be selling my NYC studio very soon and purchase a full rowhome (they are not cut up into apts here). Philly has everything I love about NY, while not having the things I dislike, and it’s a day-trip to NYC. Philly people are getting nervous that too many NYers are moving here. Haha, the secret is out.
Philly is a great city, but I just don’t think you can compare Philadelphia and New York. New York is more than 5 times as large as Philadelphia, and is a global center of many industries.
Philadelphia is more affordable than New York City, but wages are also lower. Philadelphia has some areas that are quaint and has some arts and has a great history, but they may not extend as deeply or as diversely as NY. Philadelphia does have some good industries, but nowhere near the workforce of NY.
As in most places, affordability can depend on what industry you are in and how much it pays. If you earn your keep from an industry that pays at the top of the income bracket for a given locale, you will have an easier time affording to live within the same geography.
People tend to criticize Wall Street “people” as boring and homogeneous and lament that this is the only group of folks who can afford to live in the City.
I ask a simple question – Why are these same people not complaining that their industries do not pay adequate wages for their employees to live nearby? If Wall Street companies are willing to pay the most, than folks who have those jobs are going to be able to best afford to live close-by. Industries compete for talent and frankly, financial-focused firms are winning.
Nothing would make me happier than to have the top-paying jobs be in science, research, or other fields; or at least to have more parity.
The median rent for no-doorman 2-bedrooms being $3829, a family would need to earn $153,160 to qualify this as “afforable rent” under 30% of their gross income (and trust me, as a market-rate renter $3829 is a steal!). There are very few industries that pay these sorts of wages.
I don’t think two parents each making 75k is really that difficult to accomplish. I’m in research and after busting my butt for several years make that as do thousands of other people in my industry in this city. My husband is in software development and though he is more senior and makes far more than 75k the tech industry pays college grads with beginner-level knowledge 75k to start (at least). Now consider nurses, teachers (yes, two teachers can pull 150k in the nyc edu system), police, firemen, waiters at higher-end restaurants, bartenders at mid-higher end establishments…all these people can make 75k and up. I’m so tired of the “only boring people in finance can afford to live here.” It’s simply not true. It might also interest you to know that since a lot of finance types often receive much of their compensation through bonuses and most co-ops don’t count bonuses as income it isn’t always that easy for them to hit the 40x rent number or the DTI ratio many co-ops require for a purchaser who requires a mortgage to buy. (That said many of them can save up bonuses and pay in cash eventually).
Move to Philly? Is that a joke? You’ve lost all credibility comparing that second rate city to NYC.
So many people here act as if the neighborhood is theirs and bitch if it changes in the least. NYC is for everyone, deal with it! Otherwise, move to Philly and waste away in irrelevance….
Remember what WC fields has written on his tombstone:
“ALL THINGS CONSIDERED,
I’D RATHER BE HERE
THAN IN PHILADELPHIA”.
I grew up on the west side.I left a 2 bedroom on 70th & Col.Ave 25 yrs ago.The rent was 225 a month.AAAAAAAAAAAH the good old days.
Lots of sturm and drang over the cost of housing in Manhattan. I moved here after college in 1973. My studio in the Village (University Pl. and 13th St., not exactly a shabby nabe) was $215 a month. Today, parking on the UWS in a garage is $500 give or take. It’s called inflation. And yes, housing goes up in NYC faster than the cost of living because the demand is so high. I’ve been lucky to own 3 apartments over the years and so when I cash out I’ll have lived here free for over 40 years. But here’s the irony. When we swapped a 1BR condo on W. 12th St. for a 2BR co-op on the UWS (selling and buying price were the same) when we needed another BR we thought we were downwardly mobile and moving to a cheaper neighborhood. So much for that idea.