If you want to avoid a series of (escalating) problems, it's important that you pay your rent on time. Every month. First and foremost, the lease you signed is a legally binding contract. That, in and of itself, should be reason enough. However, if for some reason you feel like you need an additional incentive...
Fewer New Yorkers are living by themselves now than in more than a decade, which means more of an emphasis on finding the best roommate for your situation. One recent report put the number of households in this town functioning as a "single" at 46.3%, which is still high as compared to rest of the country, but is near a record low for us.
I'm feeling a bit like a broken record on this front, but here's the latest story on Manhattan rental apartments: rents are high, vacancies low, concessions few and far between. And while it sometimes seems like that's ALWAYS been the case (or, at least, for the nearly 30 years that I've been renting apartments in New York City), for much of 2009--just two years ago!--the shoe was on the other foot.
Over the years we've heard the story countless times: a young couple or new-in-town professional answers an ad (it used to be on a flyer, posted on the street; now Craigslist and the like are the preferred trolling grounds), get shown a NYC rental apartment by a broker, love the place, hand over a security deposit... and never hear from him again. It's a classic broker scam that has been going on for years.
We've been seeing statistics and charts all summer here at Urban Edge about how finding and signing a New York City rental apartment has become more and more a landlord-friendly undertaking. Manhattan rents are up, vacancies are down, and owners aren't nearly as ready to hand out concessions as they were as recently as a year or so ago. Anyway, this week Citi Habitats released a five-year report on the Manhattan rental market (below 96th Street), confirming that all of the trends we've been seeing, are true.
It should come as no surprise that the most heavily-hyped NYC rental apartment building in recent memory, Frank Gehry's soaring residential tower at 8 Spruce Street, continues to generate lots of press. After all, the immodestly named New York by Gehry was designed--right down to the doorknobs!--by arguably the planet's most famous architect, and it carries his distinctive bio-organic look right there on its sleeve... or, more accurately, on its steel curtain wall. Rising 76 stories above the heart of Manhattan's Financial District, New York by Gehry is also not only the tallest NYC rental tower, it's also the tallest residential building in the United States, period!
It's a seemingly inevitable part of NYC living: at some time or another, no matter how much we love our homes, residents of NYC rental apartments will wish we had more space. A bigger kitchen, say, or a larger bathroom. Or maybe more closet space. Or a second (or third!) bedroom. During those wistful, dreamy moments it might help to remember that there are plenty of people whose small apartments are much more tiny than ours, and they seem happy, right? Right!?
Looking for a NYC rental apartment? You are definitely not alone. A report last week from Morgan Stanley confirmed what everyone's been thinking for a couple of years now: the whole country is more of a "rentership society" than it's been in decades. In fact, the level of homeownership in America, when you exclude "deliquent buyers" from the pool (which amounts to about 7.5 million people), has for the first time ever dipped below 60%.
All the numbers about the increasingly competitive New York rental market might be interesting in the abstract--the lowest vacancy rate in a decade! fewer concessions by landlords! the highest prices in Manhattan in years!--but they can really hit home if you're looking for a Manhattan rental apartment right now, or if your current lease is coming up for renewal in the next few months. Recently The New York Times has offered an in-depth look at some of the immediate consequences for newcomers looking for a NY apartment, as well as current NYC apartment building tenants as their leases come up for renewal.
We've received a flurry of reports recently about Manhattan rental apartments, from a number of different sources, and they all say the same thing: the Manhattan rental market hasn't been this hot in years. We're now at about the half-way point of the prime rental season, and once again landlords have the upper hand.
