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HERE

WHY PRICES FOR SOME UWS TWO-BEDROOMS ARE RISING FAST, WHILE OTHER APARTMENT PRICES AREN’T

July 17, 2017 | 5:45 PM
in NEWS, REAL ESTATE
22


A studio recently listed for rent.

Rent on the Upper West Side is still too damn high, but it actually hasn’t been rising much over the past year, according to brokerage MNS Real Impact Real Estate.

In fact, neighborhood rents are up just 0.3% on average since June 2016 and the inventory of apartments was up 4.8%.

“There are several new developments in this area that have shaped the rental market, such as The Encore (built in 2016 and containing 258 units) and 21 West End Avenue (built in 2016 and containing 616 units),” the MNS report noted. “One West End and 207 West 79th Street are both condo buildings that were built in 2017 and have also had impacts on the area. ”

Every type of apartment on the UWS has seen rents stay flat or decline except for two bedrooms in non-doorman buildings. Why’s that?

Apartments in buildings without doormen have been getting more expensive throughout the city, according to Bloomberg.

“While new luxury apartments with doormen — and other extras, like pools and gyms — are proliferating and landlords are cutting deals to get them filled, renters who seek more affordable havens have been driving up demand for older, basic units, for which the supply is more fixed.”

In addition, there was a mini-spike in the number of $7,000+ two-bedrooms in non-doorman buildings, according to MNS.

“The reason for the large two bedroom non doorman change is higher priced units on the market. This month, there were 11 units priced above $7,000, and last month there were only three.”

Here are average rents for June:

  • Studio (with doorman) $2,715
  • Studio (no doorman) $2,222
  • One-bedroom (with doorman) $3,932
  • One-bedroom (no doorman) $2,943
  • Two-bedroom (with doorman) $6,137
  • Two bedroom (no doorman) $4,174
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B.B.
B.B.
5 years ago

Reasons why demand for two bedroom apartments is skyrocketing is simple; just look around any street, park or whatever on the UWS or indeed elsewhere in Manhattan; kids, kids, kids.

People are having children and need that extra bedroom.

Now am sure some of the demand is what it always has been; two unrelated persons splitting the rent with each getting their own bedroom, but still am willing to bet families are prime drivers in this demand for two bedroom units.

While some renters obviously need/want/love all the various amenities many buildings seem to be throwing in these days (just what is a salt room anyway?), bottom line is for families with kids who want to remain in NYC (or at least Manhattan), unless they are uber wealthy there are choices that have to be made.

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jor
jor
5 years ago
Reply to  B.B.

I disagree. Just look around any street, park or whatever on the UWS or indeed elsewhere in Manhattan and you see kidults, kidults and kidults. Millenial hipsters sharing a one or two-bedroom apartment and converting them into multiple room apartments so that 8+ of them can co-share and co-inhabit living in NYC, paid or subsidized by mommy and daddy, refusing to grow-up and living their lives as if they were still in college dormitories.

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Mark
Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  jor

I agree with you on this jor.

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Giulia Pines
Giulia Pines
5 years ago
Reply to  jor

“kidults”/”Millennial hipsters” – I’m sorry (not sorry), but what an obnoxious comment to make – as if millennials would be living like sardines in tiny NYC apartments if they had any other choice? Fact is, it’s millennials who bear the brunt of the NYC housing bubble as their parents and grandparents sit pretty in classic 6 apartments and veritable mansions they bought for pennies in the 70s and 80s. Should millennials be blamed for literally everything, including the misfortune of coming of age in this housing market?

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GG
GG
5 years ago
Reply to  Giulia Pines

Voice of reason comment right here. Thanks. Some of us Boomers do see the whole picture.

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Sean
Sean
5 years ago
Reply to  B.B.

I don’t think you have Laverne & Shirley living on the UWS.

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Judy
Judy
5 years ago
Reply to  Sean

Yeah, they lived in Milwaukee.

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Mark
Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  Judy

I agree with you Judy.

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Reply
B.B.
B.B.
5 years ago
Reply to  Sean

One assumes you mean roommates, and that is rather an odd sort of statement to make.

Laverne and Shirley, Felix and Oscar, Will and Grace, Will and Jack, all sorts of persons are roommates in two bedroom apartments all over NYC, and yes that includes Manhattan/UWS.

Just look at the Sunday NYT real estate section. The “Hunt” feature showed just a few weeks ago a few “couples” looking for two bedrooms. One were two guys that ended up in Harlem IIRC.

“For two years, Irene Kim shared a two-bedroom with a friend in a postwar apartment house on the Upper West Side. She paid nearly $2,400 a month, and was plagued with noise from sirens racing along Columbus Avenue.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/realestate/something-quiet-on-the-upper-west-side.html

Stock of two bedroom apartments on the UWS varies. A quick internet search turned up units going from $2700 to well over $7k per month. As the saying goes, two can live cheaper than one.

Don’t forget there still are RS apartments of all sizes (including two bedrooms) all over the UWS going for below market rent. Nothing is stopping those tenants from taking in a roommate.

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Mark
Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  Sean

I am with you on this Sean.

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B.B.
B.B.
5 years ago

Furthermore:

One wonders how many of these two bedroom apartments are really just that; or have been cobbled together by joining units, knocking down and or putting up walls, etc…

It matters because it affects the layout and flow of an apartment.

True purpose built two bedroom apartments historically only made up about 15% of entire NYC rental properties.

The UWS like parts of Brooklyn (especially areas like Park Slope, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Brooklyn Heights, etc…) is fortunate to have a rich supply of pre-war buildings with both two bedroom and classic six or seven apartments. Getting them however is another matter.

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BillyNYC
BillyNYC
5 years ago
Reply to  B.B.

Brooklyn is the new UWS Manhattan

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grandmasterbeta
grandmasterbeta
5 years ago

At that markup who the heck needs a doorman?!

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OhHonestly
OhHonestly
5 years ago
Reply to  grandmasterbeta

It also denotes buildings with other “extras” or simply fancier buildings. The presence of a doorman is an easier delineation.

I lived in a building where you had to be taken down to the laundry room by the doorman. The only way to get down there was via a hand-operated freight elevator.

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B.B.
B.B.
5 years ago
Reply to  grandmasterbeta

Leaving aside the perceived security benefits, in this age of nearly everything being delivered it is rather difficult to live without a doorman.

It can be done if the super or someone else is willing to accept packages/deliveries. Otherwise things end up just piled in lobby where they may or may not be there when you get home.

Also since so many Manhattan residents seem incapable of walking down the street or a few blocks for food or whatever, you want someone downstairs screening all those delivery guys.

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jimbo
jimbo
5 years ago

As a kid we lived on 67 Street & Amsterdam Ave.Rent was $28.00 a month.The good old days.

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Anomalous
Anomalous
5 years ago
Reply to  jimbo

LOL ! You’re right… when I moved in here in 1968 I’m paying $105 for a floor through with the garden in the front and the back and I’m still paying that price !

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BillyNYC
BillyNYC
5 years ago

Rent is too high for the upper West side when you look at it for an average person can only afford $1700 a month and that is tight…. These landlords are asking $2700 to $3600 a month for one bedroom apartment. I know for a fact on my block (West 80 Street) alone there are 35 apartments available mix studio and 1/2 bedroom apartments and they are not moving for over 6 months and no lookers at this pricing. Landlords better get a grip to reality that they’re not gonna be renting at these prices… those days are over with!

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Reply
B.B.
B.B.
5 years ago
Reply to  BillyNYC

Here’s the problem; landlords are loathe to lower asking rent because what happens next?

That is if you lower rent for a studio to $1000 from say $1999 or whatever, then what happens at expiration/renewal? If the market can support (and LL get)a higher rent current tenant will either have to pay up or get out.

At least RS apartments have the option of a preferential lease. This protects owners of such units in that they can charge a lower rate without forsaking any rights to a higher/market rate rent.

Market rate residential rental is behaving as a normal functional should. Landlords set their prices and tenants are free to take or decline. If units remain vacant long enough sooner or later something will give and a LL will have to do a deal to get it filled.

Problem for UWS and really much of Manhattan rentals above a certain price point is all the new construction that has come on line, and more is scheduled.

You have no shortage of really marginal to down right suspect rental apartments all over he UWS and elsewhere. These are in five or six floor walk-up buildings, old tenements, and so forth. Yes, the units themselves may be gut renovated, but the rest of building is what it is. Few if any amenities or anything else that makes it worth paying such high rents.

Meanwhile all over Brooklyn, Long Island City and elsewhere you can find brand new construction in buildings full of amenities for the same or near rent.

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B.B.
B.B.
5 years ago

Perhaps one of my all time favorite films about Manhattan’s “roommate” situation is “The Goodbye Girl”.

Amazingly only exterior shots were done in NYC, interior were done on soundstage in Los Angeles. IIRC the story told at the time was they couldn’t find a two bedroom UWS (or wherever) apartment in NYC.

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Janet W.
Janet W.
5 years ago

Kindly note the photoshopped pic of the interior, with the shiny floors and the sun slanting in. Almost always a dead giveaway that NO sun gets anywhere near those windows. These kinds of photos are a steady feature of NYC realty phoniness, lies and misdirection.

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Reply
B.B.
B.B.
5 years ago
Reply to  Janet W.

Oh I don’t know about that. Just look at the actual listing.

https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/nfb/d/no-fee-upper-west-side/6223762029.html

This is nothing more than a typical *renovated* tenement or 5/6 story walk-up apartment. Probably at one time was RS but gut renovated to get the rent up and out of that program.

That shine on floor is because the thing is newly sanded and heavily polyurethane coated.

As for sunshine you can see quite clearly from listing photos yes, the apartment does get some sunlight during day. Given you can see water towers and top floors/roofs of other buildings from windows am going to guess the unit is on an upper floor.

Other cues about age of apartment/building is the transom over front door. Those have been out since 1930’s as a design feature and IIRC had to be fireproofed/sealed by 1940’s or certainly recently.

Another cue is the small square space/cubby above closet on other side of kitchen. Another design feature from another era.

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