What the Chinese Want with New York
It's not just America's debt the Chinese are willing to buy in to Read More
apartment market
Manhattan’s Leasé-Faire Apartment Market
The rental market is up and the rental market is down, according to the newly released Manhattan Rental Market Report.
Although the report, released monthly, shows that rents were up by 1.82 percent overall from May to June, a closer look reveals that rents are rising in some areas and falling in others. Also, the survey doesn't include every apartment on the market—understandable, given how freaky Manhattan housing arrangements can get—but instead gives just a rough idea of pricing trends.
For example, rents are up for non-doorman studios on the Upper West Side but down for non-doorman one-bedrooms. Many neighborhoods are listed under both the "where prices decreased" and "where prices increased" categories with prices varying depending on the type of apartment, making it a little difficult to ID a trend for one neighborhood across-the-board.
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A Call for Means Testing in Rent Regulation
Food and shelter are two of life's basic necessities. For those who need assistance feeding themselves, the Food Stamp Program is available. This program issues monthly benefits that can be used to purchase food at authorized retail food stores. Food stamp benefits help low-income working people, seniors, the disabled and others feed their families. Read More
Hey, College Kiddies! Welcome to the Island of the $2,417 Studio
Aside from hay fever and spring fever, the flush of New York City's apartment fever hit Thursday morning thanks to the latest Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel first-quarter rental market report.
For all the soon-to-be graduated college kids, according to the report, the average rent for a Manhattan studio—four walls, a closet kitchen and a toilet—has increased to Read More
Multifamily, Yesterday and Today
Operating multifamily properties in New York City is a challenging task, given the complexities involved in the city's rent-regulation system. If you are a frequent reader of Concrete Thoughts, you know the many deficiencies that exist within the system. Most people believe that rent regulation is an affordable-housing program, but it is really not-housing Read More
Stuy Town Opens to the Masses Again
Closed to new tenants since October in the wake of a mega court decision on rents, Stuyvesant Town is now opening its flood gates.
Per a statement from a Tishman Speyer spokeswoman, the 11,200-apartment mini-city on the East Side will now rent 100 apartments to outsiders looking to get in. Thanks to the court decision, Read More
How to Fix Rent Regulation
Welfare is defined as “financial aid or other assistance to an individual or a family from a city, state or national government.” It is further defined as “receiving financial aid from the government or from a private organization because of hardship and need.”
In New York, rent stabilization is a form of welfare, rent welfare. It Read More
For Apartment Seekers, the Summer of Change Changes
Well, so much for all that.
Matt Puleo, an accountant looking for an apartment in the East Village or Gramercy, said that only 5 percent of the places he’s looked at recently have offered concessions. “In many instances, I have not noticed an appreciable decrease in rents,” Mr. Puleo said. “I think a lot of Read More
Manhattan Apartment Building Sales Drop Like a Beer Bottle From the Fire Escape
The multi-family sector of the real estate market is often described as the healthiest of the commercial bunch.
Insomuch as there is, in fact, the occasional transaction, that description holds water. Especially when compared to the office-building market, which, as CB Richard Ellis recently reported, saw a measly three transactions of greater than $30 million Read More
Your Open House: Who’s Shelving the Wine Next To the Windex?
Studios are a place to store a person, self-storage in the most literal sense. That might not always be the most appealing real estate option, but today’s falling prices have many renters contemplating inexpensive small spaces. This week, Your Open House explores Manhattan studios: Who’s buying small and why?
Today an East Village co-op, 226 Read More
Sheffield Residents Plan to Party as Fortress Takes Over the Sheffield from Swig
Residents of Sheffield57, perhaps the most ill-starred condo conversion in recent history, are "euphoric" that developer Kent Swig and his junior partners on Thursday formally lost control of the project they began four years ago.
"We’re going to have a number of celebrations," said Larry Wagner, a condo owner and former Nomura CFO. That series of Read More
Green Power! Environmentalist Scores Co-op from Ex-Bear Stearns Derivatives Ace
The director of the Nature Conservancy in New York nabs co-op of former Bear Stearns credit derivatives Read More
Transformer! Brooklyn’s Biggest New Tower Set To Change Downtown’s Tone, For Better or Worse
Hundreds of new residents will pour into downtown Brooklyn when its tallest building—the 51-story Brooklyner—opens in 2010.
Building the high-rise at 111 Lawrence Street—Brooklyn’s tallest by two feet—has not been cheap. According to a March report from Commercial Mortgage Alert, the Clarett Group borrowed $181.5 million from the Bank of America, JP Morgan, and ING Read More
I Got It, Thanks: Leases in Manhattan’s Doorman Buildings Plunge
New report shows the number of apartment leases in Manhattan's doorman buildings way down from last Read More
Unwanted Roommates, Apartment Landlords’ Saving Grace
Marcus & Millichap, an investment-sales firm based out in Cal-ee-forn-ya, unloaded on Friday evening its 2009 forecast for apartment markets throughout the U.S. The predictions for New York City are unsurpisingly grim for landlords, given the waves of layoffs and the city's general economic malaise: The firm expects vacancy rates to climb toward 5 Read More
