By Pamela Engel 6/21/11 3:41pm

Rent Check

apartmentdoorflickr

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. Read More

By Robert Knakal 5/26/11 2:04pm

concrete thoughts

The Market for Apartment Buildings by Borough

Two weeks ago, this column addressed the state of the New York City multifamily market, and most of the statistics discussed pertained to the entire city-wide market. I received many e-mails and a few calls asking for the data to be broken down on a submarket-by-submarket basis, so here it is.

It is particularly Read More

By Laura Kusisto 3/21/11 3:20pm

Big Real Estate

Cuomo, Big Real Estate Move Closer on Rent Regs

Rent-regulation reformers could be poised for their first victory in decades.

Ninety-one state lawmakers wrote a letter to the governor this week, calling on him to include what proponents call rent-regulation reform in the budget due March 31. In a surprising turn, the governor agreed. He said at a March 17 press conference that he now Read More

By Robert Knakal 3/10/11 4:58pm

concrete thoughts

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 Read More

By Tom Acitelli 2/23/11 5:03pm

The Lab

Boomism Immortal

On Feb. 8, the city’s biggest building-sales brokerage, Massey Knakal, blasted a press release announcing the sale of a narrow, four-story, red-brick building along First Avenue, a block southwest of Stuyvesant Town. The walk-up rested snugly between a larger building cloaked in mesh and fronted by scaffolding and a similar-sized, white building. A chicken joint Read More

By Tom Acitelli 4:41pm

The Lab

Is the Rent Too Damn High?

I was out of the country when Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party put on his gubernatorial debate performance, and have only just now gotten around to subscribing to his newsletter. As best I can tell, Mr. McMillan’s platform is that New York City rents are too damn high and that’s Read More