East Village and LES Rental Round-Up – November 2010

originally posted on NearSay by Contributor Grant Braswell

With the ensuing holiday season comes a lull in rental activity.  The downtown students matriculating to Parsons, NYU, Cooper Union and FIT among others have (hopefully) locked in their apartment to focus on their scholarly pursuits at Bar None and Pommes Frites.  For everyone else, the prospect of moving during visits to the family or trying to host people while trying to move is daunting to say the least.

But hey, this is New York City and even in a down period there will be activity.  So if you or another statistical oddball are looking to move in the EV/LES sometime this month, here are the directional stats as of the beginning of November*:

TOPLINE STATS

• Around 240 available listings of all sizes/prices
• Average rent is ~ $2,800/mo.  $1,925 for studios, $2,500 for 1BRs, $3,200 for 2BRs, $3,900 for 3BRs, $6,350 for 4BRs, $4,000 for a loft (excluding an outlying $19,000 loft)
• 40% of listings are Exclusively available through a brokerage**
• 12.5% of listings offer an incentive of up to a month’s rent (25 applied to the broker’s fee, 5 for free rent)***
• 9 Lofts, 2 4BRs, 14 3BRs, 90 2BRs, 70 1BRs, 55 Studios

 

East Village Breakout

•  Around 185 available listings of all sizes/prices
• 32 Average rent is ~ $2900/mo. $1,925 for studios, $2,600 for 1BRs, $3,350 for 2BRs, $3,900 for 3BRs, $4,195 for 4BRs, $4,210 for a loft (excluding an outlying $19,000 loft)
• 32% of listings are Exclusively available through a brokerage**
• 15% of listings offer an incentive of up to a month’s rent (25 applied to the broker’s fee, 5 for free rent)***

 

Lower East Side Breakout 

•  Around 55 available listings of all sizes/prices
• 32 Average rent is ~ $2700/mo.  $1,925 for studios, $2,400 for 1BRs, $2,600 for 2BRs, $3,800 for 3BRs, $8,500 for 4BRs, $5,000 for a loft
• 69% of listings are Exclusively available through a brokerage**
• 6% of listings offer an incentive of up to a month’s rent (25 applied to the broker’s fee, 5 for free rent)***

 

For a more focused sense of the EV/LES market based on what you are looking for, feel free to contact the Blumstein Team.

*I used a mix of both StreetEasy and Corcoran’s own search technology that is tied into the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) that aggregates over 90% of all listings.  Corcoran’s search was dialed into only listings updated in the last 7 days (most relevant), StreetEasy does not have this option so some of their listings are more likely to be rented out by now.  The numbers presented are as accurate as possible using those tools and as such are more directional than exact.

** 95% of brokerages Co-broke in Manhattan so the fee is often the same if you have your own broker or not.  As well, most (but not all) Coops and Condos require the use of a broker to rent an apartment.  Due to the way economics work, the higher upfront fee often required when a broker represents an apartment is offset by getting more for your monthly rent when compared to an open or incentivized listing. As well, as coops and condos are privately held, they often are kept in better shape than a large management companies’ holdings.  Economically it can often make more sense to pay higher fees to access these apartments especially if you are planning on a multiple year stay. NOTE: THIS IS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE, SO IT IS RECOMMENDED TO SEE ALL TYPES OF APARTMENTS.  ASK YOUR BROKER TO BREAK IT DOWN FOR YOU.

*** Most (but again not all) incentivized apartments may have a slightly higher than average rent as the incentive is built into the rental cost.  However, the lower upfront costs can offset the difference, especially when the lease is limited to 1 year.