Just from browsing rents on the Upper East side of Manhattan, it appears that prices are finally leveling off or going down. I pay $2400 for a non-doorman one bedroom in the East 80's off of Park Avenue, but I have seen rents around $2,000 or lower for similar apartments in the area lately.

There are also articles like this one in AMNY:

http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/2008/12/_chr...

and also posts like this from the Gothamist about rent in NYC:

http://gothamist.com/2008/10/14/manhattan_apartment_rents_slight...

So, I thought this would be a great thread to weigh in on rents in different NYC areas. I know this is VERY locally targeted and may be better suited for a different website/message board. If that is the case, MODS - please delete this and I will take the thread elsewhere.

In any case, as I have mentioned, I pay $2400 for a one bedroom on a 1-year lease. The lease expires in June, 2009 and I will let everyone know then what I have to pay for my current apartment, or what I can get elsewhere.

Feel free to add to this thread where applicable.

Supply and demand. Thousands are being laid off. If you are laid off, you can't afford the apartment, therefore their is a greater supply of apartments beginning to develop.

Not until they get rid of those unfair rent control / rent stabilization laws in NYC.

There are many wealthy people renting high end NYC apartments that can even be "passed down" to relatives, at a fraction of their market value (ex: family friends of ours pay $600/mo for a 2 bedroom apt in midtown Manhattan, with a market rate around $3,000/mo). Which creates a lower housing supply, which creates higher rents for everyone else. Not to mention screwing over the basic fundamental rights of property owners.

To add insult, income is not even a determining factor in the laws.

As they say..."Only in New York." Glad I moved out of that overpriced city after 21 years.

Great topic Op

Aerofreaky said:One thing that you must enlighten the non NYC folks with...brokers fees are paid by the person looking for the apartment. These are on average 15% of the first year's lease. You can get non-broker deals, but they are limited in many instances. Also, very high end places have in house leasing offices--but we're talking places where the rent is 4+k for the 1 b/r.

So, the question arises, do I pay an upfront fee to move to a cheaper place? How long will I have before I have a ROI? Will I be around long enough to break even? Do I have tens of thousands ready for the fees and the moving charges?

Those are the questions that so many of us NYC folks constantly face. It sucks.

As for the whole rent control/stabilization thing, here is my story:

I grew up on a rent controlled 2 bedroom apartment in the heart of Greenwich Village. This apartment was the same apartment that my mother grew up in. The rent is under $200 while the market value is probably close to $2500 - $3000. My mother was an early childhood teacher at, and eventually owned her own small business doing the same which failed. She is now a "stay at home mom"/retired (at age 50). My father was a salesman for major shipping companies, got laid off in the early 90's recession and ended up helping a family friend run his successful musical equipment store where he still works today as the head of shipping/ CFO. Basically, they are middle class all the way, and I lived a middle class upbringing. I likely would have been close to the poverty line if not for this rent-controlled apartment. Because of this apartment, my parents were able to help me in going to the college of my choice and graduate in four year. It will be the same for my two younger brothers. I wasn't living a spoiled life, but I had everything that "needed" and never felt "poor." Obviously, my parents could have done better for themselves if they had made some different decisions in life such as not having 3 kids, etc etc. However, you play the hand that is dealt to you. The plot thickens a bit since I moved BACK to NYC after college. I am a few years out now (well, make that 4, more than a few) and I am back in NYC and making around $55k per year. I am still trying to find my niche, but between my girlfriend of 8 years and I, we have a HHI of over 110k. However, because of the very rent control and stabilization that I grew to love as a kid, I am now paying the ridiculous $2400 for a non-doorman one bedroom apartment. What goes around comes around, huh?

I will likely never end up in my parent's apartment in Greenwich Village as I have two younger brothers and they are more likely to live down there.

So, there is one story illustrating the good and the bad of rent control/stabilization.

NYCSportsResearcher said:Those are the questions that so many of us NYC folks constantly face. It sucks.

As for the whole rent control/stabilization thing, here is my story:

I grew up on a rent controlled 2 bedroom apartment in the heart of Greenwich Village. This apartment was the same apartment that my mother grew up in. The rent is under $200 while the market value is probably close to $2500 - $3000. My mother was an early childhood teacher at, and eventually owned her own small business doing the same which failed. She is now a "stay at home mom"/retired (at age 50). My father was a salesman for major shipping companies, got laid off in the early 90's recession and ended up helping a family friend run his successful musical equipment store where he still works today as the head of shipping/ CFO. Basically, they are middle class all the way, and I lived a middle class upbringing. I likely would have been close to the poverty line if not for this rent-controlled apartment. Because of this apartment, my parents were able to help me in going to the college of my choice and graduate in four year. It will be the same for my two younger brothers. I wasn't living a spoiled life, but I had everything that "needed" and never felt "poor." Obviously, my parents could have done better for themselves if they had made some different decisions in life such as not having 3 kids, etc etc. However, you play the hand that is dealt to you. The plot thickens a bit since I moved BACK to NYC after college. I am a few years out now (well, make that 4, more than a few) and I am back in NYC and making around $55k per year. I am still trying to find my niche, but between my girlfriend of 8 years and I, we have a HHI of over 110k. However, because of the very rent control and stabilization that I grew to love as a kid, I am now paying the ridiculous $2400 for a non-doorman one bedroom apartment. What goes around comes around, huh?

I will likely never end up in my parent's apartment in Greenwich Village as I have two younger brothers and they are more likely to live down there.

So, there is one story illustrating the good and the bad of rent control/stabilization.

The fact is, income is not a factor in who gets their rent to be controlled. There are tons of extremely wealthy people with these rent-controlled apartments.

Also, why should your parents benefit at the property owner's and everyone else's expense? It's great that it helped your parents, but that doesn't make it fair.

I am renting an alcove studio (500 sq ft) in a luxury doorman building downtown for low 2000s (started renting 6 months ago). Currently, similar buildings around are offering 1 month free (i.e., pay 12 months of rent, but live for 13 months). Some other buildings that were previously offering 1 month free are now offering 2 months free. That's a reduction of about 1/12th, i.e., 8%.

I expect that by the time late spring comes, we will be at about 15% of from June of 2008.

Reportedly, bank bonuses are going to be lower. I think mid-year, many bank employees expected to get 50-70% of their 2008 bonus in 2009 (bonus shows up in January). Currently, it's looking a lot worse, maybbe 30%. Add 10-20% layoff across the fattest part of the bonus structure, and we have a substantially smaller bonus pool (15% * 0 + 85% * 30% = 25%). It is important to track both the size of the bonus pool and aggregate jobs terminated, because for each job terminated in high paying fields, 2-5 other jobs disappear.

I fully expect that if the recession is deep, NYC rents might go down by 50%.

Also, paying for a NYC broker is totally BS. There are plenty of rentals available directly from the source on craigslist.com. And btw, the no-broker fee broker listings are also suspect. If you get one of those, you are still overpaying.

xoneinax said:NYCSportsResearcher said:am back in NYC and making around $55k per year ... I am now paying the ridiculous $2400 for a non-doorman one bedroom apartmentWow. With $29,000 per year in rent, you could never live there without the girlfriend ?

That is correct - we would likely be married right now, but we don't see the rush since we don't plan on having kids.

So, I am trying to save up money, trying to find a good deal on a ring, etc.

Hoping rents go down so it is a bit more reasonable living here. I was born and raised here in NYC and like living here!

xoneinax said:NYCSportsResearcher said:am back in NYC and making around $55k per year ... I am now paying the ridiculous $2400 for a non-doorman one bedroom apartmentWow. With $29,000 per year in rent, you could never live there without the girlfriend ?

For true New Yorkers, living in (gasp) a cheaper borough is not an option, even though it's super easy/convenient to get around the city. Pretension dominates (also a small part of the reason for high rents).