something wrong (for me) is going on in the market (rental)

Is stuytown the only place you called? Look around.

July, August are the peak months for rentals. October is a better time to be looking, December - January the best.

If you see an apartment at stuytown you like, offer them $2300, see if they take it. They are giving 2 free months' rent on a lot of apartments, which comes out to be about $2300 a month.

http://www.stuytown.com/

Just tell them you don't want the free rent - you want the lower rent.

Seasonal spike (Aug/Sept leases), plus stock-market driven hope?

Julia -

There are deals all over the place.

A friend had an UES one bedroom for $1875 (not stabilized). They just offered $1800 unprompted for the renewal... and she's holding out for lower.

StuyTown is a wacky one, they might go bust for all we know.

But the stats say we're 15% down... and I'm seeing AMPLE discounts all over the place.

I just got an offer from someone who rented their condo out for $4500, lease ended, and they're willing to take $3200. East 30s.

one apt in one neighborhood goes up and that deems the declaration that the entire market has turned the corner and is now rising?

julia - are you a broker?

"one apt in one neighborhood goes up and that deems the declaration that the entire market has turned the corner and is now rising?"

yes, buy now or be priced out forever.

This is a joke. I just did a Streeteasy search for apt on UES $3,000 - $4,000 with price change in last 30 days. 46 results, 42 decreases, 4 increases. Of those 4 increases, 3 have been on the market over a month, 2 have been over 6 months (so probably a B.S. listing), and 1 for 8 days, which was probably listed incorrectly to begin with.

Go sell it to someone who's buying Julia. You're not fooling anyone but yourself sweetheart.

i know someone that just rented a JR4 at a broadwall bldg, directly with them and paid no brokers fees, for 2800, f/t doorman, big apt, and got 2 months free. That deal was NOT on table 2-3 years ago...and I have a broadwall JR4 at a diff bldg and paying 3300 after 2 annual increases from 2900 originally

I know that some landlords are trying to keep rents propped up. Mine was down to $3800 for a 2-br 2-ba in December, but some moron rented for $4500 a few months ago, so that's the new price they set. When they remain unrented they'll go down again.

Personally if you're ensconced and your landlord doesn't want to bargain, be ready to move. I'm a 99.99% chance of moving when my lease is up, can easily get a much bigger apartment in a premium neighborhood for $1,000 less a month. Let the landlord take a risk on new tenants who may or may not pay the rent. Eviction is expensive.

UD - is that $2800 prorated, or the actual rent w/o the 2 free months?

i believe it was 2800, 14 month lease, + 2 free months to start...can find out

With large landlords - like Stuytown - it can often be a result of what mix THEY personally have available. Perhaps they have less vacancies than they expected RIGHT NOW and are trying to see if they can get a few in at a higher price since they have less need to "push" a lot of vacant units. Also, it my be that they only have their "higher end" 1 br's available and what they are offering at the higher price isn't the same as what they had at the lower price.

Also, they may be changing the way they quote price: the 2270 might have been net effective rent after rebates and the 2700 may be gross rent, and they are trying to see if people don't realize they can get the rebates and not have to give them. Their website does still say 1 br's from 2395 net effective

Julia, they're holding them hoping to fill them with students and newcomers paying the higher rates. TS hasn't been the first to discount, and they need the cash more than most, so they'll try to squeeze out every cent they can. You need to move in November, no? If you're interested in ST try again after the late August, September vacancies occur for those leaving. A couple of one bedroom apartments in my building have been vacated in the last three weeks, two of them NYU students not renewing.

Lets also not forget asking vs. what they'll actually take.

thanks everyone...i just came in from the ledge and put the bottle of pills away.

I did call up the rentals on Columbus and 97th (new bldgs) and they are not budging from $2300 for an alcove studio even though they have an ad on SE for $2002.

Ledge is a bit melodramatic julia, no? It's not like you're being forced to move to Long Island City, aka Stalag 1.

you should not pay more then 2000 to live in Stuy town, trust me I lived there. In fact you dont want to live there at all. I lived there when Metlife owned it and left when Tishman came in. Tishman is awful and you do not want to deal with them. If you lose youre mind and decide to live just be ready

nybits.com

julia, it's not indicative of a larger market trend
pour yourself some chamomille tea and rest assured,
rents are not going up

thanks again..but just let me know if you have an extra room for me just in case rents go up!!

i just signed a lease in one of the luxury high rises
on 6th avenue in the 20s (chelsea).
really high floor, fantastic view, one bedroom.
one month free up front on a 12 month lease starting sept 1st.
net effective comes to a bit less than $3000, i think it is
more than 20% off what they were asking last year.
and the gym is free...

stuy town is a horrible place to live. People poop in the hallways and the play area:

http://stuytownluxliving.com/assets_c/2009/07/neighborhood-news-thumb-300x350-489.gif

not again. how's your porta-PT Cruiser?

I took advantage of the Cash for Clunkers program and traded it in for a red Ferrari!

LIAR:

I know that some landlords are trying to keep rents propped up. Mine was down to $3800 for a 2-br 2-ba in December, but some moron rented for $4500 a few months ago, so that's the new price they set. When they remain unrented they'll go down again.

Personally if you're ensconced and your landlord doesn't want to bargain, be ready to move. I'm a 99.99% chance of moving when my lease is up, can easily get a much bigger apartment in a premium neighborhood for $1,000 less a month.

LIAR
Your $4500 apartment is not going to go for $2800.

Rents are not just going to go down a stead 3% per month or something. Landlords are smart and are going to maximize what they can get. A friend of mine, a very busy junior attorney, his landlord kept refusing to renew his lease until very shortly before renewal, knowing full well tha this guy didn't have the time to move because of work, first asked for an increase and then was able to keep it steady. Renters think they are smart and flexible, but the landlords can play games well too, and possibly at your expense.

Just see the above example, some 3800 apartment rented recently for 4500, and if someone thinks he can get 2800 and move out, they'll probably let him. There ARE other tenants and sometimes taking a totally new person who doens't think he can take advantage of you is better than continuing with someone who thinks constantly that he can take advantage.

So your attorney friend is a sucker. So what? He was probably agreeing to 10-20% increases the last several years too when the rest of us were doing 3-4%. If the market weren't in the gutter, he'd probably be taken for a 20% increase. The point is that the market is down 20% overall. For every sucker who doesn't fix their situation, there's a person who sickens of their relatively overpriced apt and finds one for 40% cheaper: 20% from the market drop and 20% from finding a better deal.

yesterday was a huge move-out day for PCV/ST, I went to the gym at around 12:30ish and saw 7 moving vans (i didn't notice anyone moving in, anytime i saw movement it was out) in the drive at the south side of PCV. at 4:00 i went out for a walk and decided to circumnavigate the complex. i saw another 29 moving vans, and i never even went into ST. then when i came home from the gym at 7:30 i noticed a few more u-haul type rental vans doing late loads. it looked like a lot of younger people moving out, i'd guess that Tishman wasn't too market-friendly with the renewal terms and they decided to bolt. many of these apartments can move in three hours or so, so who knows how many actually left yesterday. younger people are often more inclined to move for cheaper rent, they have less stuff, far fewer emotional ties to the home, and with a u-haul and 4 able friends they can generally move cheaply and quickly.

Finally gave up trying to negotiate with my landlord and I just signed a lease for a huge duplex in the west village for $4000 (after lots of back and forth) - they were asking much more and who knows what it rented for last year. For god's sake, its literally two and half times the size of my current WV sh_thole for $100 extra in rent? Manhattan is becoming liveable again after a 10 year hiatus.

However, you have to be genuinely prepared to move which is a royal pain.

And please, don't succumb to the broker fee bs!!!! Broker value added is at most $20.

See, ncolberg? A non-sucker that reduced their per-sq-ft by more than 2X. Congrats on the great upgrade, middleclass.

Thx inonada, i was pleased with myself.

I should add, i am also as insanely busy as a junior attorney, but we're talking real money here.

middleclass...you said don't succumb to the broker fee...how do you find an apartment other than management company.

Admittedly, it takes some extra sniffing if the building is small. I did find that the same places are listed multiple times by different brokers, so i would simply use the broker willing to go to landlord for fee (though even that hurts your negotiating position). Note, all done with short terse emails that don't waste an ounce of my time.

But i also realised that there are now many ways for owners/managment co's to directly list and cut out the ridiculous broker value-sapping bs. I gotta believe that one day no-one will go thru a broker - or the service will be become much transparent and correctly priced. I used craigslist (you can tell in 2 seconds if they are a broker or an owner), nybits, etc. Obviously with any building with more than 15 or so units, you're crazy to use a broker - just go straight to management co.

Yah, middleclass. I really don't understand people who look at 3 apts, just pick the best one, get taken the first time by just paying whatever, and then get taken on rent hikes year after year. It's a person's greatest expense, but I guess some people really don't care. People look at lots of places when they buy and agonize over the price, but that somehow goes out the window when it comes to renting even though it's a similar cost on a cash-flow basis. I completely understand the "not worth my time" concept, but as a junior attorney you bring in like $100K after tax for 3000 hours of work time? Works out to $33/hour. So you spend 30 hours finding a good deal and moving -- $1000 of your time -- to knock down your rent from $3500 to $2500. Seems like an easy choice to me.

Inonada, i don't understand lots of things - 4000 sqf airconditioned drywall palaces in the sun belt, having 3 cars, business class airfare when you don't have a meeting first thing the next morning....its pretty simple math in almost all case as you just presented. I am sure one day we will start to count our pennies again. Back to thread - Julia, cast your net wide but key is to to not let brokers waste your time.......

Rent going up?
Ouch!

Keep trying to time this market bears.

you read the thread at all?

of course not...welcome to jerko--the one horse pony.