Mr. Mann, who has been writing and performing a song a day for the past 1,492 days, had a viral hit last December when he and his now-ex-girlfriend announced via song that they were breaking up (he wanted kids, she didn't). And now, Mr. Mann is looking for a for someone to share his Williamsburg (of course) apartment. 

The video, entitled "Come Live With Me In Brooklyn," takes prospective roommates on a tour of his street (the corner of Havemayer and Hope), lobby, and apartment--which features amenities such as an X-Box, Wii and PS3, a lobby and stairs, lots of little details "if you care," exposed brick and an intern. Not to mention singing and dancing and proximity to the subway. Also, a perk that can't be underestimated: decent closet space.

"Come live with me, I need a roommate," he sings. "This place is awesome/come live with me."  And, in what could either be a deal breaker or a selling point, Mr. Mann acknowledges that if you live with him, he'll probably write a song about it. Be forewarned!

(Getty Images)

When Michelle, a writer working on a first novel, tells people her husband, Daniel, is a hedge fund manager, they often remark, “Oh, honey, you did well.” And she did. The recently married pair live in a large dazzling loft in Dumbo. They currently rent, though they’ve started looking at places to buy and are getting serious about a second home upstate.

But Michelle and Daniel’s living situation was dealt a serious blow by the economy when Hannah, Michelle’s friend from Columbia, found herself without a job or home. The couple gave her a place to crash, and Daniel found he had to navigate a new morning routine. He was careful to get dressed in the bedroom before venturing out to make coffee, and he learned to keep especially quiet as he pored over the Wall Street Journal and the Times before work, so as not to wake Hannah, dozing on the guest bed in the corner.

Thanks to stagnant employment rates and rising rent prices, such situations appear to be increasingly common. Browsing Craigslist for single-room listings that include the phrase “we are a couple” brings up 131 posts from the week of April 30–May 7 alone. Stephanie Diamond, founder of The Listings Project, an email resource for renters in New York City, says she’s also seen a rise in couples seeking roommates. So has Jonathan Miller, the president and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., a real estate consulting firm. “More people are sharing rents—doubling up—whether with family or roommates,” he said.

Remember the new book Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone by NYU sociology professor Eric Klinenberg? Forget it. Mr. Miller calls the whole idea “bizarre,” pointing out that housing formation has lately fallen—which means that more people are actually living together.

Amy and Liz, a couple who live on the upper floor of a Park Slope brownstone, met on a yoga retreat, and they enjoy therapy and cooking (Amy is a former macrobiotic chef). They have been using Craigslist to find roommates, seeking applicants who favor their lefty politics and crunchy lifestyle. But first impressions can be so deceiving. Their last roommate seemed cool, but stocked their fridge with flavored Miracle Whip and prepackaged vegetables. (In general, they avoid anything with more than 20 ingredients, especially “natural flavoring”).

This time around, the search hasn’t been easy. One woman they recently showed the place to just came in and wandered around the apartment wordlessly. “We couldn’t hear what she was saying. Her mouth was moving but nothing was coming out,” Liz recalled. Another woman, upon hearing that Liz was a musician and Amy a dancer, opined, “I don’t understand music. I mean, what is the point?”

Diana and Pete both work from home, an airy loft in the Bowery. She is an acclaimed fashion and art photographer from Germany, and he is a musician from England. But those gigs don’t always cover the rent, so they’ve converted the loft into several rooms.

Pete and Diana’s one rule is, “don’t bring the party back.” Ben, their last renter, was in his 20s. He was very charming in the interview, assuring them he was not the partying type. “On the first night he was so drunk he could barely climb up the stairs,” Diana recalled. Another night she heard a clattering and found Ben at the bottom of the stairwell, black-out drunk, trousers crumpled at his feet. She helped him to the lofted bed but a few moments later heard a crash. “He was on the floor, wailing ‘Mommy! Mommy!’” Diana said, rolling her eyes. “We’re child-free for a reason,” Pete noted meaningfully.

Pete might have been more comfortable in northern Brooklyn, where group housing is increasingly common. Ereka and Dirby, a couple in their early 20s, live in an artsy loft in Bushwick with five roommates. “We have seven people to one bathroom,” Ereka said, noting that that means sometimes peeing on the roof and occasionally streaking in her own home. “I sleep naked so if I wake up in the middle of the night, sometimes I just go for it and run to the bathroom,” she said. “But I’ve been caught by roommates. I’m just like, acchhh!” She let out a squeal, covering herself with her hands.

Pete and Diana recalled a previous living situation with a female friend who partied heavily and occasionally hosted “all-lesbian orgies,” as Diana put it. “We would wake up in the morning and there would be 10 women sprawled on the floor,” she recalled. “Once, in the middle of the night one of them jumped into our bed.”

Despite the occasional awkwardness, several couples noted that there were positive aspects to having a roommate. A few of Diana and Pete’s boarders helped Pete practice his German or French over breakfast. Other roommates became interns. “Having other people around, there are new ideas all the time,” Pete said. “It helps creatively.”

According to Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, a History, such arrangements might actually enhance a couple’s relationship. “One of the two major sources of happiness people report is socializing with other people for dinner,” she said.

For Michelle and Daniel, nightly dinners with Hannah shook up their routine. “It is like being at a cocktail party—you see your partner through someone else’s eyes,” Michelle said. While she and Daniel spend a lot of time together, they rarely spoke deeply about life. “We are more cynical, you know, typical New Yorkers,” she said. “But Hannah is earnest. She is a classic artist in the sense that she is always asking these big questions, like ‘What is happiness?’” As a result, Michelle ended up having existential debates with Daniel that she would have felt silly initiating herself.

“It was really fun,” he agreed. “It sort of made us feel more established as a couple too, giving her advice.”

Ereka, who grew up in a large family—raised by aunts and a grandmother while her mother was on the road as a singer for KC and the Sunshine Band—thought having roommates could be beneficial in other ways. “The communal space gets treated differently,” she noted. “It makes you more polite and empathetic.”

Or not. Christine, a school teacher who lives in the Bronx, said that her and her husband’s roommate has ruined the “whole feeling of family.” The couple took a housemate to help with the expenses of a baby. “We have a newborn, and this roommate is always getting the baby sick,” she said. “She constantly takes up space in the living room and kitchen. She doesn’t understand social cues or privacy issues. It’s very straining on our marriage.”

The couples say that having roommates has made them more conscious about sex, locking doors and timing the action for when the third party is out. But fighting can tend to become more exhibitionistic. “Sometimes when we have an argument and a roommate is there, each of us subconsciously tries to make our point stronger so if the roommate listens they would be on our side,” Diana noted.

Pete recalled going and sitting in the park with a roommate after a fight with Diana; the two smoked cigarettes and talked about how terrible love can be. And it really helped! Michelle said she found it valuable to have someone around who could see her situation up close and offer their take. One night when she couldn’t sleep, she and Hannah stayed up for hours talking about what was bothering her. “To only have your spouse to go to with all your problems creates so much pressure,” she said.

It all sounds very intimate, chatting about love in a park, but everyone The Observer spoke with swore up and down that sexual attraction to their roommates was not a problem. “We just couldn’t live with someone we found attractive,” Amy said. Liz agreed. Then again, Pete noted that the roommate who smoked cigarettes with him in the park also liked to ask for advice on which lingerie her boyfriend might like. “I enjoyed that,” he said as Diana rolled her eyes.

Despite such benefits, Mr. Miller, of Miller Samuel, sees the roommate boom as temporary. “This is a reaction to our crazy credit situation,” he said. “Right now we are correcting what happened in the past couple years. And so this phenomenon of doubling up is likely to continue for the next few years—but it’s not a long-term trend.”

All of the couples agreed that if it weren’t for the economy, they wouldn’t have roommates. Pete and Diana noted that as they get older—and the roommate pool tends to stay the same age—it’s beginning to feel a little awkward. “I think a 10-15 year gap between us and the roommates is fine, but a 20-25 year gap really starts to show,” Pete said, wincing.

Amy and Liz also looked forward to having their apartment to themselves, like they did before Amy’s business began failing in 2008. A lot of things were different then. “I had an office on 23rd Street,” Amy recalled. “I had a membership at Equinox gym. I stomped around the office in heels. Then that winter, everything suddenly dried up.”

Now in her 30s, she added, “I really thought by this point I would be done with this phase of life.”

About three months into Hannah’s stay, Michelle and Daniel decided they were through. Their dinner conversations had moved from philosophical exercise to political debate. Hannah, out of work and depressed, found a calling among the Occupy Wall Street protesters. She would come home to the loft, refreshed with all of the ideas floating around Zuccotti, which she would rant about as Michelle cooked dinner and the two waited on Daniel to get home from his Wall Street job. Over dinner, debates about the financial sector continued, but Michelle no longer found the conversation so much fun. “I would argue that not everything is bad about Wall Street, and obviously I was defending Daniel because it felt very personal to me,” she said. But it felt personal for Hannah, too. “She saw the fact that she couldn’t get a job as the fault of the recession and the recession is the fault of Wall Street,” Michelle explained.

They agreed to disagree, but it wasn’t the same. Soon, Hannah departed. “She moved in with another married couple,” Daniel said.

“He is a college professor and she is a midwife,” Michelle noted. “She went more hippie than us.”

Babies on board in Brooklyn... (New York Shitty

Williamsburg daddies are having a hard time finding space for both their fedora collections and their toddlers. The market, that once blossomed as a studio, one- and two-bedroom artist haven, is struggling to adjust to new family-orientated demands, the Journal notes.

Only 13 percent of the apartments on the market in Williamsburg are above 1500 square feet. The rate is even worse in Fort Greene, at 7 percent. Across the river and through the forest of Central Park, a staggering 65% of apartments are larger than 1500 square feet on the Upper West Side.

Brooklyn developers were uneasy with larger apartments‚ it's quite the burden when a huge million—dollar apartment doesn't sell—but some are making efforts to appeal to the moms and dads. Jeffrey Levine of Douglaston Development, who built the massive 565-unit Edge building in Williamsburg, noted that 5 percent of the units are three-bedroom in the Edge and his next condo project will jump to 10 percent of the units.

The efforts are progressing slowly for some. Katie Pymm, yoga instructor and mother of two, has been searching with her husband for the past three years for a larger space, "We've looked at everything—new condos, older buildings, loft-style. There are a few three-bedrooms, but they tend to go quickly."

It's a little weird to think of Williamsburg as a toddler playground, but it's hard to not notice when you have been run over by a stroller brigade.

mewing@observer.com

The Pavillion, 500 East 77th Street

If you're considering moving into a white brick building, perhaps to compliment your Mad Men craze for skinny ties and dry martinis, don't. The bleached blocks, heavily used in the postwar building boom, have fallen distinctly out of style, both aesthetically and materially, according to The New York Times. Once championed as an easy solution to the wear and tear weather wreaks on traditional building materials, as well as a symbol of clean city living, highrises with white brick facades are crumbling around the city.

The brilliant architectural minds of the 1950s and 1960s—the same generation responsible for the Soviet-chic cement blocks seen elsewhere—thought that rain would simply wash off the polished finish, keeping the interior dry and the outside clean. The waterproof/self-cleaning theory, however, proved to be more in line with contemporary thoughts about cigarettes and pesticides.

Water inevitably seeped in—whether through the porous mortar joints between every brick or from behind—and became trapped, prevented by the glaze from quickly evaporating. Then, with the freeze-and-thaw cycles of winter, the water would expand, putting pressure on the glaze, causing cracks and overall deterioration.

The buildings are falling apart costing residents of the once super-modern apartment buildings millions of dollars. Affected properties have required extensive resurfacing work, with architects sometimes deciding to scrap the white-brick finish altogether. Several buildings throughout the city have been stricken by water damage, including 900 Fifth Avenue and The Pavillion at 500 East 77th.

And it threatens many more, like 2 Fifth Avenue, which has been struggling over a renovation now estimated at almost $31 million. That figure also includes other repairs and is resulting in an assessment of $125 per share, or $100,000 on average, from its shareholders.

Which leads us to wonder whether the today's glass condos (a la Richard Meier and so much of Williamsburg) will be little more than leaky, see-through boxes 50 years from now.

eknutsen@obsever.com

But Corcoran, whose site is still touting "Open House Day" on Sunday, has not responded to any of The Observer's questions about whether the brokerage is still planning on showing houses in a hurricane.

Hey, it's a tough market out there...

Corcoran just gave us a tweet's up and it looks like "Open House Day" is most definitely off for Sunday; "Hi Thornton, we're just in the process of removing them from the site today. It's safe to say they'll all be canceled this weekend"

tmcenery@observer.com

The Observer has already received one email from a broker canceling all showings for a John Street condo this Sunday, citing the weather as a cause, and in a conversation with another broker at a different brokerage, we were told to expect to see more cancellations tomorrow.

So, if you were planning on finding your dream home this weekend by dropping in on some open houses, check in before you leave the house or you might end up doubly soaked.

tmcenery@observer.com

The red is for debt, and for China. (Photo: HowardDigital.com)

It's not just America's debt the Chinese are willing to buy in to—they're also investing in Manhattan residential real estate, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

A New York Times article discusses the trend, which other news outlets have already picked up on, and notes that most Chinese buyers are looking at luxury condos as pieds-a-terre or dwellings for children studying in New York, and others want the apartments simply as an investment.

And they're willing to pay premium prices for the space:

In about two years, what was at first a trickle of inquiries has grown to a stream of  freshly minted high-net-worth Chinese businesspeople hunting for condominiums for $500,000 to $10 million and up.  The average purchase is a one-bedroom apartment for about $1.45 million, said Pamela Liebman, the chief executive of the Corcoran Group.

Also noted is that, contrary to what many New York apartment hunters may feel, prices in Manhattan are actually reasonable compared to other desirable locations across the country. A luxury property here costs about $1,500 per square foot, but in London a similar flat could cost about $3,600 per square foot.

(The Times also recently wrote about Chinese interest in New York's commercial real estate.)

pengel@observer.com

Speedman, Hampshire and Baruchel.

In dramatic Contrast to the usual vapid monotony that permeates most Canadian  films, Good Neighbors is a toxic thriller with unbearable intensity about an odd group of tenants in a small Montreal apartment house in the dead of a Quebec winter. Shades of Roman Polanski’s The Tenant and Alfred  Hitchcock’s I Confess come to mind as the eerie ambience unfolds around three English-speaking outsiders (called Anglophones) in French-speaking Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in 1995, the year Canada was in the midst of a referendum to decide whether the French province should secede from the  nation. In this divisive political landscape, hostile tensions mount, dangers lurk, and to make matters worse, there’s a rapist-serial killer on the prowl, paralyzing Montreal in a vise of terror.

Spencer, played by impossibly handsome Toronto native and heartthrob Scott Speedman, is a moody cripple, confined to a wheelchair after the car crash that killed his wife and left him bitter and reclusive. His only friend is Louise (Emily Hampshire), a pretty waitress in a seedy Chinese restaurant who brings Spencer occasional remnants of the outside world like bottles of scotch and newspapers, but reserves her only affection for two cats that scamper up and down the fire escape, annoying the neighbors. Victor (Jay Baruchel) is the newcomer, a nervous, lonely Jewish schoolteacher with a cat named Balthazar, who moves in on the fourth floor after spending a year in China. Desperate for human contact, he forces his way into his two neighbors’ lives without invitation, but has no idea what a price he will be forced to pay later on. None of them are exactly normal, but there’s something especially unsettling about the smirking Spencer. The first time we see him, he’s feeding smaller fish to the big fish in his tank. Is there a secret behind his sugary smile? Does he make hostile gestures toward Louise’s cats and rude remarks that come out of nowhere because he’s masking his anger and pain? Or does he have a dark side? And then there’s Valerie, a native French-Canadian alcoholic with a nasty temper who poisons Louise’s cats. All of them set the stage for a very unusual thriller filled with graphic violence, sex, blood and sinister mayhem, but which mostly relies on the kind of psychological suspense that comes on stealthy fingers and hides behind the curtains.

In the snowy shadows, a world comes to life that freezes the breath. Overcome with grief and rage, Louise carefully plots a way to destroy Valerie and make it look like the work of the homicidal maniac, framing Victor at the same time, so she can take possession of his cat. The characters go their wicked ways until the inevitable finally happens. On her way up the fire escape from one of the most brutal murder scenes in recent memory, Louise accidentally runs into Spencer, on his way down in his death mask. This is where the gears shift and the plot thickens. Adding tension, Victor sees them both. The rest of this blood-curdling cat-and-mouse game is about the traps they set for each other with multiple solutions that are nothing less than hair-raising.

This third feature by writer-director Jacob Tierney establishes him as one of Canada’s most original and acerbic young filmmakers. Using only the most basic primary set pieces—three apartments connected by a fire escape and the always empty Chinese café—he creates an atmosphere that seems rich and claustrophobic at the same time. From a shocking scene of necrophilia to a vivid throat slashing in the glow of a Christmas tree, Mr. Tierney shocks and provokes but leaves no trace of ennui—and you’ll be amazed how much curdled drama you can get out of the contents of a can of cat food.  Some of the imagery overreaches and the climax is something of a letdown, but the excellent performances are perfectly focused and the bleak cinematography by Guy Dufaux, with lighted windows in the lavender night, really makes you feel like you  are in the middle of a frozen Montreal winter. Good Neighbors is a hotbed of twisted ideas with a straightforward yet novel approach to the Gothic horror in the hearts of mistakenly everyday people. Stressful and disconcerting but highly recommended, it gave me nightmares.

rreed@observer.com

GOOD NEIGHBORS

Running time 98 minutes

Written and directed by Jacob Tierney

Starring Scott Speedman, Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire

3/4

Let’s take a look at the terms of Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011 and their potential impact.

RECENTLY, LEGISLATORS VOTED to extend New York’s rent-regulation system until June 15, 2015. Let me begin by saying that I am an advocate for affordable housing in New York. The diversity of our population is a key ingredient to the vibe of the city, and quality housing for those occupying the full range of the socioeconomic spectrum is critical.

Unfortunately, this piece of legislation is perhaps the most ill-conceived and inefficient public subsidy program Albany has ever enacted. Rent regulation is just that, a public subsidy akin to welfare or food stamps that allows some residents to receive benefits randomly. Distribution of the benefit is based on inertia (and often luck) rather than economic need, as people staying put the longest are the most likely to receive benefits. This system leads to a gross misallocation of our housing stock.

In past Concrete Thoughts columns, I have used the analogy of having the city hand out food stamps randomly to everyone walking out of Grand Central as a better-conceived program for distributing public assistance. The subsidy handed out under rent regulation is, in some cases, enormous and may be given to those who have absolutely no need for it.

Price controls of any type create problems for a marketplace. With regard to rent regulation, the misallocation of housing occurs because, with rent levels artificially depressed, the real estate taxes collected on properties with these controls are artificially less than they should be, creating artificially higher real estate tax burdens on all New York residents who are not rent-regulated.

Additionally, while there are about 3.3 million dwelling units in New York City, about one million are regulated, essentially leaving 2.3 million options for someone looking to move into the city. This constrained supply leads to free-market rents being artificially higher than they would be otherwise. Rent-regulated tenants are reluctant to move, often leaving a family of five cramped in a small two-bedroom apartment and an individual tenant occupying a six-room apartment. In the absence of controls, it would be much easier for these tenants to find appropriately sized units, priced appropriately.

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT changes to the recently renewed law include making it much more difficult to remove units from the subsidy program under both types of luxury decontrol (high rent and high income).

The high-rent decontrol threshold was raised from $2,000 per month to $2,500. Under this rule, vacant apartments with legal rents in excess of $2,500 per month are no longer subject to rent regulation. Notably, any units that were deregulated due to rents being above the old guideline of $2,000 per month are not reregulated if they are currently renting for less than $2,500. This change took effect on June 24 and the threshold will apply even if the next tenant, or any subsequent tenant, pays a rent under $2,500.

With respect to the other form of luxury decontrol, the high-income threshold was increased from $175,000 to $200,000. This threshold applies if that income level is achieved by the tenant for two consecutive years and the legal rent exceeds the $2,500-per-month hurdle. This element of the law is completely backward.

Consider this: Any nonregulated resident of New York is effectively subsidizing all regulated tenants. If an apartment has a free market value of $2,700 per month and a rent-stabilized tenant is paying $2,450 per month, upon lease renewal this tenant’s rent will exceed the $2,500 threshold. If that tenant has earned more than $200,000 for the past two years, that unit will become deregulated. However, the subsidy that all nonregulated residents are paying is about $200 per month.

If, however, a tenant earning over $200,000 per year is paying only $700 per month, the subsidy all nonregulated residents are contributing toward is $2,000 per month, a much more burdensome figure. This is why if a tenant is making over $200,000 per year (and some may be making millions per year) he or she should be deregulated if his or her rent is under $2,500 per month, not over $2,500 per month. Does anyone really need public assistance if they are making over $200,000 per year?

Additionally, manipulation of income to skirt this aspect of the law is quite easy and is the reason why a three-year income-averaging approach should be used. I had a client once who sold over $7 million of investment properties in one year and delayed the closing of an additional $5 million of properties the following year until after Jan. 1 simply to protect his $1,200 three-bedroom on 74th Street off Park Avenue. Obviously, this is an extreme example, but you get the point.

This new high-income threshold kicked in on July 1. The old hurdles of $2,000 per month and $175,000 of income will still apply for all proceedings commenced prior to July 1 of this year.

Why shouldn’t all rent-regulated tenants be required to prove eligibility to receive this public subsidy? After all, I don’t think anyone wants to see a protected tenant with modest income get displaced, or to see grandma on fixed income get kicked to the curb by Mr. Potter. Means testing would eliminate many of the inefficiencies within the system and eliminate much of the litigation that regularly occurs between owners and tenants, making for a more harmonious relationship between the two.

Tenant advocates claim that means testing is “too cumbersome” to implement. That’s crazy. Any tenants receiving Section 8 benefits must prove their eligibility. So, too, must residents within the 20 percent component of 80/20 buildings. Most residents file New York State tax returns, making this process relatively easy. Placing the burden of proof on the tenant would eliminate much of the alleged “harassment” that occurs when an owner initiates litigation to determine the tenant’s income. While advocates see this as harassment, there is really no other way for an owner to determine a tenant’s income.

AN ADDITIONAL TANGIBLE change to the law impacts the mechanism related to Individual Apartment Improvements. For buildings containing fewer than 35 units, the I.A.I. guideline remains at 1/40th of the improvement cost as a monthly adjustment to the rent. In buildings with more than 35 units, the passthrough has been lowered to 1/60th. This change takes effect on Sept. 24, 2011, but the language in the law is unclear and will undoubtedly be subject to interpretation by the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal or, perhaps, the courts.

The timing of the change is linked to the Sept. 24 date “where such adjustment takes effect.” Presumably, this means a time no sooner than the date of completion of the work, but does it mean when the work is indeed completed? The date the lease is signed? The date the tenant moves in?

The biggest problem with the new 1/60th rule is that it erodes an underlying incentive to encourage the private sector to upgrade the quality of the housing stock. After hundreds of buildings were abandoned or burned during the 1970s, I.A.I. and the Major Capital Improvements increases motivated private owners to pump billions of their dollars into multifamily properties, which led to the generally excellent quality of today’s housing stock.

Fortunately, the M.C.I. passthrough was not altered as proposed by a bill passed by the New York State Assembly, which would have reduced the M.C.I. increase to a subsidy that would evaporate after repayment. That would have been devastating for the market.

THE RENT GUIDELINES BOARD recently passed a 3.75 percent one-year increase and a 7.25 percent two-year increase for leases beginning in September. The sublet allowance was maintained at 10 percent. Additionally, the vacancy allowance remained at 20 percent; however, it can be used only once in any calendar year. It is unclear whether any other increases are possible within that calendar year if the vacancy bonus is utilized.

The rules regarding preferential rents remained unchanged as it was confirmed that preferential rents are only for the period of the lease in question.

Two other items the industry was hoping would be part of this extension would address the 421-a and J-51 programs. The 421-a was extended, with certain limitations, provided that any eligible development must apply to the city for a Preliminary Certificate of Eligibility before June 23, 2012. Unfortunately, the uncertainty regarding the fate of J-51 buildings was not addressed. This would have been a perfect time for a legislative solution to the quagmire created by the Roberts decision. A judicial solution will likely take years, leaving the fate of thousands of units unclear.

OUR RENT-REGULATION system provides protections for hundreds of thousands of people who need and deserve the protection. Unfortunately, there are probably hundreds of thousands of others who do not need this subsidy, and that leads to adverse conditions for all nonregulated New Yorkers. Why not ask that recipients of this subsidy demonstrate that they qualify for this benefit?

A combination of higher rents and higher taxes burdens the system unnecessarily. As property values dropped during this recession, real estate taxes continued to increase substantially each year, leaving an increasing percentage of multifamily property owners feeling like they are working a lot harder for a lot less.

The adverse components of rent-regulation renewal add to the frustration felt by owners. A combination of these dynamics had resulted in a growing number of investors with substantial holdings here looking to purchase properties outside of New York. This is not a good trend for our marketplace or our city.

rknakal@masseyknakal.com

Robert Knakal is the chairman and founding partner of Massey Knakal Realty services and in his career has brokered the sale of more than 1,150 properties totaling over $7.4 billion in value.

They all look the same, really.

As it turns out, we're all screwed (except uptown)—the latest second-quarter data from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel shows there isn't much discrepancy between rents on the East Side, West Side and downtown in Manhattan. And the net rates just keep on rising.

The average monthly rents currently are as follows: $3,511 on the East Side, $3,594 on the West Side, $3,598 downtown and $1,772 uptown. And what's an extra $80 per month when you're already shelling out thousands? Unless, of course, you take the thrifty route and pick a place in Inwood, Washington Heights or Harlem.

This neighborhood data, however, does not include landlord concessions, subleases or other strange deals (you know the ones—five people in a three-bedroom, the guy who rents a mattress in the converted closet, and then disappears into the ether come winter). The average rent for a Manhattan apartment (without concessions) seems to have dropped compared to last year, but the net cost of rent is actually rising. Taking concessions into consideration, the average price of a Manhattan apartment overall rose 3.5 percent compared to the same quarter last year, to $3,455 up from $3,342.

And landlords can afford to tighten their grip on potential renters because, despite increasing demand for Manhattan apartments (new rental activity expanded 51.5 percent this year), the market saw an 11 percent drop in the number of rental listings available.

All of that means it's going to be harder to find an apartment in a decent location, and by the time you ink a deal with a landlord the net cost will be probably be higher because of a lack of concessions. Welcome to Manhattan! The economic recovery comes with a price, especially in real estate.